On Saturday night, Jaded Motorsports saw a new face behind the wheel of the No. 31 as Robbie Sikes took over the reigns for the week, filling in for Jade Franklin. Ultimately, the night didn’t go as planned as Sikes endured a pair of tough features.
The night started off with a feature as the track still had to make out the rained out feature from July 9. Franklin had qualified in the ninth spot, but the driver change resulted in the No. 31 starting at the tail of the field. Starting at the back, Sikes looked to gain ground early, beginning to make up ground with passes throughout the field. Unfortunately, the run through the field for Sikes was cut short at Lap 9 as through a stack-up of the field, he went around for spin, drawing the race’s fifth caution.
Restarting at the tail end of the field, he escaped a heavy crash on the backstretch on the restart to move up four positions and continued gaining ground, battling Coltin Everingham for 11th at Lap 14. Sikes managed to get the edge, tagging the back of Nic Troback’s car. Everyone was able to keep it straight with Sikes moving into 10th at Lap 16. Sikes remained there till the next caution at Lap 19, before using the restart to move himself up to the eighth spot. Unfortunately, he didn’t last long there as Miles Tyson made the pass on him for eighth at Lap 22 – though he was able to pass Paul Allard a lap later to move back into eighth.
The last couple of laps saw the battle get even tougher as Dan Archibald pushed Sikes up the track down the backstretch, breaking his momentum. Despite the contact, Sikes still came home with a solid finish, completing the 30-lap feature in ninth. The finish marks 10 straight nights this season at Sunset Speedway that Jaded Motorsports has posted a top-10 finish after Franklin started the year with nine straight top-10s.
With the feature made up, it was time to start the scheduled night of racing as usual with qualifying. Sikes started off the night solidly, finishing seventh in his heat, followed by a fifth place finish in the b-main to qualify for the feature.
Starting in the 14th position, Sikes made up a bit of ground in the early stages after a pair of cars made contact ahead of him, causing one to spin on Lap 7. On the following restart, a competitor up ahead ran into mechanical problems, which resulted in Sikes running 12th with 19 laps still left on the board. Unfortunately, this feature didn’t work out cleanly for Sikes as just as he was starting to make ground, he made slight contact with Herb Walters, causing Walters to go for the spin at Lap 17. With 13 laps to go, Sikes was sent to the back of the field as an involved car.
Between making some tough passes and escaping contact that happened in front of him, Sikes was able to make up some of the ground, crossing the finish line in the 17th position.
Jaded Motorsports is supported by Destination RV, Nitro Industrial Sales, Duivenvoorden Haulage Ltd, Adco Tires and Sales Incorporated, Stefco Racing Engines, King, North River Motorsports and Discovery Dream Homes this season.
Franklin will be back behind the wheel on Saturday August 27 at Sunset Speedway, looking for his 10th straight top-10 finish. Be sure to check out http://www.sunsetspeedway.ca to see the full schedule for Franklin this year, so you can make sure to come out and watch.
Be sure to also follow Jade Franklin on instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/franklin.jade/ to keep up with him and Jaded Motorsports going all year long.
Press Release by Ashley McCubbin/AM Marketing – ashleymccubbin17@gmail.com
