The Sprint Invaders returned to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Wednesday night as the headliner for Budweiser Night at the races. Golden Eagle Distributing of Burlington throws this party each year at the Speedway where they invite their retailers in for an evening of fun, food, racing and of course, adult beverages all within a fenced off “beer tent” in the pit area. The retailers are given tickets that they then provide to their best customers and the result was over five hundred people having quite a good time from the moment that the pit gates opened. Then, after the races are over, they open it up to everybody who is of legal drinking age to join in as well. My good friend Tony Fedler who owns the Pep Stop (located on East Washington Street in Mount Pleasant, stop in a say “hi” sometime) invited me to join his group in the tent and we filled up on some great food. I washed mine down with a few Bud Light Limes, and yes I like it in the can http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZX9Rv_2_C0 so after watching the heat races from the tent, I then headed over to the grandstand side to join Christine and Morgan for the feature events.
The Modifieds were up first for their twenty-lap main event and while Jim Lynch of Bloomfield walked away with the win, the action behind him was intense. Lynch blew past Brandon Rothzen on lap two to take the lead and, as Lynch pulled away, Josh Foster began to challenge Rothzen for second. The caution waved on lap five when Michael Long spun in turn two. Earlier in the evening Long was running away with his heat race before he slowed suddenly and pulled to the infield, so he had started scratch on the seventeen-car field and he would now return there after causing the caution. Once back to green Lynch again pulled away while Rothzen and Foster provided the crowd with a thrilling display of crossover moves and slide jobs lap after lap that would see Foster move ahead of Brandon in turn three only to have Rothzen shoot right back to the bottom off turn four to pass Josh and to hold the second position at the line. By lap seventeen Michael Long had picked his way through the field and was now set to make it a three-car battle for second until the caution waved once again.
On the restart Foster got sideways exiting turn four and had to use the infield to gather it back up losing several spots and leaving Long to now battle it out with Rothzen for second. Two laps later Long completed the pass with a slider of his own but he could not mount a challenge on the leader as the checkers waved with Lynch taking the victory ahead of Long, Rothzen, Wyatt Lantz and Adam Birck. However, later that night after all the races had been completed, I learned that I had missed out on some additional activities that took place right after the race. Rothzen did not appreciate the manner with which he had been passed by Long so he had given Michael a shove from behind during the cool down lap and when the two drivers made their way to the scales and the claim area they needed to be separated by an official to keep the peace. At the same time another driver had pulled to the claim area with the intent of claiming Rothzen’s engine, but since the bump on the track after the checkers had already earned Brandon a disqualification, the prospective claimer was denied. After all, only the top four finishers are eligible to be claimed and Rothzen was not in the top four. So, after taking part in what had to be an extremely fun race to drive with all of the position swapping, Brandon Rothzen was going to close it out in an unhappy manner one way or another, either being disqualified or by having his motor claimed. From a financial perspective alone, the way things ended up was probably the best for him!
It was great to see the veteran Jim Lynch from Bloomfield in victory lane once again and, with the disqualification, Foster was credited with the fifth spot at the pay window.
The Hobby Stock feature ran second on the card and in the early laps it was Jeremy Pundt and Jake Wenig swapping the lead back and forth. Pundt gained control on lap three as he set out once again to win his first-ever feature race. You’ll recall that just a few weeks back Pundt appeared to have that first feature well in hand only to lose it in the final half of a lap when a part broke steering him hard left into the infield http://backstretch32.blogspot.com/2010/05/quick-nights-in-donnellson-as-lee.html. Tonight it looked as if it would be former track champion Dean Kratzer who would keep Pundt wondering what it would be like to stand in victory lane as pulled even with the leader coming off of turn four with just six laps remaining. “Racing Luck” has a way of evening things out though as on the next lap Kratzer’s right rear tire went flat and his challenge ended. As Pundt became very careful over the final laps Dane Fenton closed in on him and as they came off turn four for the checkers Fenton had a shot, but he came up a car-length short as Pundt scored the victory. Jeremy’s jubilation in victory lane was evident as with tears in his eyes he thanked his family, friends and all of the fans who had come out on a Wednesday night to witness his accomplishment.
Fenton was impressive in second and you can look for him in victory lane soon as well, Jake Wenig settled for third while Ray Raker and Tanner Thomann completed the top five.
The Sprint Invaders drew a solid field of thirty cars tonight, but one driver was notably absent as current point leader Jerrod Hull was not in attendance. The field was stout even without him and it was Kaley Gharst and Josh Higday who would start the twenty-five-lap finale from the font row. Higday was in the Dale Oaks owned car #41 that Wayne Johnson had driven to victory eleven days ago at 34 Raceway, but there was no keeping pace with Gharst as he stormed away at the drop of the green. Young Tasker Phillips was impressive attacking the high-side to move into the second spot and it appeared like he was even gaining ground on Gharst as the two worked lapped traffic. Cautions on lap nine and lap eleven cleared the way for Gharst again and he would put ten car-lengths on Phillips at each drop of the green. As the groove went lower and lower off turn four the drivers were flirting with one of the infield implement tires and with three laps remaining Jon Agan clipped it and went end-over-end down the front stretch. With one last shot at the leader Phillips could not mount a challenge over the final three laps as Gharst would take the win in a dominating fashion. Phillips would post his best career Invaders finish in second, Jim Moughan Jr. tallied the third spot, Mark Shirshekan moved from row six to finish fourth while Russ Hall rounded out the top five. Higday finished in the fifth spot and Bobby Mincer made a nice drive to seventh after starting sixteenth.
The Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders return to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday night June 9th during the annual Lee County Fair.
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