Cox Wins Wetzel Memorial at Stuart
Stuart, IA (July 28) – Beautiful weather, a power outage and some wild racing highlighted another Friday night at Stuart Speedway! Lyle Oberhelman, Austin Luellen, Josh Gilman, Brandon Pruitt and Brandon Cox were the winners at the John Wetzel Memorial/Jirak Plumbing Night at the Races.
After a 30 minute intermission because of a power outage that involved part of the town of Stuart, the IMCA Sport Compacts were up first with Joe Mastin and Landon White on the front row. Dean Richards took the lead for the first two laps with Curtis Miller taking over on lap three. Miller held the top spot until Lyle Oberhelman took it away on lap eight. Oberhelman led the remainder of the race to take the feature win. Miller finished second with John Gill third, Richards fourth and Scott Ellis fifth. Mastin and Miller were the heat race winners.
Brandon Patava and Hunter Longnecker brought out the IMCA Northern SportMods next with Patava leading Longnecker and Lynn Brockett at the start. Chase Rudolf moved into third on lap three with Longnecker taking over the lead on lap six. Rudolf made it to second on lap eight and set his sights on the win. As the cars were coming to the checkered flag, Longnecker and Rudolf tangled with Longnecker ending up spinning to the infield. This brought out the caution and set up a 2 lap dash for the win. Longnecker headed to the pits with mechanical issues, and with Rudolf getting sent to the tail Dusty Masolini inherited the lead with Austin Luellen in second. Masolini led at the white flag, but it was a familiar sight as Luellen swung around the outside and powered to the feature win. Masolini finished second with Patava third, Brockett fourth and Colton Nelson fifth. Brockett and Patava were the heat race winners.
IMCA Modifieds came out next with Scott Bash and Cory Sauerman on the front row. Sauerman led the first two laps with Josh Gilman taking over on lap three. Jeff James made it to second on lap six and set out to track down Gilman. James closed the gap but ran out of laps as Gilman went on to take the win. James finished second with Clint Luellen third, Sauerman fourth and Bash fifth. Bash was the heat race winner.
Brock Badger and Jordan Riesberg brought out the IMCA Stock Cars next with Badger leading Joey Young and Michael Murphy for the first two laps until the yellow came out for a melee on the front stretch. Badger led one more lap with Murphy snagging the lead on lap five before another yellow for debris came out. Murphy led lap six with Marcus Fagan sneaking by a lap later. As the cars went three wide into turn one, Brandon Pruitt and Fagan came together with Pruitt’s car jumping tires with Fagan’s. Fagan came to a rest at the bottom of the track and his night would be over. When the racing resumed it was Murphy and Pruitt at the front with Cory Bushnell and Matthew West fighting it out for third. Pruitt worked the bottom side and then switched to a groove off the bottom to take the lead on lap twelve. Murphy stayed within shouting distance, but it was all Pruitt as he went on to take the win. Murphy finished second with Bushnell third, West fourth and Robert Stofer third. Fagan and Trent Murphy were the heat race winners.
The last feature for the night was the IMCA Hobby Stocks and the 25 lap John Wetzel Memorial. Jacob Harms and Aaron Rudolph drew the first two pills to start on the front row. Harms led lap one with Brandon Cox taking the lead on lap two. Rudolph made it to second on lap four with Harms in third. Solomon Bennett made it to third on lap six with Cox and Rudolph 1-2. The top three stayed the same until lap 22 when fourteenth starting Jamie Schirm passed Bennett for third. Cox maintained a decent advantage over Rudolph and went on to take the $1000 win in the caution free event. Rudolph finished second with Schirm third, Bennett fourth and Korbin Nourse fifth. Jack Phillips and Rudolph were the heat race winners.
We’d like to thank all who came out to support the race track at our tenth event of the year. Next week will be Adair Lumber Company Night at the Races with our five regular classes slinging clay on the bullring! See you then!
Story by Josh Reynolds
Category: Iowa
