Van Meter Dominates Outlaw Figure 8 Event; Allman and Bragg Jr. Also Victorious

Once Indianapolis driver Eddie Van Meter grabbed the lead with 28 laps remaining he went on to dominate the first appearance of the International Outlaw Figure 8 Series at Anderson Speedway.

Van Meter inherited the lead during a caution period of lap 22 when leader Rich Fenwick suffered a flat tire and led the rest of the way Friday night on the high-banked quarter-mile oval.

From that point on Van Meter pulled away from Jeff Shackelford to record the victory with Casey White finishing third followed by Doug Greig, the last car on the lead lap. Jeff Hizer rounded out the top five.

The IOFS cars feature a variety of exotic wings on the sides and top of the racing machines which provides added downforce in the corners.

There was plenty of close racing in the crossover with the leaders several times splitting lapped traffic.

During one caution period Elliott McKinney and Bob Knauss got together and on lap 26 the lapped cars of Johnny Magee and Richard Dickens made contact in the crossover.

Greig almost slammed into the rear of the stopped car of Dane Laster at the crossover as a pack of cars made their way through the “x”.

Hizer took the early lead and surrendered it to Fenwick on a restart on lap 4. The driver on the move was Gary Bedell, who moved from the 15 th starting position to second when he made contact with the outside wall in Turn four on lap 22.

Shackelford, who took over the ride of Ben Tunney for the 50-lap feature came from the back of the 21-car field and moved into the second spot after 22 laps, but couldn’t challenge VanMeter for the lead.

IOFS heat race winners included Carthage’s Johnny Magee, Eddie VanMeter of Indianapolis and R.J. Norton III of the capital city.

Rob Allman almost made it a clean sweep in the WMGH Thunder Car division setting quick time, finishing second in a heat race and the winning a tightly contested feature event.
Rod Phipps jumped into the at the start with Allman moving into the second spot with Josh Poore, Hannah Lundy and Ronnie Rose battling for third.

Rose, Poore, and Nick Warner all got around Lundy by the seventh lap and for the next six laps Rose and Poore swapped the third position several times before Rose claimed the spot.

On lap 19 Phipps got loose coming off the second corner which allowed Allman to put inside and he completed the pass racing down the back straight.

At the checkers it was Allman, Rose, Phipps, Warner, Poore and Lundy in tight racing during the 25 laps.

WMDH Thunder Car heat races were captured by Anderson’s Poore who was chased for the second half of the race by Allman. Anderson’s Rose won the second heat race with Warner passing Lundy for second with two laps remaining.

Anderson’s Allman set quick time with a lap of 14.879 seconds in qualifying.
Kokomo’s Gary Bragg Jr. led all 20 laps to capture his third feature win of the season in the Front Wheel Drive division.

Jack Leisure ran second for the whole event and was challenged by Chad Sizemore, who retired after 11 circuits.

Kevin Harmon, Mike Alley and Gary Bragg rounded out the top five with points leader Jeff Saxon coming home in sixth.

Front Wheel Drive heat race winners Alexandria’s Harmon and Sizemore, Indianapolis, who came from the back of the pack and held off Leisure in lapped traffic coming to the checkered flag.

Current points leader Saxon was the fast qualifier with a time of 15.867 seconds.

For additional information on Anderson Speedway call (765) 642-0206.