ANDERSON – Three of the four features at Anderson Speedway were decided on the final lap Saturday.
The visiting Ohio Wheelman Street Stock Series was won by .157-seconds by Austin Williams from Ohio over local favorite Josh Poore. Poore set fast time during qualifying but with the invert started 12th in the field.
Joe Muldoon took the lead at the start from the front row and remained on the point until lap 21 when Williams made the pass in turn three. Poore didn’t crack the top five in the running order until there were only 16 laps remaining in the 50-lap feature.
With ten laps remaining Poore was running second and applied the pressure on Williams for the lead. Several times Poore looked to the inside to make the pass and on the final lap attempted to knock Williams out of the preferred racing line, but the Ohio driver prevailed. Williams had to hold onto the point through four restarts and knew Poore was behind him on the last one with 11 laps remaining.
“It took me a long time to get to the front,” Poore said of his night. “I wasn’t going to spin him to win, I just wanted to bump him up out of the groove.”
In the Modified feature Joe Beaver returned to the Riley & Son Victory Lane for the first time in five years holding off Jake Owens by less than half a second. Owens set a new track record during qualifying and started fourth in the feature race.
Beaver took the lead at the start with Owens immediately moving into the second spot. The driver on the move was Nathan Greene who started last in the field and was running fourth by lap 24. The only caution flag waved on lap 30 when Billy Hayes spun in turn two.
Beaver said in victory lane that he considered starting on the outside for the final ten lap run, but opted for the inside line.
Owens looked high and low for a chance to get around Beaver, but came up short with Greene claiming the third spot.
John Robbins won his first Thunder Roadster feature race of the year by passing Brad Kendall on lap 13 and then holding off two-time feature winner Doug Dugger at the finish by less than two-tenths of a second.
Ron Phipps for the second consecutive time set fast time during the Ford Division qualifying and then went on to record the feature win taking the lead from Colson Gray on lap 12.
