By Ken de la Bastide

(July 6, 2014) – Indianapolis driver R. J. Norton Jr. is no stranger when it comes to winning Outlaw Figure-8 racing at Anderson Speedway.

Norton led all 50 laps on July 4 before a packed grandstand to win at the local track for the 12th time since 1989.

It seemed like every time Norton opened a comfortable lead there was a caution flag that bunched up the pack.

While Norton was running out front Ben Tunney and Michael Hadley Jr. were waging a battle for the second spot, swapping the position several times in the middle stages of the 50-lap feature event.

The field tightened up again when race was red-flagged on lap 33 after the car of Jesse Tunney made contact with the water barrels protecting the exit from the pit area.

That gave Hadley one final shot at Norton on the restart, but the veteran driver was able to drive away. From there the final 18 laps of the race stayed green with Norton not able to shake off Hadley, Ben Tunney and his son R.J. Norton III.

At the checkers it was Norton followed by Hadley, Tunney, Norton III and Doug Grieg.

Jeff Shackleford, who won the last two Outlaw Figure-8 races at Anderson Speedway moved from the eighth starting spot up to fourth after 11 laps, but faded over the final 15 laps, finishing seventh.

The first yellow flag waved on lap ten when Danny Stanley Jr. tried to thread the needle in the cross-over and was collected by the third place running car of Jesse Tunney. Stanley’s night was over while Tunney had to drop to the back of the field.

Manny Agular lost an engine on lap 19.Tunney’s misfortunes continued on lap 33 when he broke a front tie-rod and bounced off the turn two wall, ending his night and bringing out the
red flag.

Jacob Garrigus continued his strong qualifying runs at Anderson Speedway setting fast time in both visits of the Winged Outlaw Figure-8 Series.

He turned a lap at 17.193-seconds to better the 17.244-second lap of Jesse Tunney.

Anderson Speedway regular competitor Jeremy Vanderhoof lost an engine during qualifying and was finished for the night.