Near prefect weather for late July greeted racers and fans alike as the Tezo's All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars pulled in to 34 Raceway west of Burlington, Iowa, on Friday night. And even with a bit of chill in the air after the sun went down, the final twenty laps of the main event heated things back up with some thrilling moves and a late race pass for the win.
Thirty-three drivers signed in for the All Star's portion of the show with qualifying, four heats, a Dash and the B-Main setting the twenty-four car field for thirty laps with $7,000 waiting for the winner. After watching the Dash it looked like three-time series champion Aaron Reutzel would be the odds on favorite coming from the outside of row one, but it would be pole-sitter Jamie Veal racing out to the early lead.
Four early cautions would interrupt the action, the first coming on lap three when Connor Morrell slowed, but did not turn into the infield. Just prior to that a low riding Austin McCarl had slipped by Reutzel for second and on the restart he would go to work on the Aussie Veal. As the two crossed the line side-by-side on lap five it would be McCarl out front by an inch with the caution waving again for Ryan Timms who had just executed a three hundred and sixty degree spin in turn four..
So it would now be McCarl bringing the field back to green with just one more lap scored before the fourth place car of Lachlan McHugh did a 360 in turn four and then on lap nine Ayrton Gennetten spun off the top at the exit of turn two to keep from clipping the uke tires protecting the start of the back stretch wall.
Thankfully the race would go green to checkers from there and the nice sized crowd was treated to some great racing action, especially up front in the closing laps. McCarl was rolling the bottom and while Reutzel was able to almost pull even with the leader in the corners while running the middle, Austin would rocket away down the straightaways. At the mid-race point Zeb Wise joined the battle and he had the Rudeen Racing #26 milking what was left of the cushion that had pushed all the way to the top in turns one and two and that was very high, especially at the exit of turn four.
It took some time for Wise to snatch second away from Reutzel and lap by lap he was closing on McCarl, again pulling nearly even with him in the turns only to have the leader race away down the straights. On lap twenty Wise would be in the lead exiting turn four only to have McCarl use his speed down the back stretch to drive low into turn three and then drift up the track in four to close the door on Wise. Several in the crowd came to their feet as this sequence was repeated on the next lap and this time McCarl would stay up top in turns one and two now finding the rubber that would allow him to pull away from Wise once again.
After fending off Zeb's challenge in spectacular fashion, Austin now appeared to be heading for a victory, but on lap twenty-seven he get a bit too high in turns one and two dropping the right rear over the top of the banking for just a split second. Wise would pounce at the opportunity and take the lead down the back stretch and when McCarl tried to get back to the front with a slider in turn four, both Wise and Reutzel were able to slip under him to drop the former leader to third. Reutzel would keep the pressure on Wise over the final three laps, but there was no stopping Zeb as he picked up his fourth All Star win of the season and this now makes it eight winners in eight ASCoC events here at 34 over the years.
Reutzel and McCarl would both talk about "what could have been' during their podium interviews, Veal finished fourth and Buddy Kofoid took fifth. Parker Price-Miller advanced from fourteenth to six, but the Hard Charger of the race would be Chris Windom who finished seventh after starting from the outside of row eleven. Kerry Madsen, Cole Macedo and Riley Goodno would fill out the top ten. The All Stars now head east a couple of hours to make a long awaited return to the Spoon River Speedway south of Canton, Illinois, on Saturday night.
The Window World 305 Sprint Cars ran in support of their bigger engine brethren with Brandon Worthington scoring a clean sweep winning both his heat and the fifteen lap feature. A Saturday night regular in the Pro Series division at Knoxville, Worthington makes his way down to 34 Raceway whenever he gets the opportunity and he would go unchallenged after starting from the pole position and dealing with three restarts. Track point leader Cody Wehrle raced his way up from sixth to finish as tonight's runner-up while the other front row starter Nathan Murders ran a solid race in third. Des Moines driver Mike Johnston finished in fourth while Colton Fisher, subbing for Noah Samuel in the #41 tonight, nipped Nick Guernsey by inches at the line for fifth.
34 Raceway gets back to weekly Saturday night action next week on July 29th and their next Sprint Car special comes on Friday, August 25th, when the IRA series returns to town.
After a busy stretch of seven races in eleven nights, I am going to take a few nights off now before another three straight next week. On Tuesday we head for the Davenport Speedway for the MARS Late Model show. Wednesday the Sprint Invaders return to the Dubuque County Fair where there will also be some big money on the line in the Modifieds, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. Then on Thursday night I hope to be at the Louisa County Fair in Columbus Junction where it will be the Battle on the Levee at the CJ Speedway.
Stay cool, stay hydrated next week and I hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
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