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LMR/Ryan Neuharth
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (January 20) - John Anderson had to wait three years between victories before landing in the winners circle on Saturday at the Wild West Shootout, and the Omaha, NE driver was dead set on shortening the time frame before his next win. Mission accomplished as Anderson wheeled his Shop Quik Convenience Stores/Quality Tire/Sunoco Race Fuels/Jim Leonardo Plumbing/Jay Dickens Racing Engines/Mastersbilt past Jimmy Mars on a lap 46 restart to secured the $7,500 winners check in Sunday's series finale.
Anderson would start the main event outside the front row next to Rapid City, SD hot shoe Eric Mass. Mass would get the jump on the initial start and lead into turn one with Anderson challenging on the high side. The two raced side by side down the backstretch before Mass would secure the point off of turn four at the end of one.
Mass would slip high in turn one allowing Anderson to squeeze by on the low side and take the lead off of turn two. Behind the lead pair two-time WWS feature winner Jimmy Mars slotted third in his ESS/ Mastersbilt by Mars followed by young Missouri driver Will Vaught in his Bill Frye Motorsports/GRT in fourth with Jeremy Payne rounding out the top five in his Andy's Frozen Custard/Don Babb Motorsports/GRT by Phillips.
Mars wasted no time in dispatching Mass on lap two as well and taking up the lead chase position of Anderson who had opened 10-lenghts on second. With just five of fifty in Anderson was in command followed by Mars, Mass, Vaught, Payne, Trevor Glaser, David Murray, Jr, Brad Seng, Ricky Weiss, Jon Mitchell and Jack Sullivan rounding out the top 10.
Vaught would catapult past Mass on lap six to take up third as Payne closed in to take fourth two laps later relegating the pole sitter to fifth. With Anderson continuing to set a torrid pace towards lapped traffic as the top six settled into a nice rhythm, searching for the fast way around the 3/8 oval.
A mad scramble was taking place for positions seven through ten as Terry Phillips moved to eighth from 16th, Jack Sullivan sat ninth from 15th, and Brad Looney was again putting on a high side show as he sat tenth from 23rd with just 10 laps in the books.
Anderson would catch the back off the field on lap 11 where the race leaders would remain for the majority of the event. Payne took advantage jumping to third past Vaught and one lap later Glaser cracked the top five moving Mass to sixth. The seventh through tenth battle continued to wage on as Seng and Phillips shuffled Murray to ninth, as Sullivan remained 10th but he was under heavy pressure from Looney as 15 became official.
Furious action continued in lapped traffic as Mars began to close ever so slightly on the race leader Anderson. Mass continued to fade toward the tail end of the top ten as Seng would claim sixth on lap 17 only to have Phillips leap by both Mass and Seng for sixth on lap 17. Looney continued his high side run to the front as he blew by Sullivan, Mass and Murray to ride eighth 20 laps in.
Looney would continue to move jumping to seventh on lap 22 as Phillips engaged Glaser for fifth. With 25 in Anderson continued to lead over Mars as Payne ran third and Vaught was camped in fourth. Glaser, Phillips and Looney would go three wide for fifth as Sullivan joined to make it a four way free for all in heavy lapped traffic.
Looney's Cinderella run would be stymied on lap 28 as he slipped over the turn three banking after having secured fifth for a brief moment. As Anderson put 30 laps on the board Mars was within striking distance for the first time as Payne stretched his advantage over Vaught with Phillips coming out on top in the fight for fifth. Glaser ran sixth, Sullivan seventh Seng eighth Looney reappeared on track in ninth as Murray rounded out the top 10.
Mars and Anderson would begin a classic side by side run for the top spot on lap 32 with neither competitor able to gain and advantage as the race continued to run caution free in heavy lapped traffic. Mars would take his H2 to the point on lap 34 muscling his way past Anderson on the low side and immediately set sail in search of his third victory of the week.
As the battle up front continued, Phillips would grab fourth from Vaught also on lap 34 while Sullivan was moving to fifth by getting past Glaser on lap 36 and Vaught on lap 38.
With 10 to go, Mars would put four lapped cars between himself and Anderson while the Andy's Frozen Custard teammates Payne and Phillips ran third and fourth with Sullivan riding in fifth.
Anderson would clear the lappers on lap 42 and began to run down Mars as the leader was facing another group of lappers just ahead. Sullivan would catch and pass Phillips for fourth on the high side on lap 43 as Looney closed back in on Vaught looking for sixth. Those two would make contact in turn three on lap 45 causing Vaught to spin brining out the races first yellow. Looney was charged with the caution by track officials and relegated to ninth, the last spot on the lead lap while Vaught was restored to sixth
On the restart, Anderson got the jump on Mars from second and moved to the low side as the lead duo raced side by side through one and two. Anderson got a brief advantage briefly down the backstretch as Mars roared back on the top to run even with Anderson through three and four.
Behind the leaders, Jeremy Payne was experiencing a deflating right rear Hoosier stacking up Sullivan, Phillips, Vaught and Glaser behind. Phillips made a bonsai move underneath Sullivan and Payne looking for third to no avail.
Back up front, Anderson and Mars would put 46 on the board dead even at the line as they raced towards turns one. Anderson would find the moisture down low and rocket off turn two and secured the point for the second time down the backstretch. The yellow would appear on lap later as Payne slowed to a stop at the exit of turn four.
On what would be the races final restart, Anderson surprised Mars by getting heavy on the loud pedal early in turn four and quickly distanced himself from the rest of the pack. Mars continued in second, Sullivan third, Phillips fourth, Vaught was fifth as Looney and Seng shot past Glaser for sixth and seventh.
Glaser would not be denied and he returned the favor on Seng to recapture seventh. Up front, Anderson could race unchallenged over the final three circuits to claim his second win of the week followed by Mars, Sullivan, Phillips and Vaught.
Late Model Summary:
Heat 1: 1) Eric Mass 2) David Murray Jr, 3) Ryan Corbett 4) Mike Balcaen 5) Greg Walters 6) Tommy Hussek 7) Mark Voigt 8) Brad Williams 9) Brad Looney
Heat 2: 1) Jimmy Whistler 2) Ron Bartels 3) Jon Mitchell 4) Terry Bushee 5) Don Shaw 6) Marty Harvey 7) Keith Noyes 8) Ryan Seigel 9) Sonny Findling
Heat 3: 1) Jeremy Payne 2) Jimmy Mars 3) Rob Mayea 4) Steve Drake 5) Billy Peden 6) Butch Reid 7) Paul Gugleigmoni 8) Ron Harvey 9) Steve Suckow
Heat 4: 1) Brad Seng 2) Andrew McKay 3) Trevor Glaser 4) Stacey Taylor 5) Mike McCord 6) Mike Tahtinan 7) Rob Ireland 8) John Dowson 9) Nick Bartels
Heat 5: 1) John Anderson 2) Adam Crippen 3) Ricky Weiss 4) Lonnie Parker, Jr. 5) Joey Moriarty 6) Eddie Kirchoff 7) Tyson Turnbull 8) Cody Skytland 9) Jeremy Patrell
Heat 6: 1) Will Vaught 2) Jack Sullivan 3) Terry Phillips 4) Art Lacy 5) John Lowrey 6) Mike Stadel 7) Justin Ditman 8) Mike Brigner
B-Main 1: 1) Murray Jr 2) Sullivan 3) Balcaen 4) Drake 5) Taylor 6) Looney 7) Corbett 8) Moriarty 9) Shaw 10) Noyes 11) Lacy 12) Skytland 13) Hussek 14) Williams 15) Turnbull 16) M. Harvey 17) R. Harvey 18) Patrell 19) Suckow 20) Gugleigmoni 21) Tahtinan
B-Main 2: 1) Kirchoff 2) Phillips 3) Parker Jr 4) Mayea 5) Lowrey 6) Stadel 7) Voigt 8) Peden 9) Walters 10) Ditman 11) Crippen 12) Ireland 13) N. Bartells 14) Brigner 15) Dowson 16) Reid 17) Bushee 18) McCord 19) Findling 20) Seigel
A-Main: 1) Anderson 2) Mars 3) Sullivan 4) Phillips 5) Vaught 6) Looney 7) Glaser 8) Seng 9) Murray Jr. 10) Mitchell 11) Mass 12) Whistler 13) McKay 14) Balcaen 15) Drake 16) R. Bartels 17) Weiss 18) Lowrey 19) Mayea 20) Stadel 21) Payne 22) Taylor 23) Parker Jr. 24) Kirchoff
Modified Summary
Heat 1: 1) Eddie Martin 2) Aaron Turnbull 3) Jeremy Newberry 4) Brad Campbell 5) Jason Noll 6) Alex Majacla 7) Wade Simmons 8) Terry Haven 9) Brian Ledbetter
Heat 2: 1) Stormy Scott 2) Brian Clark 3) Grant Junghans 4) Chad Ayres 5) Jeremy Frenier 6) Robby Haynes 7) Butch McCluskey 8) Kenny Hawkins 9) Lance Mari
Heat 3: 1) Johnny Scott 2) Kellen Chadwick 3) Jason Friesen 4) Art Lacy 5) Terry Belcher 6) Richard Pappenhausen 7) Nick O'Neal 8) Tim Kennedy 9) Tony Hill
Heat 4: 1) Marlyn Seidler 2) Lyle Shepard 3) Daniel Hutto 4) Royal Jones 5) Monty Bischoff 6) Loren Wampale Jr. 7) Jeremy Huebner 8) Aaron Mari 9) Adam Crippen
Heat 5: 1) RC Whitwell 2) Chris Olexiewicz 3) Fito Gallardo 4) Bo Speicker 5) Troy Cooke 6) Cody Alvarez 7) Dennis Haven 8) Mike Brandon
B-Main 1: 1) Friesen 2) Gallardo 3) Cooke 4) Jones 5) Ayres 6) Hawkins 7) Haynes 8) A Mari 9) Newberry 10) Hill 11) O'Neal 12) D. Haven 13) Simmons 14) Ledbetter 15) Wampole Jr. 16) Belcher 17) Noll
B-Main 2: 1) G. Junghans 2) Pappenhausen 3) Lacy 4) Hutto 5) L. Mari 6) Frenier 7) Crippen 8) Alvarez 9) Bischoff 10) McCluskey 11) Majacla 12) Huebner 13) Campbell 14) Brandon 15) Kennedy 16) T. Haven 17) Speicker
A-Main: 1) Whitwell 2) Martin 3) S. Scott 4) Olexiewicz 5) Friesen 6) Chadwick 7) Turnbull 8) Seidler 9) Gallardo 10) Clark 11) Shepard 12) Cooke 13) Friener 14) Lacy 15) L. Mari 16) Junghans 17) Pappenhausen 18) Hawkins 19) Ayers 20) Hutto 21) Jones 22) Crippen 23) J. Scott 24) Haynes
Pure Stock Summary
Heat 1: 1) Jody Henderson 2) Dennis Harrison 3) Aaron Rider 4) Zack Tate 5) Kevin Souligne 6) Audie Honca 7) Mike Sutton
Heat 2: 1) EJ Jones 2) Nolan Marrow 3) Ricky Cook 4) Jeff Dixon 5) Michael Saboski 6) Robert Hendley 7) Steve Rightenbaugh
Main Event: 1) Marrow 2) Jones 3) Harrison 4) Cook 5) Tate 6) Honca 7) Rightenbaugh 8) Souligne 9) Rider 10) Billy Odom 11) Hendley 12) Saboski 13) Henderson 14) Dixon 15) Sutton
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