ATTICA, Ohio — It has been nearly six weeks since the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 last made a competitive lap, but despite the frustrating stretch of poor weather resulting in a long gap in the schedule, Aaron Reutzel never missed a beat.

The reigning series champion and point leader picked up $5,000 for his first victory at Attica Raceway Park on Friday night.

Although dominant during the second half of the 40-lap program, the pilot of the Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports entry was forced to chase fellow All Star full-timer Brock Zearfoss for the first 21 circuits.

It was not until lap 22 when Zearfoss, who was attempting to navigate heavy lapped traffic, hooked a rut and spun all alone at the front of the field.

Zearfoss’ mistake was an obvious lucky break for Reutzel, but the reigning Series champion was in close proximity of the top spot up until that point, actually earning command for a brief stint after a caution on lap 13.

Reutzel’s slide job attempt during the ensuing restart failed, but the Texan never lost track of the Premier Motorsports entry.

When the 40-lap main event’s dust finally settled, it was Buddy Kofoid who chased Reutzel to the final checkers, followed by Cap Henry, Shawn Dancer and Jac Haudenschild.

“We had a really great race car here tonight. Grant and the guys have been busting their butts in trying to make me better at these tracks in Ohio, Attica included,” Reutzel explained. “I felt like we could make good laps here. Luckily, we started up front and didn’t get caught up with Brock’s [Zearfoss] spin. I’m happy that we were able to capitalize on our starting position this time.”

After inheriting the top spot on lap 22, Reutzel’s next challenge was in the form of lapped traffic, eventually coming into play for the first time for the new leader on lap 28. Buddy Kofoid, who started second on the grid, but faded to third after the initial start, was starting to make up ground on Reutzel as the traffic started to intensify.

The California phenom chased Reutzel down to a car length by lap 33, soon pulling even with the familiar No. 87 at the entrance of turn one on the following circuit. Despite the effort, Reutzel’s championship-earning experience with traffic proved to be too strong, as a bold, three-wide move to split a pair of slower cars sealed his winning fate.

Although Reutzel was able to stretch his late-race advantage to nearly a straightaway, utilizing the very topside of the speedway, an uncooperative lapped car nearly caused a similar fate that Zearfoss faced. Luckily for Reutzel, his outcome was different.

“That last lap, I had a lap car change lanes on me and that had me all mixed up. It wasn’t his fault, he didn’t know I was there. Luckily, I was able to maintain control and not spit out, because that’s what I thought was going to happen,” Reutzel continued. “You gotta go whenever you’re leading like that. Racing with Brock early in the race and watching him in traffic allowed me to know where to go when I was leading.”

“He’s always fast wherever he goes,” Kofoid said. “I gave it everything we got, but we came up one short. So far, this is four podiums in a row for this team at Attica. We’ve been in every finishing position except the one Aaron is in right now, but we’ll keep working and try again soon.”

Paul Weaver won the 305 sprint car feature and Rusty Schlenk topped the late model main event.

The finish:

Feature (40 laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel [3]; 2. 11N-Buddy Kofoid [2]; 3. 4-Cap Henry [7]; 4. 49-Shawn Dancer [8]; 5. 3-Jac Haudenschild [5]; 6. 25M-Chris Andrews [6]; 7. 11-Dale Blaney [4]; 8. 13-Paul McMahan [13]; 9. 16-DJ Foos [19]; 10. 49X-Tim Shaffer [17]; 11. 70X-Spencer Bayston [22]; 12. 99-Skylar Gee [16]; 13. 70-Brock Zearfoss [1]; 14. W20-Greg Wilson [24]; 15. 23-Max Stambaugh [9]; 16. 33W-Caleb Griffith [14]; 17. O7-Gerard McIntyre [25]; 18. 35B-Stuart Brubaker [18]; 19. 26-Cory Eliason [20]; 20. 40-George Hobaugh [26]; 21. 5T-Travis Philo [11]; 22. 57X-Andrew Palker [21]; 23. 83M-Broc Martin [10]; 24. 8M-TJ Michael [12]; 25. 1-Nate Dussel [23]; 26. 8-Jordan Ryan [15] Lap Leaders: Brock Zearfoss (1-21), Aaron Reutzel (22-40)

CLERMONT, Ind. — Kyle Hamilton pocketed $14,750 for his first USAC Silver Crown Series victory during Friday night’s Dave Steele Carb Night Classic at Lucas Oil Raceway.

“Last year, it didn’t seem like anything could go right mechanically,” Hamilton recalled.  “Our Little 500 car broke, my teammate Brady (Bacon)’s dirt car broke, we broke right out the box here at (LOR) and had to start the race from the tail with no practice laps. This year, we’re on the front row of the ‘Little 500’ and we qualified third tonight at LOR. I thought, ‘Well, this is going a lot better.’ But, honestly, tonight was the night I was a little bit more worried about being slow. We’ve always struggled here, and I didn’t want to disappoint my team, but I was a little nervous inside.”

Hamilton put his Klatt Enterprises/Beast Chassis – Wilwood Disc Brakes/Beast/Ford on the outside of the front row for the 100-lapper at the .686-mile paved oval.

Meanwhile, up front was Kody Swanson who started from the pole after taking the Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier Award and $1,000 bonus from Mac and Carol Steele. Swanson dominated the first half as he attempted to go three-for-three in pavement races on the season and extend his series-record of consecutive pavement Silver Crown wins to seven.

Four-time LOR Silver Crown winner Bobby Santos charged past Hamilton on the ninth lap with an inside turn one pass to move to second. From there, Santos began to reel in Kody and applied pressure for the lead as those two separated from Hamilton in third.

One of the major storylines developing throughout the race was Tanner Swanson’s decision to accept the “Come from the Back Challenge” during driver introductions.

By doing so, he forfeited his outside front row spot to start from the tail and go for a $10,000 bonus by way of Legacy Motorsports and Gatekeeper Services. By lap 13, Tanner was already in the top-ten, and by lap 30, had entered the top-five, reminiscent of his 22nd to second charge through the field one year prior.

On the 33rd lap, Hamilton caught up to Santos, driving to the inside of Santos in turn one before prevailing off turn two with the second spot, but trailing Kody in the lead by over a second.

Swanson and Hamilton weaved their way through lapped traffic, Hamilton mimicking every Swanson move and not allowing the four-time Silver Crown champ to slip away just as Matt Goodnight stopped on the back straightaway to bring out the caution just one lap short of halfway.

Under yellow, fifth-running Tanner Swanson pitted to let air out of his left rear tire, to which he later admitted to using up too much of his tires early on.

With the yellow, that cleared the traffic situation for the time-being, although, for Hamilton in second, he couldn’t have imagined what occurred next when Kody Swanson failed to take off on the lap-54 restart, handing over the lead to Hamilton with a clear track ahead of him. Kody Swanson coasted around to the pit area with an apparent engine issue that put an end to the four-time LOR Silver Crown winner’s bid for five.

Hamilton continued to build his lead up through lap 63 when the caution came out for Chris Windom, who’s nightmarish 24 hours came to an end crumpled against the turn-one wall after smoke poured from the back of the car entering one. Derek Bischak was also caught up in the incident, riding over Windom’s front end, putting an end to the evening for both drivers.

Windom rode out a hellacious flip during the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Thursday night, and rode out a frightening Indy Lights wreck on Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Friday afternoon.

On the lap-73 restart, Santos used a run on the inside of Hamilton, sliding up in front of Hamilton in turn one to secure the position as the pair exited turn two. One lap later, the roles were reversed, and Hamilton drove it hard into turn one underneath Santos to slot into the top spot.

“Honestly, I don’t have a ton of experience leading Silver Crown races,” Hamilton admitted.  “I didn’t know how aggressive to be on the restart.  I’d say Santos is one of the more aggressive guys and one of the best who does it.  He sent it on down there and it stuck.  Immediately, once I got behind him, I could tell I was really digging better than him coming off the corners.  I had to throw another haymaker at him going into one and it stuck again.”

Incredibly, Hamilton proceeded to reel off his best four laps of the race on laps 74-77. But on the move was Tanner Swanson, who ripped around the outside of Santos in turn two on the 76th lap. Tanner Swanson began to chip into Hamilton’s lead, cutting the interval down to less than a second as the two began to work lapped traffic with less than 20 laps remaining.

Hamilton dipped under the lappers down the stretch as Tanner Swanson tried everything he could to keep up the pace, but Hamilton’s car seemed to get better and better in the final laps, stretching out to a comfortable advantage that proved to be a tall and impossible task for his closest competition.

“As the laps went on, the car kept getting better and better,” Hamilton explained. “I have to give hats off to Bob East. He sure knows how to set up a car to get around here. We just kept working at it and working at it. It really wasn’t as much the setup as it was Bob’s coaching. He just kept telling me to keep my momentum up and explained to me how LOR is such a momentum track. We were able to roll the center a lot better than we’d ever have here.”

Hamilton closed out his winning performance with a victory margin of 4.186 over Tanner Swanson, Santos, Justin Grant and Eric Gordon.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

New York Cosmos owner Rocco B. Commisso is close to completing a deal to purchase Serie A club Fiorentina for around $150 million, according to ESPN FC sources.

Billionaire Commisso moved to the United States from Italy when he was 12 and is the founder of cable company Mediacom.

Sources have told ESPN FC the deal could be finalised as soon as Monday, with La Viola's Serie A future to be decided on Sunday where defeat to Genoa could see the club relegated to the second tier.

Fiorentina are owned by shoemaking tycoons Diego and Andrea Della Valle, who have put the club up for sale for the past year.

The Della Valle brothers bought the club in 2002 when bankruptcy saw Fiorentina re-branded and start again in the fourth tier. However, failure to progress and a tendency to sell the club's best-players led to fan protests.

Commisso took over the Cosmos in 2017. At the time, both the club and the North American Soccer League were struggling and Commisso effectively saved both financially.

Should the deal go through, Commisso, 69, would become the latest in a series U.S. businessman to purchase a Serie A club.

AC Milan are owned by hedge fund Elliott Management, while Roma's president is James Pallotta. Joey Saputo is the Bologna chairman.

England's World Cup hopes may have sustained a serious blow after injury scares to both of their fastest bowlers.

Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, the two men in the England squad who can regularly surpass 90 mph with the ball, were obliged to leave the pitch within minutes of one another in the opening hour of the warm-up match against Australia in Southampton.

First Wood, after one ball of his fourth over, stopped halfway through his run-up and left the pitch having indicated that he may have an issue. Just two balls later Archer, a surprising choice as substitute fielder for Wood, slid as he attempted to stop a ball on the midwicket boundary and appeared to sustain an injury. He left the pitch moments later, but returned to the field after treatment half an hour later.

An ECB statement confirmed that Wood had experienced some "left foot discomfort", a concern given his lengthy history of ankle problems. "He will continue to spend some time with the medical team before a decision is made on whether he will return to the match."

Archer, meanwhile, is understood to be carrying a minor niggle in his leg that contributed to his limited involvement in the ODI series.

It meant that Paul Collingwood, one of England's assistant coaches, was briefly forced into service as a substitute fielder. Collingwood turns 43 tomorrow, and retired as a player at the end of the 2018 season. Joe Root, who was due to miss the game following the death of his grandfather on Thursday, was also pressed into service as a substitute fielder.

England are also without the injured pair of Eoin Morgan, who sustained a fractured finger in training on Friday, and Adil Rashid, who has a long-standing shoulder injury. They also confirmed that Chris Woakes, who is expected to open the bowling in the World Cup, was playing in this match as a specialist batsman and would not bowl as they seek to manage his even more long-standing knee problems.

According to the ICC's playing conditions for the World Cup, substitute fielders are not permitted from outside the 15-man playing squad, although those rules do not apply to the warm-up games.

CLERMONT, Ind. – Australian drivers have a long history of success in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, and Cameron Shields added to that legacy with a beautifully judged drive to victory in Friday’s Cooper Tires Freedom 75.

Shields, who hails from Toowoomba, Queensland, the same hometown as defending Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power, started second, took the lead by holding on around the outside at the start and proceeded to lead throughout the 75-lap race around the 0.686-mile oval.

Polesitter Colin Kaminsky couldn’t keep pace with Shields but was edging away from an intense battle for third between Mexico’s Manuel Cabrera and Frenchman Alex Baron until the pair hauled up behind some lapped traffic shortly after the halfway mark.

On Lap 43, Baron made a move to the inside of Cabrera at the entrance to turn one. Unfortunately, Cabrera found himself pinched in between Baron and, on the outside, the lapped Pabst Racing Tatuus USF-17 of Brazil’s Bruna Tomaselli, who herself was embroiled in a tense battle with the Jay Howard Driver Development pair of Christian Bogle, from Covington, La., and Englishman Matt Round-Garrido, plus Venezuelan Anthony Famularo.

In a flash, Cabrera’s car started to spin, taking both himself and Tomaselli into the wall to trigger the first of two full-course cautions.

A second interruption came just 10 laps after the restart, on lap 61, when Jack William Miller spun and crashed out of seventh place between Turns Three and Four.

Each time, Shields was picture-perfect out front. The 18-year-old rookie held off the advances of Kaminsky, who instead came under increasing pressure from a charging Baron, who had started fifth. Baron finally made his move for second place into turn one with just four laps remaining.

“That was absolutely incredible, I just can’t believe it,” Shields said. “I’ve worked so hard to get here, and even to finish the year I have to work really hard to make that happen. It was a really, really tough race – my mental state changed quite a lot. I had such a big lead and, all of the sudden, the yellow comes out and everything changed. There was a bit of panic but I recouped and did a good job to keep the guys behind me. I really have to thank the team; they gave me a perfect car to do it and taught me well how to drive an oval. My driving style is very smooth and sometimes on the road courses, I’m not aggressive enough so right now, this couldn’t suit me any better. I’m so happy to do this with fellow Aussies here, especially the Australian Consul-General, it was so special to have them here to witness this win.”

Fourteen-year-old Jak Crawford drove another impressive race to claim fourth ahead of championship leader Braden Eves.

CLERMONT, Ind. – Singapore’s Danial Frost led from flag to flag for Exclusive Autosport in round five of the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires Friday night at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Frost, 17, was in imperious form on the ultra-fast oval. He was comfortably fastest in last week’s prerace test, led the way in qualifying and, after fighting off an early challenge from last year’s dominant USF2000 champion Kyle Kirkwood, controlled the proceedings to score a thoroughly well-deserved victory in the Cooper Tires Freedom 90.

Frost’s only serious challenge came following the race’s only caution, which came after 51 laps when Nikita Lastochkin’s Exclusive Autosport Tatuus PM-18 ground to a halt with a mechanical failure.

Frost took the restart directly ahead of Sting Ray Robb, from Payette, Idaho, who had found a way past Kirkwood in turn one moments before the yellow, but didn’t take long to reestablish a clear advantage. His final margin of victory after 90 laps was 4.8048 seconds.

“I’m so grateful to get my first win, especially on the oval for the Cooper Tires Freedom 90,” Frost said. “I’m so happy with what the team has accomplished. I worked hard to keep my focus toward the end but as soon as I saw the checkered flag I started to celebrate. A couple of guys really put some pressure on me but I stayed composed and did my own thing, and eventually we were able to break the draft. Once we got into traffic, I worked at catching the guys in front because, for me, it’s better if I have someone to chase. That’s what I did for the whole race. The team gave me such a great car, I’m so happy.”

Championship leader Rasmus Lindh chased both his teammate, Robb and Kirkwood, virtually throughout the race before finally finding a chink in Kirkwood’s armor on the very last lap when he took advantage of an open-door opportunity on the high line into turn one. Robb moved quickly alongside, then carried his momentum through turn two to edge ahead and hold off Kirkwood for third on the line.

Carlos Vela took his MLS leading goals tally to 15 as LAFC thrashed the visiting Montreal Impact 4-2 at Banc of California Stadium on Friday night.

The win extends LAFC's unbeaten run to seven games and keeps them undefeated at home with a record of seven wins and one draw.

Goalkeeper Evan Bush gifted the hosts their opening goal, misplaying the ball out of the back and allowing Christian Ramirez to block his clearance into the back of the net.

MLS goals leader Vela then pulled the strings for the next two goals, getting in behind the Montreal defense and beating Bush to double LAFC's lead before picking out Diego Rossi, who squared to Latif Blessing for a tap in to make it 3-0 at half-time.

Vela looked to have struck again at the start of the second half with a cheeky chip over Bush after another Montreal giveaway, but the linesman's flag was up for offside and the goal was ruled out.

However, the Western Conference leaders scored seconds later when Tristan Blackmon lost his marker in the penalty area and powered home a header from a corner kick to make it 4-0.

LAFC's Eddie Segura redirected the ball into his own net from an Impact cross to give the visitors their first goal. Saphir Taïder then scored from the penalty spot to halve the deficit as full-time approached after Walker Zimmerman brought down Anthony Jackson-Hamel in the area.

Despite playing their fourth game in 14 days, LAFC showed no signs of fatigue, outshooting the Impact by a 17-9 margin (10-6 in shots on goal), in a match that seemed more lopsided than those statistics might suggest.

Bush's error notwithstanding, the goalkeeper often looked outstanding in making six saves to keep the final score respectable. The Impact have just one victory (1-3-1) over their past five matches.

The win means Bob Bradley's team have now earned 34 points from its first 15 matches to top the Western Conference and stay nine ahead of the third-placed Galaxy, who beat Orlando City on Friday, and eight points ahead of the Seattle Sounders, who play Sporting Kansas City on Sunday.

USA Cricket has received a boost of over $1 billion investment from American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for the development of a domestic T20 league. USA Cricket selected ACE as its strategic partner to conclude a multi-stage evaluation process that began in November 2018. The launch of the league is slated for 2021.

The billion-dollar deal is one of the biggest for the development of domestic cricket in the US. ACE is backed by Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, the founders of Willow TV (the largest cricket broadcaster in North America), and Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain, of the Times of India group. USA Cricket had started the process by publicly inviting proposals for a US-based T20 league. They chose ACE whose proposal combined a large financial commitment to invest into the league, key deals for infrastructure and broadcast distribution, experienced and knowledgeable leadership, and a data-driven, analytical business strategy, which affirmed their ability to build a longstanding institution that will elevate US cricket.

"USA Cricket is excited to partner with ACE to launch a professional cricket league in the United States. We were thoroughly impressed by their comprehensive proposal," Paraag Marathe, USA Cricket board chairman said. "Vijay, Sameer, Satyan and Vineet provided a vision for the growth of cricket in the US on all levels, and we're confident they will create a world class T20 league here in America. This is a watershed moment for cricket in the United States and we look forward to a long-lasting, successful partnership."

ACE has commenced major infrastructure investment towards international grade cricket venues in several US metropolitan markets. ACE is also working to develop additional turf cricket pitches and auxiliary facilities in more than a dozen locations. Based on a major/minor professional league model, the new facilities will provide, for the first time in the US, the ability to stage and support major domestic and international cricket at all levels. In addition, ACE will provide support for USA Cricket's men's and women's national teams to ensure they can capitalise on their recent successes at the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 and the ICC Women's Americas Qualifier, respectively.

The league is expected to feature top international players from the USA team and around the world, combined with a focus on pathways to develop a homegrown player pool for USA Cricket and the league. A major component of ACE's plans is the developmental academies around the country that will be aligned to the league teams and will help foster and develop talent at the youth levels to ensure a strong pipeline of cricket players.

"Cricket has the second-largest audience in the world, and yet has little presence in the largest professional sports market," Gajwani said. "We want to develop a lasting institution that brings to the US the excitement and passion of cricket, enjoyed by billions of people globally. True grassroots development of any sport takes decades and we are excited and committed to play a role in developing world-class cricket in America.

A key highlight of ACE's proposal is distribution, sponsorship and exposure for the professional league and for USA Cricket's national teams via major TV and digital broadcast platforms, led by Willow TV which has over 4 million subscribers. In addition to the Willow assets, ACE and USA Cricket will seek out "free to air" platforms as well to ensure mainstream audiences are exposed to the league.

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