Carson Short is getting this wing thing figured out, and fast. One week after scoring a USCS sanctioned winged 360 Sprint car win in Lexington, Tennessee, the driver from Marion, Illinois, who is more known for his prowess without the wing picked up the win on the opening night for both the IRA and MOWA 410 series Saturday night at 34 Raceway.
A solid field of thirty-six drivers signed in on a sunny, but breezy late afternoon where the temperatures topped the seventy degree mark for the first time in 2019 and after four heats and a B-Main the twenty-four car starting field was set for the twenty-five lap finale. Scott Nietzel and Scotty Thiel would bring the field to green, but when the eight time IRA champion Bill Balog slipped over the top of turn one, a full start was needed with Balog having to drop to the back of the grid.
Once underway Thiel would lead the opening lap, but he went a bit too high in turn two the second time around and that allowed both Nietzel and Austin McCarl to get by him. McCarl would then put the heat on the new leader and as Austin charged under him in turn three on lap four, Neitzel would spin sideways on the cushion collecting Thiel who had no time to react before making contact.
It was announced that under series rules both drivers would be given two minutes to make repairs once they reached the work area and while Thiel was able to push off within that time limit, Neitzel and his crew took the longest "two minutes" ever with the car parked just off the track before they were finally encouraged to have a wrecker pick up the front end of the car and tow it to the pits. McCarl would now assume the lead for the restart with the sixth starting Carson Short in second and the defending IRA champion Jake Blackhurst would line up in fourth after originally starting the race from the outside of row seven.
Blackhurst would move to third shortly after the restart, but only five more laps would be scored before local favorite Josh Schneiderman slipped off the top of turn one. On this restart Blackhurst would make a run at Short into turn one with the two making contact allowing McCarl to open up a solid advantage. Short would cut into that lead quickly though and as the two leaders started to work lapped traffic he was ready to challenge. The red flag put a halt to that though as Jeremy Schultz did a wing bender in turn four with ten laps remaining.
McCarl was able to pull away from Short on the restart, but when the 2018 Knoxville Raceway track champion got into turn four a bit too hot he drifted up into the crumbs leaving the door open for Short to charge through. The caution waved one last time with seven laps remaining when Russell Borland spun in turn two and on the restart McCarl gave it his all trying to make up for the mistake.
Short was able to ward off the challenge though and with the laps running out before he would even catch the lapped traffic McCarl could not reel him in as Short captured the victory. McCarl would come home second with Brooke Tatnell coming from eighth to finish third. Blackhurst would get his title defense off to a good start as he was the best of the IRA regulars in fourth while "The Gladiator" Ben Schmidt finished where he started in fifth. Joey Moughan was the best of the MOWA regulars in sixth, Balog rallied from the rear of the field to seventh, Paul Nienheiser was eighth, ninth went to Mike Reinke and Lynton Jeffrey completed the top ten. Defending MOWA champion Jacob Patton watched the feature from his trailer after coming up one spot short of a transfer from the B-Main.
MOWA was scheduled to open up on Friday night at Jacksonville, but that race was postponed to Sunday April 7th with an afternoon start. The next event for the IRA Sprints will be on Saturday April 20th at the Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin.
IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Compacts were also on the schedule with twelve of the thirteen Stock Cars that signed in taking the green for a twenty-five lap main event. David Brandies would take the point with John Oliver Jr. working on him in second, but as both leaders dug around the bottom Jason See went to the top and swept past them both as lap number two was scored. With See now edging away from them, Brandies and Oliver continued their battle that was now for second, but when See slowed suddenly in turn four the caution had to come out as he limped to the pits with just ten laps remaining.
So now the Brandies vs. Oliver battle was for the lead once again and it was a good one with Oliver throwing the slider at him in turn one on lap nineteen. Brandies turned back under him though and they raced door-to-door into turn three. Oliver now had the preferred top line, but when he stumbled for a split second on the cushion that allowed Brandies to return to the front as the lap was being scored.
Two laps later the same scenario would play out with Oliver diving deep into turn one and then sliding up in front of Brandies in turn two, only to have Brandies cross him over and pull even with Oliver going down the back stretch, This time though in three and four Oliver was as smooth as he could be up on the cushion and his momentum off the top of turn four would officially make him the leader of lap twenty-one.
Brandies did everything he could to get back to Oliver over the final four laps, but there was no catching the defending All Iowa Points Stock Car champion from winning the season opener at his home track. Brandies finished just of Abe Huls for second while Kirk Kinsley and Jeremy Pundt rounded out the top five.
Twelve laps would be the distance for the sixteen Sport Compacts on hand and the hottest driver in the area right now is Jacob Houston. After winning both nights at Donnellson's Spring Extravaganza two weeks ago, Houston drove past two-time defending All Iowa Points champion Barry Taft on lap two and then held off a couple of late race charges by Taft to score his third straight feature win. Brandon Reu executed the "bump and run: to perfection to get around Taft in the closing laps to take second with Jason Ash and Larry Miller running fourth and fifth. This race was interrupted just once when Jarrod Nichols apparently lost a wheel exiting turn two on lap eight and put his "Pink Pig" #15 upside down on the back stretch.
The Mountain Dew Kick Start regular season opener will take place next Saturday April 13th at 34 Raceway and on the following Saturday night, April 20th, the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Model Series, and other big names in the world of Super Late Model racing will converge on 34 Raceway for the 11th Annual Slocum 50. We hope to see you there!
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