Jerrod Hull walked away from the field, lapping up to the fifth place finisher, on his way to the season opening win for the Sprint Invaders series at 34 Raceway.
Starting outside the second row, Hull settled into third place at the drop of the green while pole sitter Ryan Jamison paced the field for the first three laps. Running the high side, Hull swept past Joey Moughan for second just prior to a lap three caution. On the restart, Hull went back to work up top and passed for the lead one lap later.
Ten laps into the event, Hull built a straightaway advantage. Despite entering lapped traffic three laps later, Hull continued to build on his lead, extending it to half of a lap by the 19th circuit of the 34-lap feature event. Although a late race caution bunched the field, Hull took charge on the restart, blistered the field once more and took the checkers by a straightaway ahead of Jamison. Jim Moughan Jr., Kaley Gharst and Jon Agan completed the top five, the only finishers on the lead lap.
Bobby Mincer pulled off early from his heat race and was forced to qualify through the B feature. He snuck into the feature field and started 18th. Mincer made a good run through the field and, with help from a few caution periods, came home sixth.
The top two finishers in each of the four heats raced a six-lap Shakeup Dash. Hull won that event and pulled the number five from the bag of chips, leaving him to start the main event from inside the third row. That left Johnny Anderson on the pole, with Jamison and Joey Moughan left to fill out the first three starting spots. Those three drivers were offered the chance to double their money by starting at the back if they could race through the field to a top-three finish. Anderson was the only driver to accept the challenge, however mechanical problems prior to the feature forced him to sit out the main event.
Justin Newberry and Seth Wilke were involved in separate incidents that resulted in each driver rolling their sprinters in dramtaic fashion. Newberry went end-over-end at the end of the front stretch eight laps into the race while Wilke took a wild ride on the high side of turns three and four with nine laps remaining. Although their machines suffered heavy damage, both drivers walked away uninjured.
In companion action, Jeff Mueller scored his second win of the season at 34 in the I.M.C.A. Stock Car division. After starting outside the second row, Mueller engaged in a thrilling battle out front with a quartet of drivers as the pack of five pulled away from the field. Pole-sitter Nathan Wood, Corey Strothman, Chris Webb, John Oliver Jr. and Mueller broke away from the pack early with Wood leading the early proceedings.
Running one groove lower than than Wood, who was running the high side, Mueller engaged in nose-to-nose and side-by-side battles with the leader in the early going. The leaders swapped the lead numerous times until Mueller snuck under Wood and snared the lead for good on the 13th of 20 laps. Webb and Strothman completed the top four and Kirk Kinsley, who started 10th, came home fifth.
Bryce Bailey motored around the high side of John Whalen five laps into the 4-Cylinder feature to drive to top honors in that 12-lapper. Coming home second, about 8 car-lengths back, was Geoffrey Theobald. Tyler Whalen, Bill Whalen and Dakota Fenton completed the top five.
A number of people who knew I went to Davenport on Friday for the Deery Series race have asked why they hadn't seen my recap of that event. In short, we didn't make the decision to head to that race until late and didn't make it there until shortly before 8 p.m. The final heat was on the track when we arrived and, since I hadn't been to Davenport in a number of years, I didn't realize the pit entrance was to the east of the grandstands. I spent much of my time walking through the pits and didn't catch much of the racing until feature time so I just took in the races as a fan without the notebook on Friday.
For those who haven't already heard, Ray Guss won going away in the Deery Series event in a race that saw many big names drop out early. Among them were Terry Neal, Rob Toland and then-unbeaten Mark Burgtorf. Most disappointing to me was seeing Jason Rauen drop out with severe front end damage late in the event. He appeared to be the only driver who might have had anything for Guss and it would have been neat to see him challenge in the waning laps.
I was a bit disappointed that the view from the pits was less than desirable. I remember races on the half-mile down there when the action was right in front of you. Since they race primarily on the 1/4-mile now, the view from the pits wasn't the best and there were no bleachers from which to view. Making the l0ng trek back to the grandstand side, it wasn't the most user-friendly of situations, although there was some good Late Model racing.
Up next for me is the season opener at Independence next Saturday night. With guardrail and fence work nearing completion around turns one and two, along with the new concession stand fully operational and the new grandstands that were introduced toward the end of last season, it should be a great season opener. Hope to see you there!
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