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Brian Brown Grabs Sprint Invaders Finale, John Schulz Wins
Title!
by Bill Wright
WEST BURLINGTON, IA (Oct. 4) Brian Brown from Grain Valley, Missouri took
home the $1500 win in the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders finale Saturday
night at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa over a stout field of 39
sprint cars. Though Brown won the battle, it was John Schulz who won the
season-long war, as the West Burlington native took home his first series'
championship!
The 25-lap main honored the late great Brian Hetrick with a "missing man"
parade formation. The event got off to a dicy start, when Matt Rogerson spun
before a lap could be completed. Nebraska's Jack Dover grabbed the early
advantage at the drop of the green from his pole position with Kaley Gharst
in tow. The pair started to put some distance between themselves and the
field before Ryan Jamison spun, bringing a caution on lap three. By that
time, Brown had moved into third with Mike Trent fourth and Russ Hall fifth.
Disaster struck for Jesse Giannetto and Pete Crall on the restart. Giannetto
slammed the frontstretch wall hard and flipped violently. Crall tried to
avoid the mess, but was collected and flipped into the infield. Matt Harms
and Korey Weyant were also involved. No one was injured. When the race
restarted, tough luck followed two of the top five runners. Hall hit the
cone and had to go to the tail, while Gharst lost a driveline and was
finished.
Now Brown was poised in second behind Dover. He slid in front of the leader
in turns one and two, only to have Dover return the favor in three and four.
On lap four, Brown made his winning move, as both drivers went deep into
turn two for the point, with Brown emerging with the lead and Dover spinning
to a stop. "I thought I gave (Dover) plenty of room," said Brown. "It was
tough up there. A half a car length over and you're going over. We raced
clean. I wish we could have raced 25 laps like that. Jack is a good driver."
Dover saw it the same way. "It was a bad deal. I got over the cushion. I got
in the loose stuff and spun out. It could have been worse
I could have
backed it into the wall."
A lap five Jordan Goldesberry slowdown would prove to be the last, and Brown
led Trent and Mincer back to green flag racing on the restart, with Dover
restarting at the tail. Brown took off and quickly entered lapped traffic on
the 3/8 mile. Mark Shirshekan charged from 12th into the top five, but all
eyes were soon on Dover, who clearly had the fastest car on the racetrack
and wasted no time re-entering the top five.
Mincer worked by Trent into the runner-up spot, but couldn't make up ground
on the leader. Dover stormed by Schulz and Shirshekan to nail down third. He
challenged Mincer late for second, but settled for third. "I think we had a
chance to win it, but we got stuck behind a couple of cars and couldn't get
around them," said Dover of his bonsai run. "We just ran out of laps. The
car was working great. We were pulling them big time in three and four."
The win was Brown's third since taking over ownership of the SuperClean #21.
"This is great," he said. "We were a little loose, especially getting
through one and two, but the team did a great job. I've never had so much
fun doing this. We'll take this $1500 back to Missouri, and try it again
next weekend!"
Mincer was content with second, and that's where he finished in the Sprint
Invaders standings behind Schulz. The difference was just four points. "We
did about everything would could tonight, other than the dash, and that was
just about the draw," he said. "We fell just short in the points, but
there's nothing to be ashamed of. We had a good season and so did John. I'm
proud to have ran second with the group of cars we had here tonight."
Schulz earned his championship. "When you get 40 cars here like this, you
just want to get in the feature," he said of his keys to the title. "The
thing I was most proud of, was the number of wins (four) we had this year.
We concentrated on this, and won on a variety of tracks. This crew has been
great all year."
Shirshekan impressed with a fourth place feature finish, while hard-charger
Josh Higday was fifth, followed by Schulz, Josh Schneiderman, Russ Hall who
came back after his cone incident for eighth, Trent and Goldesberry, who
rounded out the top ten. Schulz won the Modern Welding Shake-up Dash. Mincer,
Gharst, Brown and Pat Moore won the heat races, while Crall and Higday took
twin B mains.
It was a special night for Kevin Hetrick, Brian's brother. He campaigned a
360 for the first time. It was the same back-up Jamison motor that Brian had
utilized to win the Shake-up Dash here in August. Unfortunately, Kevin's
night ended upside down after a tangle with Mike Houseman Jr. in the first B
main.
Results
Ideal Ready Mix 25-lap A main Finish (started): 1. 21, Brian Brown, Grain
Valley, MO (7) 2. 15, Bobby Mincer, Burlington, IA (8) 3. 53, Jack Dover,
Springfield, NE (1) 4. 3, Mark Shirshekan, Farmington, MO (12) 5. 10x, Josh
Higday, Des Moines, IA (18) 6. 2, John Schulz, West Burlington, IA (6) 7.
49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (20) 8. 29x, Russ Hall, Des
Moines, IA (10) 9. 10, Mike Trent, Rocheport, MO (2) 10. 65, Jordan
Goldesberry, Springfield, IL (21) 11. 51J, Ryan Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (22)
12. 17, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (14) 13. 29, Matt Rogerson, Burlington,
IA (5) 14. 7, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (9) 15. 3x, Nate Van Haaften,
Otley, IA (11) 16. 7H, John Hall, Marion, IA (19) 17. 2x, Pat Moore, Moline,
IL (3) 18. 53H, Matt Harms, Morton, IL (16) 19. 14P, Kaley Gharst, Decatur,
IL (4) 20. D1, Jesse Giannetto, Cedar Rapids, IA (13) 21. 99w, Korey Weyant,
Springfield, IL (15) 22. 1, Pete Crall, DeSoto, KS (17).
Lap Leaders: Dover 1-3, Brown 4-25.
E. G. Staats & Company Awards Heat Race #1 (8 laps, top four to A, top two
to Dash): 1. Bobby Mincer (2) 2. John Schulz (4) 3. Dustin Selvage (1) 4.
Jesse Giannetto (3) / 5. Y2, Mike Houseman Jr., Des Moines, IA (5) 6. Pete
Crall (7) 7. Jordan Goldesberry (10) 8. 38, Seth Wilke, Burlington, IA (6)
9. 40, Andy Huston, Roseville, IL (8) 10. 93, Jamie Needham, Moline, IL (9)
Golden Eagle Distributors/Budweiser Heat Race #2 (8 laps, top four to A, top
two to Dash): 1. Kaley Gharst (2) 2. Jack Dover (7) 3. Russ Hall (6) 4.
Austin McCarl (3) / 5. 23, Kevin Hetrick, Gladstone, IL (4) 6. John Hall (8)
7. 95, Tommy Rockwell, Towanda, IL (1) 8. 99, Jimmy Davies, Oquawka, IL (9)
9. 51, Dave Hall, Des Moines, IA (10) 10. 4m, Mark Tischer, Hannibal, MO (5)
Galen "Shep" Shepherd Memorial Heat Race #3 (8 laps, top four to A main, top
two to Dash): 1. Brian Brown (2) 2. Matt Rogerson (1) 3. Nate Van Haaften
(4) 4. Korey Weyant (6) / 5. Josh Higday (8) 6. Josh Schneiderman (10) 7.
22x, Donnie Steward, West Burlington, IA (7) 8. 84, Ben Wagoner, Emden, IL
(5) 9. Ryan Jamison (9) 10. 31P, Travis Porter, Rock Island, IL (3)
Brian Hetrick Memorial Heat Race #4 (8 laps, top four to A main, top two to
Dash): 1. Pat Moore (2) 2. Mike Trent (4) 3. Mark Shirshekan (7) 4. Matt
Harms (5) / 5. 16P, Cody Petersen, Hermosa, SD (1) 6. 36, Justin Newberry,
West Burlington, IA (8) 7. 4J, Justin Parrish, Des Moines, IA (9) 8. 18A,
Dan Avery, Burlington, IA (6) 9. 33, Alan Zoutte, Knoxville, IA (3)
Modern Welding of Burlington Shake-Up Dash (6 laps): 1. John Schulz (1) 2.
Jack Dover (4) 3. Mike Trent (2) 4. Pat Moore (3) 5. Kaley Gharst (5) 6.
Matt Rogerson (6) 7. Brian Brown (8) 8. Bobby Mincer (7)
Holtkamp's Trailer Repair B main #1 (12 laps, top three to A): 1. Pete Crall
(3) 2. John Hall (4) 3. Jordan Goldesberry (5) / 4. Tommy Rockwell (6) 5.
Jimmy Davies (8) 6. Dave Hall (10) 7. Seth Wilke (7) 8. Andy Huston (9) 9.
Mike Houseman Jr. (1) 10. Kevin Hetrick (2) 11. Mark Tischer (11) DNS
Jamie Needham
Holtkamp's Trailer Repair B main #2 (12 laps, top three to A): 1. Josh
Higday (1) 2. Josh Schneiderman (3) 3. Ryan Jamison (9) / 4. Justin Newberry
(4) 5. Ben Wagoner (7) 6. Alan Zoutte (11) 7. Donnie Steward (5) 8. Dan
Avery (8) 9. Travis Porter (10) 10. Justin Parrish (6) 11. Cody Petersen (2)
Contingency Awards:
Hard Charger Josh Higday
The Brake Man Korey Weyant
Diversified Machine Ryan Jamison
M&W Aluminum Products Jordan Goldesberry
Ultra Shield Russ Hall
Saldana Racing Products Austin McCarl
Rod End Supply Pat Moore, Josh Schneiderman
Hepfner Racing Products John Schulz
Velocity Wings Matt Harms
Kinser Air Filters Matt Rogerson
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