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By Ken de la Bastide
 (July
5,
2013) - There were plenty of
fireworks before the big show at Anderson
Speedway Thursday as Ben Tunney won the
outlaw Figure-8 feature that turned into a
race of attrition.
For Tunney it was his
second career Outlaw Figure-8 victory at
Anderson, holding off defending IOFS
champion Jeremy Vanderhoof on a restart with
three laps remaining with Shawn Cullen
coming home in third.
“Feels good to win here
again,” Tunney said. “I’ve only won once
here
before, but always seem to be running
upfront.”
Vanderhoof,
who also finished second earlier in the
year, said the team is getting closer to
figuring out the high-banked half-mile oval.
“It was pretty wild out
there at times,” he said.
Early in the race
Vanderhoof was running fifth on lap 14 when
he almost came to a complete stop entering
the crossover and lost several positions.
He passed Mike Riddle on
lap 26 and finished second when overheating
ended the night for Austin Tunney.
The action on the track
took out several drivers that were in
contention for the victory, including
two-time Anderson winner Charlie Hargraves,
Mike Riddle and Larry Swinford.
Riddle started on the
pole position and led the first nine laps
before
being passed by both Ben Tunney and Austin
Tunney in turn one.
The Tunney brothers swapped the lead three
times during the race, before Ben took
control of the event with 22 laps remaining.
The second caution flag
of the night waved when Charlie Hargraves
made contact with Bruce McFall in the
crossover on lap 20. At that point Josh
Tharp, who had climbed from the 11th
starting position to fourth, went to the
pits. Tharp later returned to the action,
several laps down to the leaders.
On the restart Hargraves
made contact with Jeff Swinford and Shawn
Cullen coming off the second corner.
Hargraves crew made repairs and he returned
to the action.
But eight laps later,
Riddle’s car which was showing tire smoke
for much of the race, lost a tire entering
turn three. Riddle’s car ended up
against the turn three wall and collected
Hargraves car.
Of the 12 cars that
started the race, only four were running at
the
finish.
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