Jeff Marcum hit on the right car set-up at Anderson Speedway to capture the McGunegill Engine Performance Late Model feature event on Saturday.
Anderson Speedway is back in action with Figure-8 Madness on July 4th starting at 7 p.m. with figure-8 competition in four divisions and a spectacular fireworks show.
Marcum entered the night as the point leader in the division and added to that margin with his second win of the season.
The night started off well for Marcum as he set a new track turning a lap at 12.736-seconds around the high-banked quarter mile oval, breaking the mark he set in May.
With an invert of the fastest six qualifiers for the feature race, visiting Illinois driver Joe Cooksey took the early lead chased by Wes Russell Jr. and Josh Cave.
Following an Ivy Tech restart on lap two after Rick Turner spun in turn two, Marcum and Greg VanAlst got inside of Muncie’s Joe Woodring to move into the fourth and fifth spot.
Two laps later Marcum followed Josh Cave around Cooksey with an outside pass. By lap seven Marcum was in the lead after an inside pass of Cave down the back straight.
The driver on the move in the middle stages of the feature race was the “Y-town Hustler”, Turner who recovered from the early spin to run third after 21 laps. But Turner’s strong run ended on lap 23 when he pitted.
Chesterfield’s VanAlst failed to make a qualifying run when his car wouldn’t start and after starting on the tail of the field was running second to Marcum by lap 20.
Marcum went on to win by 1.8-seconds over VanAlst with Cave, Russell and Cooksey rounding out the top five.
Marcum Welding Pro Compacts
It appeared that defending champion Matt Tharp was rolling to his second feature win of the year when disaster struck.
Tharp took the lead from Jeff Williams on the tenth lap with an inside pass entering turn three and was pulling away from the field.
With a comfortable lead over Williams, Tharp’s car started sputtering on the back straight and slowed dramatically on lap 23.
Williams took the lead on the next to last lap on the front straight followed by Nick Warner, Ron Phipps, Tharp and Kevin Harmon.
Thunder Roadsters
John Robbins took the lead from Mark Dietzen with 19 laps remaining and then pulled away from Dave Osborn to win for the third time this season.
Dietzen took the early lead from Rodney Oliver and led the first five laps before getting high coming off the fourth corner and passed by Robbins and Osborn.
Osborn, who set fast time during qualifying, stayed glued to Robbins rear bumper when the caution flag waved on lap 12.
On the restart Robbins got an excellent jump and pulled away from Osborn to win by two-seconds. Marty Griffin, Dietzen and Oliver rounded out the top five.
Indy Champ Carts
Nick Keller pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat to win his first career feature race with the Indy Champ Carts.
Keller ran with the two leaders William Anderson and Cole Rhoton for the entire distance in a three cart breakaway.
With Williams leading and getting drafting help from Rhoton it appeared Keller was going to settle for third on the last lap.
When the lead pair decided to stay low in turns three and four behind slower carts, Keller went to the high side and made the pass coming to the checkered flag.
Williams, Rhoton, Zachery Culbertson and Todd Pickett rounded out the top five.
