ANDERSON – Ricky Craig made the move of the night on Championship night at Anderson Speedway to win in the Vore’s Welding & Street Stocks for the first time.
When fast qualifier James Kirby III and fellow championship contender Andrew Cook went up coming off the second corner on the opening lap, Craig dove to the bottom and moved into the lead.
For the next 30 circuits Craig stayed in the low groove while Kirby and Cook both challenged for the top spot on a lap by lap basis.
Cook, looking to capture a second track championship, passed Kirby on lap 16 to take cover the runner-up spot, but he only maintain the advantage for two laps.
The championship battle heated up when Kirby spun on lap 22 and was sent to the rear of the field.
At the finish with contact being made among the leaders it was Craig winning by less than a second over Cook with Jacob McElfresh, Kirby and Dawson Phillips rounding out the top five.
Kirby with his fourth place finish captured the championship for the division.
“I thought they were going to get me a couple of times,” Craig said in the Hoosier Lottery Victory Lane. “I was just holding on. I was able to stick pretty good to the bottom.”
Kirby said he was trying to take the lead from Craig when he spun coming off the fourth corner.
“I knew I had to get back to the front,” Kirby said of the championship battle. “The points were so close and I didn’t want to lose this championship.”
For the eighth time in his career Morristown’s Jeff Marcum won the Late Model championship.
Marcum set fast time and won a heat race and led all 35 laps of the feature race holding off determined efforts from Cassten Everidge and Ryder VanAlst.
Everridge was running in the second spot on a restart on lap 16 when he made contact with the back straight wall ending his night.
VanAlst was sent to the tail of the field for contact with Everidge but recovered to finish second behind Marcum by less than a second with Tyler Marsh coming home in third.
Austin Pursley made it back-to-back feature wins in the Marcum’s Welding Front Wheel Drive division with Josh Ebbert Jr. claiming a second consecutive championship.
Pursley led the entire distance in a race that was slowed seven times by the caution flag with Jeremy Hall and Nick Warner rounding out the top three.
John Robbins set fast-time, won the heat and feature races in the Beaver Construction Thunder Roadsters to claim his third consecutive championship.
