Andersons and Cooneys Win on Father’s Day

Story by Josh Reynolds

Stuart, IA (June 16) – After a week off due to rain, Mother Nature did her best to try and force another week off with close to 7 inches of rain on Friday. The track crew at Stuart Speedway would hear none of that, working tirelessly all weekend to prepare the racing surface and the pits for another night of great racing, and they GOT IT DONE!! Winners on Town & Country Insurance Night at the Races were Andy Forcht, Jeff Anderson, Clint Luellen, Shannon Anderson, Richie Gustin, Shawn Cooney and Todd Cooney.

First up after heat races would be the 6 Cylinder FWD’s with Cory Sauerman and James Britton on the front row. Britton led laps one and two with Andy Forcht giving chase. Forcht led lap three with Britton close beside in second. The two would put on quite a side by side race until Forcht pulled away the last two laps to take his first win of the year. Britton finished second with Cody Cleghorn third and Sauerman fourth. Britton was the heat race winner.

IMCA Stock Cars came out next with Shawn Lee and Derrick Rohe pacing the field. Rohe led right away with Jeff Anderson quickly settling into second and Lee third. Two quick cautions bunched the field up with Marcus Fagan using the double file restarts to his advantage moving into third on lap six. Anderson closed the gap on Rohe on lap eight and moved into the lead on lap nine. Two more cautions on laps fifteen and seventeen were the only thing slowing the #78 Victory Chassis down on this night as Anderson drove off to the win, his first of the year at the speedway. Fagan finished second with Brian Blessington third, John Watson fourth and Bob Daniels fifth. Daniels and Rohe were the heat race winners.

Terry Pruitt and Colby Oberembt brought out the IMCA Northern SportMods next with Pruitt leading early with Matt Webb second. Cole Ferguson moved into second on lap three while Pruitt continued to lead. Lap five would see the second yellow fly, and just as the field took the green the third caution came out as Pruitt, Shawn Kralik and D.J. Robinson came to a stop in turn two. After a very lengthy caution the decision was made to shave three laps off and give the field one last chance to race to the finish. Clint Luellen made the most of the last six laps, riding off into the sunset to get the win, his first at the track this season. Webb finished in second with Austin Kaplan third, Ferguson fourth and Larry Embrey fifth. Ty Luellen and Kaplan were the heat race winners.

Nineteen IMCA Hobby Stocks were led to the green flag next by Chad LeGere and Jason Kohl. LeGere led early with Kohl and Austin Luellen in tow. Shannon Anderson worked his way past Luellen on lap five, and Kohl moved into the lead on lap six. Lurking in fourth was Brandon Pruitt, and he shot into second on lap eight. Anderson, after dropping back to third, took advantage of Kohl blowing a right rear tire in turn one and moved past Pruitt to take the lead. Meanwhile Mike Pruitt moved into third as Anderson and B. Pruitt raced nose to tail on lap nine. The last five laps would remain the same as Anderson finished off the same way his dad did earlier, picking up the feature win in the caution free event. This was Anderson’s third win of the year at Stuart. B. Pruitt finished in second with M. Pruitt third, Luellen fourth and Andrew Burg fifth. Jamie Songer, Burg and B. Pruitt were the heat race winners.

IMCA Modifieds came out next with Jeff James and Richie Gustin on the front row. Gustin led lap one with James moving out front for the next nine. The caution flew on lap ten, bunching the field and allowing Gustin the opportunity to get to the bottom side and move back to the lead on lap eleven. Another yellow on lap fourteen gave the field one more shot at the 19G, but it was not to be as Gustin breezed to the win, his first at the track this year. Luke Wanninger took second away from James, who finished third with Beau Kaplan fourth and Jason Murray fifth. James and Gustin were the heat race winners.

David Archibald and Nash Coe brought out the IMCA Sport Compacts next with third starting Shawn Cooney taking the top spot right away. Josh Cleghorn gave chase in second, but it would be Cooney crossing the line to pick up his first win of the season at the track. Cleghorn finished second with Archibald third, Deavon Richards fourth and Coe fifth. Richards was the heat race winner.

Last but not least, the IMCA Late Models took to the track for their first race at the speedway this season. Al Zeitner and Paul Conrad pulled the first two chips out of the bucket to claim the front row. Zeitner took the lead with third starting Darrel DeFrance and Randy Faux close behind. Zeitner held the lead until lap six when DeFrance took over. The Ironman looked to run off to the win until a caution came out on lap thirteen. Another quick yellow on lap fourteen bunched up the field and gave everyone one more shot at DeFrance. That shot was taken by Todd Cooney, and he wouldn’t miss. The #30 took over the top spot and looked to accomplish the same feat the Andersons pulled off by putting both father and son in Victory Lane. Five laps later Cooney matched his boy and took the win. DeFrance finished in second with Curt Schroeder third, Dylan Book fourth and Zeitner fifth. DeFrance and Zeitner were the heat race winners.

We’d like to thank all who came out to support the race track for night four of the season. Next week is the Stew Hansen Dodge/Jeep Stock Car Shootout. Stock Cars will have a draw/redraw, no number fees or entry fees with $1000 going to the winner! See you then!

Category: Iowa, Stuart Speedway