It was a sunny but brisk Sunday April 19th at the Stuart Speedway with a nasty wind blowing right into the grandstands. However, a fine crowd braved the elements for the first special event of the year at Stuart as the ASCS Midwest Series and the Sprint Invaders co-sanctioned a rare open wheel event at the Stuart quarter mile. With the Sprint drivers being frustrated by the weather with cancellations and postponements a plenty, a rare chance to race brought a great field of forty one drivers to the track and it was Ankeny Iowa driver Chris Martin that took the checkered flag and returned to the Capital district with an extra four grand in his pocket.
The top five IMCA classes that normally race at Stuart were also on hand to provide a complete program and many drivers that normally don't race at Stuart took advantage of the rare Sunday show to further stack the field, providing stiff competition in all five classes. Those winners included Colbin Funke, Braden Gifford, Buck Schafroth, Jake Sachau and Todd Shute.
One hundred and fifty seven drivers signed in to race on Sunday and if you're familiar with the Stuart facility, you know that there isn't room for that many race cars in their pit area, particularly when the Sprint Car rigs are over sized to begin with. It made for kind of a circus atmosphere as late arriving entrants had to part where ever they could find a flat space, and that is also a challenge at the Stuart facility where the pits and spectator parking is done on a rather rolling area. Race cars were all over the parking lot with the spectator parking thus forced to share space with the racers. I wouldn't call it a "cluster" as everyone seemed to work through it and I didn't hear of any racers that missed their events because they couldn't get to the track, but it was definitely an interesting visual for sure.
Forty one Sprint Cars was a terrific turnout and that alone made for a big show. Group qualifying started out the show but then later some sort of a scoring gaff forced officials to nullify the time trials with them then using the pill draw number for qualifying to line up the heat races with passing points then used to line up the feature races.
They also had another activity for the Sprint drivers called the "Top Dog Challenge" where if a driver put one hundred dollars in a separate pot and then won the feature, the extra bonus money would be his. It turned out that winner Martin did exactly that and thus doubled his winnings.
They do this activity at a lot of big races on the East Coast where they call it "The Gamblers Pot" but it serves the same purpose and is kind of an interesting addition.
Twenty drivers qualified for the Sprint Car feature which would be a very quick twenty five lap blast on the Stuart quarter mile. There would actually be three different leaders of the race and just one slow down to pause the action.
Colton Fisher got the jump on Chase Brown to lead the early going with Chris Martin battling with Austin McCarl for third. Fisher controlled the early laps with Brown not able to cut into his lead. As the leaders got to lapped traffic however, Brown was able to close in and made an attempt to pass but Fisher fought him off and continued to hold the top spot.
However, shockingly, with nine laps complete, Fisher suddenly slowed in turn one with serious issues and the yellow flag waved. The leader was done with Brown inheriting the top spot followed by Martin, McCarl, Seth Bergman and Garrett Benson.
This was Martin's opportunity and when the green reappeared, he challenged Brown for the lead hard. For a number of laps, Brown would hold off Martin but he started getting just a bit higher in the corners and that was slowing him down the chutes. On lap nineteen, Martin got a great run off turn four, threw a slider in turn one and took over the lead from Brown. Martin would then pull away over the last six laps and drive home unchallenged for the win.
McCarl would also get past Brown to take over the second spot but he didn't have time to challenge Martin for the win. Bergman finished fourth and brother Cam Martin raced his way into the top five at the end. It was a very smooth program by the Sprint drivers despite the fact that many hadn't seen this track before. There were no flips or serious wrecks with a couple of blown motors being the biggest set backs of the night.
It was not hard to find some other feature races that were dandy events either. The evening's finale, the Modified main, was a great two driver battle between Tyler Inman and Tom Berry Jr that unfortunately, didn't work out the best for either at the end.
Inman took the initial lead but Berry Jr, who started in the fourth row, wasted little time getting to the front and within a half dozen laps, was all over Inman for the lead. Berry Jr threw a slider and was first scored the leader on lap eight but Inman, despite being a Modified rookie, didn't back down and the result was some thrilling action as the top two drivers swapped the lead on virtually every corner for the next several laps with a series of wild slide jobs.
Berry Jr kept serving up "sliders" but Inman returned everything he had been dished out with him finally regaining the lead on lap twelve. However, one lap later on the back chute things were wrong and Berry Jr spun while Inman got sideways but saved his car. I thought it to be just the product of some great hard driving but Berry Jr, perhaps among others, didn't agree and after the yellow waved, He made hard contact with Inman's car before leaving the track. He should have been disqualified for hitting a car under the yellow but for some reason that wasn't done.
Inman was restored as the leader but when he hit a bump wrong in turn one and lost time, Todd Shute, who was stalking both the leaders, went barreling past and took over the lead. Inman was never able to regain a change and settled for second while Shute seemingly came from no where to garner the win. Chase Weimer, Jesse Dennis and Troy Morris III completed the top five.
The Stock Car feature was also an excellent race with the winning pass not completed until lap seventeen of the twenty lapper. For most of the race, it was Miciah Hildebaugh that showed the way but he was under intense pressure on every lap.
Both Dillon Richards and Buck Schafroth were all over the leader and often times, it was both of them challenging at the same time with one working the cushion and one looking to nose under Miciah. And early on, Owen Barnhill might have been the strongest of the challengers until he dumped fluid all over the track and called it a night.
A late yellow with just four laps to go when Brad Derry lost a top five spot by spinning on the front chute set up one last banzai run by the pack. Schafroth was determined to make the outside line work and when Hildebaugh pushed going into turn one, Buck was able to drive by and take over the lead. He was then able to fight off a last lap attempt by Hildebaugh to get the lead back and drove home the winner. Richards settled for a very close third as Austin Meiners and Wahoo Albertsen completed the top five.
A big field of Hobby Stocks, as it seems that every track is getting so far this year, was on hand Sunday with twenty four of them starting the feature race. They put on a great battle with tons of "pack" style racing in three and four wide fashion. And even better, they raced hard without causing yellows as only two minor issues slowed the race.
Shane Butler grabbed the early lead with Braden Gifford, Rusty Bates, Kale Hemsley and Solomon Bennett all tight behind the leader. Each lap they were swapping positions on the track but no one was able to get past Butler.
Finally, on lap eight, Gifford got a great run off turn four and edged into the lead down the front chute. He was then able to hold off the pack for the rest of the race but never had a moment when he wasn't challenged. Late in the race, Tom Killen Jr and Keith Burg put on a show as after advancing from the fifth and six rows respectively, they moved to the front and put the most pressure on Gifford. Killen Jr held on by inches to second with him only less than a car length behind Gifford as they finished up. Briar Kriegel from eighth and Adam Hensel from fourteenth, completed the top five.
Colbin Funke surprised many when after others battled for the win in the Sport Compact feature, he kind of snuck up from the fourth row and made the winning pass on lap nine. Early on it was Michael Gardner who led the field with Tyler Fiebelkorn along with Carson and Rece Hayes that were putting heavy pressure on Gardner.
On lap five, Carson took over the lead from Gardner but Fiebelkorn was still challenging on every lap. Funke had worked his way up to third by the halfway point and using the higher line on the track, he continued to advance.
On lap nine, he was able to get past Carson and take over the lead and then pulled away to record the win. Fiebelkorn battled with the third different driver to be in front of him, but he settled for second at the finish with Carson third. There was only a single yellow and all but one starter finished the Sport Compact main.
Everything was in place for an excellent Sport Mod feature with some of the heavy hitters back a few rows and it looking like we would see some great charges through the pack. And while many of the top runners did eventually get to the front, they didn't get to race it out for the win because the yellow flag kept flying and slowing down the race.
It was a shame because I think we were really set up to see a great three car battle for the win but spinning drivers kept that from happening. Joselyn Elmquist lead the first four laps and was doing an excellent job of fighting off some spirited challenges.
Of the front runners, Jake Sachau was the first to get to the front after starting in the fifth row and using the top side to gain speed, he drove past Elmquist on lap five for the lead. However, by that time, the yellow had already flown three times with many more to come. Dylan VanWyk and Brayton Carter were having a great battle for second, swapping lanes on the track with each yellow causing a "choose cone" decision that I love as it adds another aspect to the race strategy.
We really wanted to see those top three battle it out but that never was possible because the yellow kept flying, with eight times in all slowing the action and finally management cut some laps and with another yellow pausing the race, they called the event complete two laps earlier even.
Sachau took the win with VanWyk second and Carter scored third. Elmquist hung on for fourth with Will Wolf rounding out the top five.
The only down side to the program was that it did get a bit long with the final checkered waving at just before 11 pm, which is much too late on a Sunday. Tempering that though is the fact that obviously with so many cars there is a lot of racing to be done. And the Sprint show is a special for many of the fans and they understand that and with their feature done relatively early, the fans who came to see them could leave along with drivers that may have pulled a great distance. A Sunday show that late weekly could not be tolerated but once a year and for a special, we get it. Glad to see a big crowd on hand to support the event.
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