THE BATTLE BETWEEN JAMES AND BICKFORD CONTINUES

looracing.com

10 November 2024

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November 10th 2024, words by the League of Outlaws, photos by Jared Murphy & AJ Hunsinger

What a fantastic night of racing for the League of Outlaws IMCA Style Modifieds at Lernerville Speedway. There were multiple racing grooves for all the drivers to choose from which allowed a lot of passing. Guys like Jared Murphy who started 10th finished 4th and AJ Hunsinger who started 9th and finished 5th. In the closing laps, it was once again a great battle between James Murphy and Tyler Bickford and the race winner came down to a last lap pass.

Tyler Bickford, won heat race 1 and would start first in the feature while James Murphy won his heat race 2 and would start outside of Bickford on the front row in the feature. Bickford, would have the advantage early on and would lead the majority of the race. But, James Murphy began battling for the lead towards the end.

Early on, there was a bunch of 3 and 4 wide racing action throughout the field. On lap 4, Thomas Levister and Josh Madson both went over the bank in turns 3 and 4 but were able to get back onto the racing surface quickly. Matt Taylor, would do the same thing in turns 1 and 2 the very next lap.

A little further up was a battle amongst several drivers in positions 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th between Ty Dickenson, Jared Murphy, AJ Hunsinger, and Dominic Wright. Jared Murphy, was able to get by Ty Dickenson and Dickenson would then fall back into the clutches of Hunsinger. After a couple sliders, Hunsinger was able to get by Dickenson as well. Hunsinger then set sails for Jared Murphy was was now working on Mason Bistodeau.

Up front in the final 2 laps, James Murphy was really putting pressure on Tyler Bickford. Murphy, put a huge slide job on Bickford in turns 3 and 4 but Bickford fought back on the bottom as the two drivers were taking the white flag. Bickford elected to not return the slide job in 1 and 2 and stayed on the bottom. He would do the same entering 3 and 4 and for a moment, it looked like Bickford was finally going to get his first career LoO IMCA Style Modified win but Bickford clipped the grass in 3 and 4 and Murphy roared back around the outside, edging out Bickford across the line for Murphy’s 4th victory this season.