Scelzi Sweeps Invaders, Vandenberg Takes Sport Mod Checkers At Eldon

The Super Half-Mile at the Eldon Raceway was smooth and fast on Thursday night during the Wapello County Fair and while the racing was good, the damage to several race cars would be the story and thankfully all of the drivers involved were able to walk away without injury.

After five rainouts this would be the season opener for the Sprint Invaders and an interesting mix of twenty-three drivers signed in. One of them would be Dominic Scelzi who had made the trip to the Midwest from California to compete with the World of Outlaws this weekend before continuing on to the east for Ohio Sprint Speedweek. Scelzi, the older of the two Sprint Car racing sons of drag racing legend Gary Scelzi is no stranger to the Sprint Invaders as he has won both times that he has pulled in with his own equipment to the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway and has also been the guest driver once for Scott Bonar's Midland Performance car #50.

After winning his heat from the front row Scelzi then drew the pole for the Budweiser Shake Up Dash that he won going away after a lap two incident that saw Jon Agan exit the ballpark in turn two. Apparently something broke in the left front of Agan's car as he went down the straightaway and when the car wouldn't turn he drove up and over the short concrete wall and then tore away a couple of poles that held up a sheet metal fence before going out of sight of the Fair night crowd.

After his victory lane interview from the Dash, Scelzi then pulled the Budweiser can with the #4 on it and he would start the twenty-five lap main event from the outside of row two. Pole-sitter Chris Martin would jump to the early lead only to have the red flag fly on lap three when Harold Pohren got upside down in turn four in an incident that also collected Dustin Selvage and John Schulz. It was a tough night for Schulz as he had already taken a tumble earlier in the evening in a chain reaction accident in turn two during his heat race.

Once back to green it did not take long for Scelzi to drive under Martin to take the lead and he would then stretch it out as the race continued. The battle for second was a good one though as Martin first battled with tonight's driver of the 50 car, Jake Blackhurst, and then later had an entertaining three car battle with Austin McCarl and Mason Daniel. Martin was able to hold them off for several laps until McCarl got to second, but in the final two circuits the youngster from California, Daniel, was able to lock down the runner up spot behind the long gone winner Dominic Scelzi. McCarl would hold down the third position, fourth went to Martin and Jamie Ball came from twelfth to fifth. Ball had originally lined up tenth, but was docked a row for jumping the original start.

Blackhurst would drop to sixth at the checkers, Dustin Clark from just up the road in Agency had a strong showing in seventh, Dustin Selvage behind the wheel of Jarrod Schneiderman's #88 finished eighth, Josh Higday was ninth and Daniel Bergquist filled out the top ten.

Dominic Scelzi celebrates with Wapello County Fair Royalty at Eldon - Dennis Krieger photo

While Agan's crash was scary, the hardest hit of the night was endured by defending Sprint Invaders champion Cody Wehrle who went for a wild ride in turns three and four after Selvage field to clear him with a slide job mid-race. There was not much left of Wehrle's race car after it finally came to a stop and we all held our breath until the Champ scrambled out of the rubble obviously upset with Selvage.

The next event on the Sprint Invaders schedule will be a Thursday night show at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway on July 11th during the annual Lee County Fair.

The hard knocks were not confined to the Sprint Cars as two red flag periods were needed during the sixteen lap Sport Mod feature. On an early restart the second place car of Adam Birck got out of shape heading into turn three and when he slowed considerably up on the cushion he was drilled by a hard charging Austen Becerra. The two top notch competitors in this division are essentially teammates and they will both have to put in some hard work and cash to repair their cars.

The second red flag of the feature came mid-race when Tony Johnson got sideways exiting turn four and with nowhere to go contact from Casey Lancaster sent Johnson's car up and over a time or two. Once again, thankfully all drivers from all of the incidents on the evening were uninjured!

While under the green there was nobody that could keep up with Carter Vandenberg on this night as he went flag-to-flag to take the win. Curtis Van Der Wal found his line mid-race and came from seventh up to second, but not even he could reel in the leader over the closing laps. Colton Livezy who won here five nights ago was third, Brayton Carter fresh off of a $2,000 win at Stuart the night before was fourth and Blaine Webster who had just celebrated his first win at Oskaloosa on Wednesday filled out the top five here on Thursday.

The Wapello County Fair and the Eldon Raceway will again feature dirt track racing tomorrow night, Saturday June 15th.

I had originally planned to make my way to Knoxville tonight for the opener of the Brownells Big Guns Bash featuring the Nos Energy Drink World of Outlaw Sprint Cars, but a call from Tony Paris will instead send me to the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, tonight to fill in on the mic as the flamboyant announcer will instead be attending his son Tyson's baseball game.

Perhaps I will see you in Memphis tonight and hopefully I can convince Christine that this Father needs to be in Knoxville on Saturday!