By Ken de la Bastide
Dustin Burge inherited the lead with 15 laps remaining and went on to win his first Champion Racing Association Street Stock feature of the year.
Burge, the defending series champion, had to survive two restarts to record the victory on Murat Shrine Night at Anderson Speedway by first holding off Jason Atkinson and then Calvin Parham.
Throughout the 75-lap event there was tight racing for positions in the top ten in a race that was only slowed three times by the caution flag.
Parham started fourth in the feature and passed Atkinson on lap 61 with an inside move coming off the fourth corner. He finished less than a second behind Burge.
Brandon Mefford’s strong run in the CRA Street Stock 75 came to an end on lap 60 when Josh Poore made contact and took the race leader into the turn three wall.
Mefford led from the start and held off Poore for 25 laps as the front four cars ran nose to tail for position. The first caution flag waved on lap 3 when Brian Stocker spun in turn two.
On the restart Poore lost a position to Dustin Burge on the back straight. Poore with an obvious mechanical problem with his car dropped back through the field before making contact with Mefford.
Following Burge to the checkers were Parham, Atkinson, Andrew Cook and James Kirby III.
“This is our first win of the year,” Burge said in the Tim Thompson Nationwide Insurance Winner’s Circle. “We’ve been running in the top every race. I finally got the monkey off my back.”
Burge said the difference in recording the win on Saturday was Poore’s putting the leader into the wall.
Cook, who previously scored two fourth place finishes in Anderson Street Stock competition, came home fourth after starting 11th in the 22-car field.
With his third place finish Atkinson maintained a comfortable lead over Burge in the CRA Street Stock point standings.
Poore set fast time during qualifications with a lap of 13.852-seconds followed by Parham and Burge. All three drivers turned the quarter-mile high-banked oval in under 14-seconds.
