Havlik, Gettler and Nelson Repeat

Story by Josh Reynolds

Stuart, IA (August 22) - On yet another warm Sunday afternoon Jeremy Gettler, Nick Roberts, Randy Havlik, John Watson, Garrett Nelson and Tim Ratcliff picked up feature wins at Stuart Speedway. Havlik and Nelson nabbed their sixth wins, Gettler and Watson their fourth and Roberts and Ratcliff their second of the year.

     Once hotlaps and heat races were completed the cars dubbed "The Class Too Tough to Tame", the IMCA Stock Cars, took to the track to run the first feature of the evening. Michael Walrod and Jeremy Gettler led the field to the green flag. Gettler would stretch a small lead at lap number one to a half-track advantage by lap ten. While the race for the lead was over, second through fifth was anything but decided. Sixth-starting Jeff Anderson made his way to the runner-up position by lap twelve, but a flat tire would end his evening on lap fifteen. Meanwhile the point leader for the Stock Cars, Brian Blessington, fought from his tenth spot start to take over second on lap seventeen. That would be as far as he could get as Gettler weaved through lap traffic to take the checkered flag. Blessington brought home second while Tim Feltner was third, Bob Daniels fourth and Marcus Fagan took fifth. Gettler and Daniels were the heat race winners.

     The IMCA Northern Sport Mods were next up with Austin Paul and Jerry Hinton on the front row. Neither of them would lead a lap, however, as third-starting Nick Roberts led not only the first lap, but the next fourteen to take home the feature win. With the race for the lead over for the second race in a row, point leader and ninth-starting Clinton Luellen made quick work of the rest of the field and was in second by lap three. At the same time Dylan Book, David Schlicht and Mike Pruitt ran third, fourth and fifth. The finishing order was the same at lap fifteen as the previous twelve with Roberts, Luellen, Book, Schlicht and Pruitt as the top five. Roberts and Jeremy Embrey won the heat races.

     Jake George and Kent Croskey led the IMCA Modifieds to the green with Croskey leading the first four laps. Croskey, Randy Havlik and Josh Gilman put on a criss-crossing, spot-swapping battle for the lead for two laps with Havlik eventually coming out with the lead on lap five. Gilman followed through to the second spot a lap later, but it would be too little too late as Havlik would set the cruise control for the last fifteen laps to grab the trophy. Gilman came home second with Alison Quick, Rex Parkison and Croskey rounding out the top five. Gilman picked up the heat race win.

     The IMCA Hobby Stocks took to the track next with Nick Ginkens and Mike Hansen on the front row. Ginkens led the first two laps when the point leader, ninth-starting John Watson blew by to take the lead on lap three. Nathan Lange ran in second until Richard Yaw II went by on lap ten. Second would be short-lived for Yaw II as Nyle Godwin went by a lap later to try to run down Watson. Godwin's task was not to be as Watson went on to get the feature win. Godwin, Yaw II, Lange and Austin Luellen finished off the top five. Hansen and Brandon Pruitt took home the heat race wins.

     David Archibald and David Sciranko brought the IMCA Sport Compacts to the green flag with Archibald showing the way and appearing well on his way to his fifth win of the year. However, his window net fell down, bringing down the black flag and ending Archibald's night. That handed the lead and the win over to Garrett Nelson. Sciranko ended up second with Archibald third. Archibald won the heat race.

     6 Cylinder FWD's ended the regular race night with Steve Fenton and Jim Britton bringing the field to the flag stand. Tim Ratcliff came up from his third-starting spot to lead all eight laps and pick up the win. Rounding out the top five were Jeff Kruse, Taylor Musselman, Britton and Fenton. Ratcliff also won the heat race.

     The Iowa Sportsman Enduros were the last event of the evening with a 150 lap race. Two-time IMCA National Champion Hobby Stock driver Kris Walker would dominate the show. Dominate, that is, until the last lap when Gene Tish stole the lead away to take the win. Like the NASCAR announcers always say, it's amazing that a race would be that long only to be decided on the last lap!

     Join us next Sunday evening for Alley Auto Sales Night at the Races with IMCA Modifieds, Northern Sportmods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts along with the 6 Cylinder FWD's. With only two nights left and point battles yet to be determined, there should be some great racing! See you next Sunday!