Kaley Gharst sits at the top of the list when it comes to career feature wins with the Sprint Invaders, but is has been seven years since he has added to that total. His dry spell ended Friday night when "Showtime" put Nick Breuer's #78 into victory lane in convincing fashion for his 22nd feature win with the series that is now in its seventeenth year. And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, second generation driver Mitch Boles fought back to earn his first career feature win as the IMCA Modifieds closed out a long evening of racing at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.
The twenty-five lap main event for the Sprint Invaders got off to a slow start when Tanner Gebhardt spun in turn three on the opening lap collecting back row starters Daniel Bergquist and Randy Martin. And while that was playing out, the fourth place starter Sawyer Phillips spun to the infield before turn one running over an infield marker with his night ending on the hook.
When the green flag waved again only two laps would be completed before the red came out when the fifth place car of Dustin Selvage bicycled on the cushion in turn four and when the car came back down it turned right, head on into the guardrail before tipping over onto its side. A frustrated Selvage would walk back to the pits uninjured.
Once back to racing current point leader John Schulz would set the pace with Carson McCarl in pursuit, but the man on the move was Kaley Gharst who hard started sixth and was coming to the front quickly. On lap ten with Schulz working the traffic down low, Gharst stayed up on the cushion to sail to the front just before Riley Goodno spun in turn one to bring out the caution.
On this restart Schulz would throw the slider to take back the lead heading down the back stretch only to have Gharst return the favor in turns three and four to get back in front. Gharst would then open up a big advantage as drivers shuffled for position in his wake only to see the caution wave again with seven laps remaining when defending Invaders champion Cody Wehrle looped it in turn two.
Schulz would make another charge on the restart pulling even with Gharst in turn two, but Kaley would kick off the cushion and hold on to the lead down the back stretch before again pulling away for the convincing win. Schulz would stretch his point lead with his second place finish, Ayrton Gennetten had a solid night in third, Carson McCarl held on for the fourth spot and Jamie Ball advanced from ninth to fifth at the checkers.
The win was worth $2,000 for Gharst and his car owner Nick Breuer due to extra purse money put up for the weekend by Shottenkirk.com and if Kaley can win again tonight at 34 Raceway in Burlington he will earn a $1,000 bonus from Storm Steel.
As a few rain drops started to fall as the IMCA Modified feature took the green for eighteen laps with Mitch Boles taking the lead. The second generation driver from New London destroyed a race car a few weeks ago in a rollover accident in Maquoketa and, as it has turned out, that might have been the best thing that happened to him as this new car has been fast out the box and tonight the #4B was hooked to the bottom of the 3/8th-mile oval. Jeff Waterman and Dennis LaVeine who started sixth and seventh respectively moved to the front and both were ready to challenge Boles for the lead, but Mitch was too tough until the caution waved for a Craig Spegal spin in turn two on lap ten.
On the restart LaVeine found the bite that he needed running the middle through the turns and he would take the lead from Boles on lap twelve and as Waterman also tried to squeeze under the former leader his left front clipped the track tire in turn one knocking the tire onto the track and breaking the left front of Waterman's car ending his night.
When the green flag returned Boles came battling back pulling even with LaVeine and they would then put on a classic battle for the fans that had stuck around after the Sprint Car show had ended. Boles would lead lap thirteen, LaVeine would edge back in front at the stripe on lap fourteen and Boles would come right back on the bottom to take back the lead on the fifteenth circuit. The kid would then pull away from the veteran over the final three laps to take the win where his father Scott, grandfather Paul and the rest of his family and crew were ready to celebrate with him in victory lane. LaVeine would settle for second, John Oliver Jr. came from eighth to third, Dakota Simmons started ninth and finished fourth while Brandon Rothzen came from the tail of the thirteen car field to take fifth.
In earlier support class action Brandon Dale paced a talented field of twenty IMCA Sport Mods for all eighteen laps to take the win. Austen Becerra drove around Sean Wyett exiting turn four coming to the checkers to take second as Blaine Webster and Daniel Fellows filled out the top five. It was good to see Barry Taft making the move up to the Sport Mods as the Argyle, Iowa, driver was still in the hunt to win his third straight All Iowa Points Four Cylinder championship. Taft finished tenth in his first Sport Mod feature race.
Cody Bowman would go from third to first on the opening lap of the Sport Compact main event only to have the sixth starting Trent Orwig go charging by on lap two. Even with three restarts in the second half of the fifteen lap event, Orwig would go the rest of the way to take the win. Chuck Fullenkamp came from ninth to second dropping Brandon Reu back to third at the checkers as Bowman and Jason Ash were next in line.
Next Friday is Season Championship night at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway and race fans can catch all of the action for just a $3 price of admission! That won't be the end of racing in 2019 though at Donnellson as special events in both September and October are on the schedule.
A tip of the hat to southeast Iowa driver Sam Halstead who won the Crate Late Model feature at the Kankakee County Speedway south of Chicago last night!
After some rain this morning, the high banks at 34 Raceway should be in great shape for racing tonight as the Sprint Invaders return to Burlington along with the Late Models, Modifieds, Sport Mods and the Mini Haulers.
Hope to see you there!!
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