Red, white and blue were well represented in Victory Circle at Natural Bridge Speedway during its holiday weekend show last Saturday night as the heavy rains sweeping through the area avoided the banked dirt oval, allowing fans to enjoy an action-filled racing show.

The blue-and white Late Model machine of defending division champion and current points leader Gerald Wolfe, Jr. knifed its way through the field from its eighth starting slot, and the popular Covington veteran earned his fifth checkers of the 2005 season.

2003 Mini Stock track champion Kenny Gibson of Waynesboro, who has been preparing a Pure Stock car, got behind the wheel of the red-and-white No. 8 car owned by David Austin and charged to victory in just his second appearance of the campaign.

Irony marked the victory of the white-and-red Pure Stock ride of Lexington’s Coray Brown. Brown had an apparent win earlier this season negated when he was disqualified for parts infractions, and the win was awarded to Buchanan’s Danny Bryant. Saturday night Bryant rolled past the checkers first, but was subsequently disqualified for illegal engine parts with the win being awarded to runner-up Brown.

Two drivers kept alive their season-long streaks of finishing in the top 3 in each of their races with one of them garnering his third win of the year. The Bryant family of Amherst County will have two trophies to take to its Fourth of July celebration after dual successes Saturday night.

Wolfe outlasted faster Late Model qualifiers who experienced mechanical difficulties, some of which proved terminal, during the Fourth of July 50-lap Late Model feature. Lexington’s David Sibold ripped off a 15.80-qualifying lap, the only sub-16 second lap, to grab the pole, and led the first five laps before heading to the pits with race-ending overheating problems. Damien Wilson, who had qualified second, had spun out a lap earlier and struggled throughout, finishing eighth. Covington’s David Bennett and Fincastle’s Mike Ayers then ran 1-2, but both were forced to the pits with mechanical difficulties on lap 14, which yielded the point to Wolfe, a lead he would not relinquish.

Buchanan’s Neil Murray, the 2004 NBS Sportsman track champion, posted his best Late Model outing with a runner-up finish. Waynesboro’s Lewis Hudson started 12th and worked his way through the field to a third-place conclusion. Madison Heights veteran Ricky Almond ran fourth in his first run of the season. Rustburg’s Mike Lawhorn posted his second consecutive top 5 finish.

Gibson had finished second the previous Saturday night in his first outing as the pilot of the Austin ride and went one better for the holidays, securing the red, white and blue winner’s trophy in a rare caution-free feature. The Waynesboro veteran jumped to the lead on the first of the feature’s 20 laps and held the lead to checkers, though not without pressure from the rear. Mike Bays, Churchville veteran Mike Smith, making his first start of the year, and Stephen Campbell put strong pressure on Gibson throughout and finished in that order. Michael D. Cromer notched his eighth top 5 run of the season by finishing fifth.

As usual, the Pure Stock pilots provided fans with 25 laps of bumper-to-bumper, door-to-door racing. Starting second, Amherst’s Michael Bryant jumped to the lead and looked strong at the point through the first five laps before slowing to a halt. Danny Bryant then took the lead just ahead of fellow Buchanan helmsman Brian Campbell.

From the drop of the green, Lexington’s Coray Brown, who started 10th in the 17-car field, and division points leader Rick Mayberry, starting one slot back of Brown, began their inexorable waltz through the field. On lap 14, Campbell lost a tire, allowing Brown and Mayberry to move into second and third, respectively, behind Bryant.

The trio battled fiercely for the remaining 11 laps, but Bryant’s high line allowed him to withstand the spirited challenges of Brown and Mayberry. Mayberry’s second-place finish marked the ninth time in nine starts that the Spout Spring driver has finished in the top 3 this season. Brown took the win following Bryant’s post-race disqualification with Mayberry moving to second. Evergreen’s Todd Garrett crossed the line third followed by Ricky Hostetter and Ronnie Martin, Jr.

Shipman’s Mike Bryant has run out front in the Lee’s Auto Repair Sportsman division on several occasions in the past few seasons, but has been bedeviled by bad racing luck. Earlier this season while holding a commanding lead, his ride burst into flames. His bad luck was extinguished Saturday night when he led flag-to-flag to secure his first Sportsman victory. Bryant’s win jumped him from seventh to fifth in the Sportsman points pyramid. The top 5 drivers in each division’s points race at the end of July will be awarded 8 points each heading into the season’s final two months with all other drivers starting over with zero in the Super 8 Championship Points Battle.

The first four ran as they started throughout the 25-lap feature. Terry Dame, Earl brooks, Jr. and Shad Cooper finished second, third and fourth, respectively. Chris Barger started ninth and worked his way to a fifth-place finish.

Mike Bryant’s nephew, Jason, dominated the 20-lap Any Car feature in claiming his division-leading fourth feature win of the year. The Amherst driver wheeled his No. 7 machine past Lexington’s Steve Brown coming out of turn 4 on lap 4 to take a lead he would not relinquish. Lexington’s Fred Clark surged into second behind Bryant, but was unable run him down. Roy Reaves ran a strong third, which moved the Glasgow driver into fifth place in the Any Car points standings. James Fitzgerald ran fourth, and Kenny Sloan finished fifth to record his first 2005 top 5 finish.

Two-time defending Street Stock champion David Brogan of Lexington and Lexington’s Troy Fitzgerald took the green Saturday night locked in a dead heat for first place in the division points battle. For 25 laps, the two competitors battled with Brogan holding the lead for the final 21 laps, despite repeated pressure from Fitzgerald, on his way to his third win of the season and a slim two-point lead in the Street Stock championship tussle. Clifton Mays of Madison Heights finished third. West Virginian Johnny Scott ran fourth in his 2005 NBS debut. Clifton Forge’s Ricky Higgins completed the top 5. With his win, Brogan joined Mayberry with nine top 3 finishes in nine starts this season.

The Virginia Sprint Car Series returns to NBS Saturday night. There will be a full show of regular classes, including a special Street Stock feature. Gates open at 4 p.m. with the first green flag scheduled to fall at 7:30 p.m.