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Rose Scores CRA Street Stock Victory; Webb Wins Legends Feature
A season of misfortune turned around
for Anderson driver Ronnie Rose as he captured the 75-lap Champion Racing
Association event at Anderson Speedway on Saturday.
Rose started on the front row after the top 12 qualifiers were inverted for the
start and led the entire distance to capture the victory.
Early in the race Rose was chased by Shawn Smith, who got loose on lap 40 going
down the back straight and lost seven positions.
The red flag waved on lap 65 in a Turn three accident that took out four cars
running in the top ten. The action started when fast qualifier Rick Erwin and
Bret Miles Jr. got hooked entering the corner. That sent Erwin into the outside
retaining wall and collected Brian Hopkins and Smith.
On the restart Rose pulled away while Chad Poorman and Rich Boyer battled for
the second spot. Josh Burton and Bubba Trinkle, who started 19th in the 28-car
field rounded out the top five.
Taylor Webb led from wire to wire to capture the Legends feature which served as
a tune-up for next week’s 100-lap Grant Fritz/Greg Dietzen Memorial race. James
Edsall III, Bryan Nuckles and Kyle Baugh battled for the second spot but none of
the three drivers slipped allowing for a pass.
Defending track champion John Robbins spun on lap 10 on the front straight while
running fifth.
Webb, from Jeffersonville, got the feature win in his first trip to Anderson
Speedway. It was Webb’s second win of the year in his first visit to a track in
2009.
Anderson’s Josh Poore jumped into the lead at the start of the WMDH Thunder Car
feature and then for 16 laps held off fast qualifier Rod Phipps and Nick Warner.
Phipps kept the pressure on Poore but the young driver never slipped to hold
onto the victory. Warner tried several times to get inside Phipps but was unable
to find room on the bottom.
Phipps and Warner moved inside Rob Allman nine laps into the event when Allman
suffered a flat left front tire. Hannah Lundy and Rob Wyman Jr. rounded out the
top five.
“We worked on the car all day and didn’t get to practice,” Poore said of his
second feature win of the year. “As long as I held my line it was going to be
difficult to pass.”
Jack Leisure made it two wins in a row and three in the last four Front Wheel
Drive oval features with a little help from Lady Luck.
Leisure took the lead from the front row but was passed by fast qualifier Gary
Bragg Jr. on lap 7 with an inside move entering Turn three. But three laps later
Bragg attempted to split two lapped cars on the front straight and entering the
first corner made contact with the car of Charles Zirkle, sending both cars into
the outside retaining wall.
Leisure inherited the lead and stayed in front the remaining nine laps with Jeff
Saxon, Frank Gasho, Kevin Harmon and Gary Bragg Sr. rounding out the top five.
“I would have loved to have raced him to the finish,” Leisure said of Bragg Jr.
Nick Warner was able to use some good old fashion rubbing entering Turn three on
the final lap of the Front Wheel Drive Figure-8 feature to deprive Bill Leisure
of the victory.
Leisure made a final attempt to get Warner loose but had to settle for second
with Andy Keller coming home in third.
James Edsall III led all 25 laps to capture the Thunder Roadster feature with
Renner and Doug Dugger rounding out the top three.
Three new track records were established during qualifying. There were 97 cars
at Anderson Speedway to compete in six divisions.
Anderson’s Rod Phipps turned a lap at 14.725 seconds to set a new record for the
WMDH Thunder Cars, besting the mark of 14.791 seconds he set on April 4. Nick
Warner set a new record in the Front Wheel Drive Figure-8 competition with a lap
of 20.748 seconds beating the mark of 20.8 seconds he set on July 11. Al Renner
set a new mark of 13.631 seconds in Thunder Roadster qualifying.
Next Saturday night is the biggest race in the Midwest for the driver’s
competing in the Legend Cars with the 13th running of the Grant Fritz/Greg
Dietzen Memorial 100-lap feature.
Included on the racing card are the Street Stocks, ImmediaDent Figure-8 and
Thunder Roadsters. Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing action starting at 8 p.m.
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