The
inaugural event for the Big A Auto Parts Sprint Invaders was held this past
weekend at the Jacksonville Raceway and if Friday’s event is any indication of
the future success of this series, they should be around for a long period of
time. There were twenty-nine “Invaders” on hand, plus the crowd was treated to
the solid weekly show of 410 sprints with a talented field of twenty-four cars
and drivers ready to attack the quarter-mile. Micro Sprints and Limited Late
Models made it a very full night of action.
The
track is located on the Morgan County fairgrounds and, with its covered wooden
grandstand, the facility really brings back a lot of memories of days gone by.
It has been at least ten years since I have been to Jacksonville and on several
occasions during the evening I found myself making one of those mental notes to
make sure that we get back here again soon, if not again this year.
It
was the Sprint Invaders that brought us here so let’s start with them. For you
trivia buffs, the first checkered flag for the series went to first heat race
winner Bobby Mincer and the first rollover was Ed Ergenbright in heat number
two. Actually, it was more of a tip-over as Ergenbright got into the turn three
wall and set it over on his right side. It wasn’t much later that the
Indianola, Iowa, driver was loaded up and headed back to prepare for some more
familiar surroundings at Knoxville. Todd Taeger won the first-ever dash, but
then forgot to stop in front of the grandstand to be presented a trophy by a
lucky fan. West Allis, Wisconsin’s Kurt Davis was the first driver to sit on
the pole position for a main event and it was fellow front row starter Dustin
Whiting who paced the first feature lap. Joey Montgomery started eighth and
made a nice charge to the front to takeover the lead on lap eight and he was
never seriously challenged the rest of the way to become the first Sprint
Invader feature winner. Davis was the runner-up with Kevin Doty coming all the
way from row seven to take third. Ryan Jamison and Mincer completed the top
five.
Invader
Notes…..Local favorite Bobby Hawks had the first heat race well in hand before
something appeared to break in the right front sending him hard into the turn
four wall. He was unable to make repairs for the Invaders B-Main, but he did
make some noise later in the 410’s…..Ryan York of Racine, Minnesota, in
reportedly just his second night ever in a sprint car locked himself into the
A-Main by finishing third in heat three….Tyson Hart put on quite a show in the
fourth qualifying heat using the top groove to go from fourth to first in the
final four laps…..Joey Montgomery had the field covered in the dash as well
only to have something go sour. Obviously he was able to make sufficient
repairs….Brian Hetrick took a hard tumble on lap seventeen of the main event.
After completing a 360 degree spin in turn four, he drove straight off the top
of the track. The two or three foot drop off was too much as the front end dug
in and he went end over end once….During that red flag, Dustin Whiting had to
abandon his fourth place position as he headed to the pits with mechanical
woes….Two laps after the restart a hard charging Matt Rogerson bicycled into
the wall and got upside down in turn two. On the next restart Todd Taeger swept
by Kurt Davis on the outside for second only to spin in front of him. Davis was
somehow able to keep his car fired while Taeger had to go to the rear…..Doty
was behind the wheel of Bart Schneiderman’s car #2….The next event for the
Sprint Invaders is this Sunday night, May 12th, at the Lee County
Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. Get all of those Mother’s Day activities taken
care of early or, better yet, take mom out to the track for a great night of
sprint car action!
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| Josh Schneiderman in Sprint Invader action from 2017 at 34 Raceway |
Shane
Stewart was somewhat of a surprise entrant in the 410’s and he put the Holbrook
Motorsports car #8H into the early lead in the main event from the pole
position. Last week’s feature winner Tim Montgomery and crowd favorite Jim
Moughan took up the chase and kept Stewart squarely in their sights. On a lap
nine restart Montgomery made a bid on the inside of turn one while Moughan
rocketed around on the topside. The dual attack was too much for the leader as
Stewart spun the car coming off turn two bringing back the caution. On this
restart it was Moughan again finding the cushion to his liking to grab the lead
and eventually the victory. Tim Montgomery came home second despite running the
entire event with a damaged top wing after Robbie Standridge got some hang time
in front of him during a first lap tumble. Bobby Hawks came from the tenth
starting spot to finish third with Joey Montgomery and Mike Deavers taking
fourth and fifth.
The
Limited Late Model feature took a long time to run due to several cautions and
you could sense that all of the spinners were robbing the fans of a pretty good
race. The back of the pack finally settled down during the closing laps with
Greg Bilger and Greg Kimmons bringing the crowd to their feet running the final
three laps side-by-side. There was plenty of paint being swapped and there was
very little straight sheet metal left on either car as they banged their way to
the checkered flag with Kimmons taking the victory by inches. It was so close
that it sounded like the announcer said that Bilger was the winner, but it was
Kimmons who received the trophy in victory lane. I may have misheard that
though, as there was so much cheering and booing going on that it drowned out
the sound system. Mike Russell’s win in the Micro Sprint finale was much
calmer.
Thanks
to everyone at the Jacksonville Raceway for putting on such an entertaining
program and for being such great hosts for the first-ever run by the Sprint
Invaders. We hope to return to the quick quarter-mile again in the near future.
We may be able to get somewhere for some racing this Friday night and it looks
like we might be able to tie in a business trip to the May 15th
appearance of the World Dirt Racing League at Lakeside Speedway. If not, we’ll
be able to take in the UDTRA stop at the West Liberty Raceway on the same
night. Either way we should see some great action!
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