McCarl tops Sprint Invaders at Independence Motor Speedway

Prior to Friday night, the last time winged Sprint Cars saw action at Independence Motor Speedway was in 1997 when Donnie Goeden was the winner in an IRA special. Non-wing sprints made an appearance as recently as 2000 when Chad DeSelle won the MARA event.
Terry McCarl added his name to that short list of recent Sprint Car winners Friday night at Independence when he topped a field of 24 entries in the Brockway Mechanical & Roofing Sprint Invaders Series' first-ever visit to the speedway. (complete results follow at the end of this entry)

Jamie Ball led the field to green and set the pace for the first five laps. McCarl, who started inside of row four, raced his way into contention and took charge on lap five.

Following a trio of cautions (more on those later) with just eight laps in the books, the field ran the final 17 circuits caution-free.

On the final restart on lap eight, McCarl set the pace with Lucas Wolfe in pursuit. Wolfe watched as McCarl extended his lead to nearly a straightaway margin until the final few laps when the leaders encountered heavy lapped traffic. That allowed Wolfe to briefly close to within a few car-lengths, however McCarl cleared traffic over the final lap to drive to the victory. 

T-MAC - Terry McCarl drove to Sprint Invaders victory lane Friday night at Independence Motor Speedway. (photos courtesy of Dennis Krieger)

Modifieds and SportMods joined the 360 Sprints for a special open wheel themed night of racing. Unsanctioned, those divisions competed in a draw/redraw format.

Troy Cordes ran the low side of the speedway and positioned himself to challenge race-long leader Adam Johnson on the ninth lap of that 20-lapper. Exiting turn two, Cordes ran the low side past Johnson to assume command, then survived a late restart to take the win.

In similar fashion, Brennen Chipp worked the low side past Shane Ebaugh midway through the 15-lap SportMod main event to drive to victory.

Not only were their paths to victory lane similar, but Cordes and Chipp each earned their last feature wins in Independence on May 11 of this year.

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Two of the three cautions in the Sprint Invaders feature were red flag situations that involved rollovers. John Greenwood ran high exiting turn two to roll off the high side of the back stretch to bring out the first stoppage. The second red flag was a spectacular one when Matt Krieger entered a series of rolls on the high side of turn one before his ride came to a rest hanging (yes, hanging) from the protective fence outside the guard rail. Both drivers walked away uninjured.

HANGIN' AROUND - Matt Krieger's 360 Sprint dangles from the turn one fence. Remarkably, Krieger not only walked away unhurt, but with a smile on his face. (photo courtesy of Dennis Krieger)

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Track photographer Jim Wittke had a prior commitment and was unable to attend Friday's make-up event from last month's rainout. Photographers Dennis Krieger and John Vass were in attendance Friday night and took pictures throughout the evening. Thanks to Dennis for providing the pics shown above!

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A number of drivers in the Modified and SportMod divisions made their first appearances of the season in Independence... Jerry King, driving the 92X machine with a wrap identical to that of Tyler Droste's ride, drove to a fifth place finish in the Modified feature... Likewise, Kim Siems in a SportMod designed similarly to his brother Kip's car, ran fifth... Creston Williams piloted the #42 SportMod for the first time in Independence this season. After a strong second place run in his heat race, Williams lost his drive shaft early in the feature... Troy Burkhart made his first appearance in a couple years in his SportMod and Mike Hogencamp was also a first-time visitor this season on Friday night.

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Special thanks to Amy and Jeff Laue, the entire Sprint Invaders crew and all of the drivers for making the trip north to Independence! Based in southeast Iowa and western Illinois, the two-plus hour drive for the crew and many of their drivers was farther than they normally travel for a series event. Everyone involved in the series is a top-notch group of professionals and it was a thrill to have them in Independence. We hope to have them back in the future!

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Weather permitting, the second of two straight days of racing in Independence will take place Saturday night. Points racing is scheduled for all six weekly divisions. Then, on Sunday, it's Albert Auto Night at Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Along with extra cash for heat race winners, "MONSTER" trophies and T-shirt giveaways, the folks at Albert Auto have arranged for live music following the races. The group Eight Hours South is scheduled to perform in the pit area following the racing program. On Monday, it's off to Boone Speedway for the annual Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models event. Following a busy weekend at area tracks, it's the end of the month, which means Stats Blitzes for both Independence and Vinton will be coming sometime next week.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!


RESULTS

SPRINT INVADERS

Feature – 1. 24 Terry McCarl (Altoona); 2. 82 Lucas Wolfe (Mechanicsburg, Pa.); 3. 45C Russ Hall (Pleasant Hill); 4. 4 Jon Agan (Knoxville); 5. 2 Josh Schneiderman (West Burlington); 6. 9 Paul Nienhiser (Chapin, Ill.); 7. 51J Ryan Jamison (Mediapolis); 8. 99 Jim Davies (Oquawka, Ill.); 9. 10T Tim Moore (Rock Island, Ill.); 10. 2X Pat Moore (Moline, Ill.); 11. 9X Daniel Bergquist (Burlington); 12. 73X Dustin Whiting (Burlington); 13. 83 Dave Getchell (Sperry); 14. 85 Chase Wanner (Agency); 15. 68 Mike Houseman Jr. (Des Moines); 16. 88 Jarrod Schneiderman (West Burlington); 17. 73 Dustin Selvage (Indianola); 18. 56 Matt Krieger (Burlington); 19. 92C Cody Ambers (Knoxville); 20. 5J Jamie Ball (Knoxville); 21. 1^ST John Greenwood (Woodward); DNS 6 Kaley Gharst (Decatur, Ill.); DNS 50 Harold Pohren (Lowell); DNS 7H John Hall (Marion).

First heat – 1. Gharst: 2. R. Hall; 3. McCarl; 4. T. Moore; 5. P. Moore; 6. Jamison; 7. Jarrod Schneiderman; 8. Ambers.

Second heat – 1. Selvage; 2. Josh Schniederman; 3. Houseman; 4. Nienhiser; 5. Greenwood; 6. Bergquist; 7. Whiting; 8. Getchell.

Third heat – 1. Wolfe; 2. Ball; 3. Agan; 4. Davies; 5. Wanner; 6. Pohren; 7. Krieger; 8. J. Hall.

Shake-Up Dash – 1. R. Hall; 2. Wolfe; 3. Ball; 4. Selvage; 5. Josh Schneiderman; 6. Gharst.

MODIFIED

Feature – 1. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 2. 92 Tyler Droste (Waterloo); 3. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 4. 98 Jason Snyder (Dunkerton); 5. 92X Jerry King (Waterloo); 6. 26P Kevin Pittman (Waterloo); 7. 32 Chris Snyder (Raymond); 8. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Waterloo); 9. 24R Adam Johnson (Independence); 10. 41P Keith Pittman (Waterloo); 11. 12D Joe Docekal (Dysart); 12. 33D Scott Hogan (Vinton); 13. 64 Vern Jackson (Waterloo).

First heat – 1. King; 2. Docekal; 3. J. Snyder; 4. Droste; 5. Flannagan; 6. Keith Pittman.

Second heat – 1. Johnson; 2. Cordes; 3. Auringer; 4. Jackson; 5. Kevin Pittman; 6. Hogan; 7. C. Snyder.

SPORTMOD

Feature – 1. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 2. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 3. S16 Kip Siems (Cedar Falls); 4. 32Z Alex Zwanziger (Nashua); 5. 16 Kim Siems (Cedar Falls); 6. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 7. 29 Sean Vogt (Watkins); 8. 20T Scott Thomas (Waterloo); 9. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 10. 72 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 11. 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); 12. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 13. 50H Steve Wimer (Toddville); 14. 115 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond); 15. 49 Brandon Smith (Waterloo); 16. 43 Creston Williams (Atkins).

First heat – 1. Zwanziger; 2. Williams; 3. Kim Siems; 4. Hogencamp; 5. Thomas; 6. Burkhart; 7. Smith; 8. Wimer.

Second heat – 1. Vogt; 2. Kip Siems; 3. S. Ebaugh; 4. Buhlman; 5. Chipp; 6. Hilmer; 7. Maitland; 8. B. Ebaugh.