A familiar face visits victory lane

Story by Josh Reynolds

 

     Stuart, IA (August 29) - The racing gods smiled on Stuart Speedway once again as Jeff Anderson, Beau Kaplan, Randy Havlik, John Watson, David Archibald and Jeff Kruse snagged the feature wins on a beautiful Sunday evening. Havlik racked up his seventh win, Kruse, Watson and Archibald their fifth while Anderson and Kaplan got their first wins of the season.

     The IMCA Stock Cars were up first with Michael "Wombat" Walrod and 5 time IMCA National Champion Jeff Anderson leading the pack to the green flag. Anderson spent a few years in the IMCA Modified ranks and this year decided to move back to the class that he enjoyed so much success. Anderson is IMCA's all-time wins leader in the Stock Cars with somewhere in the neighborhood of 230 wins. He would add to that total on this night, leading the race flag to flag to nab the feature win. Marcus Fagan followed to take second while Kenny Hansen, Steve Campbell and Brian Blessington rounded out the top five. Blessington lost two points to Hansen but maintains a thirteen point lead going into the final night of the year. Anderson and Jeremy Gettler won the heat races.

     Ty Luellen and Jamie Schirm brought the IMCA Northern Sport Mods up to speed for their fifteen lap feature. Schirm led the first seven laps before Luellen pulled into the lead. Ankeny driver Beau Kaplan swept into the lead four laps later and held on to take home the win. Schirm would get back around Luellen to take second with Luellen in third. Ty's brother, Clinton Luellen, raced from eighth starting spot to finish in fourth and David Schlicht crossed in fifth. C. Luellen stretched his point lead to eighteen after Jeremy Embrey broke early on and finished in last place. The Luellen brothers got the heat race wins and C. Luellen also won the trophy dash for the night.

     Next up was the IMCA Modifieds with Kent Croskey and Alison Quick on the front row. Croskey led lap number one, but Randy Havlik stole the show from that point. While he faced an initial challenge from Quick and then Todd Shute, Havlik set the cruise control and took the checkered flag first. Havlik would be followed by Shute, Quick, Josh Gilman and Rex Parkison. Parkison lost one point to the 83G, making Gilman's lead a slim eight points. Havlik made the night a clean sweep, picking up the heat race win as well.

     IMCA Hobby Stocks roared to the green flag with Steve Amos and Mike Hansen showing the way to the green. Curt Ganoe would be first to the stripe, however, and led the first nine laps. Ganoe appeared strong but as he has done lately, John Watson screamed through the pack to challenge and then pass Ganoe on lap ten. Watson went on to the feature win, his fifth straight win in his last five starts at different tracks across central Iowa! Randy Embrey also drove up through the rest of the field to get a well-deserved second place followed by Ganoe, Brandon Pruitt and Nathan Lange. Watson continues to impress, stretching his lead to a nearly insurmountable thirty-seven points over Pruitt. If Watson starts the feature next week he'll be named the track champion for 2010. Heat winners for the night were Watson and Mike Hansen.

     The IMCA Sport Compacts rolled up next with Garrett Nelson on the pole and David Archibald alongside. Nelson didn't even make it to the backstretch as his car broke in turn two on the first lap. Archibald would then lead the distance to pick up the win over Cory Flanigan. Nelson would be scored in third and maintain his point lead at sixty-one. Archibald also got the heat race win.

     6 Cylinder FWD's finished out the program with Jim Britton and Jacob Peters. Fourth-starting Taylor Musselman would lead the first half of the race and fifth-starting Jeff Kruse led the second half to snag the win. Musselman maintained second place with Cory Flanigan, Britton and Tim Ratcliff rounding out the top five. Musselman's point lead is fifty-seven over Britton. Kruse also picked up the heat race win.

     Join us for Rick's Towing Season Championships next Sunday. Point championships will be decided along with some exciting side by side racing! Also, there was talk of a type of gambler's race to be held for each class at the driver's meeting. That should add some excitement for the last night of the year so bring the kids on out and enjoy!