The July 5^th Independence Day Spectacular lived up to its’ billing as sparks flew on and off the race track as fans were treated to awesome racing in all divisions as well as a huge fireworks display. The night started off with race threatening showers but only lasted a few minutes and the show was on.

  The Hobby stock class started the fireworks when Shannon Hodges and Keith Presnall were in a heated battle for the checkered flag during the heat race. The duo had run nose-to-tail and side-by-side for most of the race when coming around for the last circuit the two appeared to rub sheet metal down the back straight and through turns 3 and 4. With the checkered flag waving by flagman Wyatt Gibson, Presnall poked the nose of his #96 Monte Carlo to the door of the #8 Monte Carlo of Hodges. The cars touched and Hodges emerged as the winner of the heat with Presnall a close second. As the two were on the cool down lap, Hodges and Presnall showed each other their displeasure of the finish and both were black-flagged from the feature.

As the crowd roared during the closing laps of the Hobby Stock feature, John Boyd of Pascagoula, MS, wheeling his beautifully prepared #32 Monte Carlo, proved to the fans he had what it takes to win as he took the checkers for the first time this season. Boyd had to beat multiple winner Steven Alday in a side-by-side, photo finish for his first win in 2008. Boyd flexed his muscle early as he inherited the outside pole for the feature after the DQ’s of Hodges and Presnall and showed his strength to lead the feature from flag to flag. Boyd said later, “The first person to meet me when I got out of the car was Steven (Alday). I have always said when we are racing together that if I have to get beat, I’d rather get beat by him, and he would always say the same thing about me.” Alday and Boyd displayed some awesome driving skills during the nail-biting feature and had the crowd on its feet for the most part. The two also had to survive a post-race inspection by technical director Dale Forland which they both did.

The Super Late Models were on-hand for what was billed as a 40-lap shootout but because the weather in the area held up some of the drivers from traveling the distance to race in inclement weather, the field was slim with only 8 cars. Those 8 cars, however, included some of the hottest late model shoes in the local area. Shep Lucas defended his reign as Super Late Model champion, as he has won all three events this season at the speedway, but he had to earn this one. The sawdust special #72 of Frank Wilson brought a new Goliath chassis racecar to the speedway and with it a focus to win. He and Lucas would share the pole with Frank starting from the outside pole. At the drop of the green flag, Wilson showed the crowd what kind of strength he brought to take on the 3-time winner Lucas. Wilson got the jump from the start and led 22 laps before his tires went away and allowed Lucas to slip under him off turn 4. Lucas held his line over the next 8 laps for the win. The #97 of Randy Little wound up in the 3^rd position, as they raced their new TrackStar chassis. James Ussery drove his famous #71 to 4^th with Marlon Wilde bringing his #48 to the checkers in 5^th.

The modified class saw a battle unfold between the current points leader Greg Hopkins and second place points holder Ron Tubbs. This night belonged to Tubbs as he carried his #99 Shaw car around the 4/10ths speedway in front of Hopkins to the checkers. Tubbs said, “I didn’t start working on the car until today because my mother had surgery in Birmingham and we were with her. We decided to race at the last minute and had to pull the car over here on my open trailer.” Tubbs proved he is a contender for the championship as he is only 99 points out of first place. Hopkins finished second in the feature as the #25B of Michael Booker was 3^rd, the #37 of Nick Poole 4^th and the #21 of Brian Conway in 5^th.

The GM Performance Crate late model class saw the most entries with 18 cars showing up to claim the $1000.00 top prize. The night started off with qualifying for the Crates, Modified and Supers with no heat races for them. So the fastest qualifiers lined up according to their posted times and the #10 of Nathan Ingersoll claimed the pole position with the #11 of Larry Cifra sitting outside at the drop of the green. After a couple of starts, Cifra got the jump down the straight but couldn’t hold the lead through the corner as Ingersoll powered around him for the initial lead. The cars were running 2 and 3 wide all around the speedway. Tires of choice this night were not the Hoosier 55’s as Ryan Little and Ricky Haugen began to show their noses to the leaders. After some exciting side-by-side action from the front to the rear of the field, Ryan Little proved he had the patience and the car to hold a smooth line and grab the lead. He would hold the lead to the checkers as Randy Little, filling in for the injured Kenneth Montiel in the #007 mount, finished 2^nd, making it a double punch for the Little boys from Satsuma. Rounding out the top five were the 22G of Ricky Haugen, the #6 of Jack Daughtry and the pole sitter Ingersoll.

The Super Hobby division was won by the ironman Allan Taylor, driving his orange and white #69 camaro to another victory over the #20 driven by Greg Tubberville. Tuberville was all over the rear deck of Taylor for most of the feature as he would run the high line through turns 1 and 2 and get a nose to the door of Taylor but Taylor refused to relinquish the position over the course of 15 laps as Tubberville had to settle for second. The two are also one and two in the points championship race this season with Taylor showing 54 points ahead of Greg. Following these leader to the stripe was the #36 of Jim Jarvis, the #01 of Jeffrey Spann and the #25 of Bradley Rhodes.

The Stinger cars had 13 entries and the venerable Gary Watson powered his black #48G to the front of the field and took another trophy home for the 2008 season. Jamie Mozingo, of Grove Hill, has been the man to beat all season and Watson has been the only man to beat him this year. Mozingo still holds the points lead, but ever so slightly as the win brought the young Watson within 8 points of the lead. Following the points leaders to the stripe was the #83 of Brian McCreary, the #4 of Dillon Barfield and the #34 of Randy Johnson.

The Limited Sportsman class saw Michael Rhodes walk away with another win as he took his #25 rocketship to the front at the drop of the green flag and never looked back. Rhodes maintains his 13 point lead in the season standings over second place finisher in the race and points Sean Goodwin. Goodwin drove his #36 mount to the stripe ahead of the #49 of Rick Tipton, the #88 of Chuck Moore and the #22 of Dwayne Stabler.