WHEATLAND, MO. – Cole Mamer enjoyed the ultimate turnaround on Saturday.
One day after finishing last in the Pro Lite division at the Lucas Oil Off Road Shootout, Mamer was atop the podium.
“It’s super cool to have my team that backs me,” the Holtville, Calif., driver said after his victory by a margin of 3.5 seconds over Christopher Polvoorde on day two of the big weekend at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Day one winner Brock Heger finished third after leading the first portion of the race and staging an epic battle with Mamer until near the end.
“I struggled yesterday. My fault,” Mamer said. “We regrouped today and came out on top.”
Heger, who ran away from the field in Friday’s weekend opener, started outside of Mamer on row one. Through the first four laps, it appeared that the El Centro, California, driver would make it back-to-back wins.
But entering the S-curve on lap five, with Mamer close behind, Heger’s truck went up on its left-side wheels and nearly tipped over. By the time he righted things, Mamer was able to make the pass. They continued to battle it out over the next few laps.
“It’s cool. Brock races me super clean,” Mamer said. “I wasn’t worried about any of banging, any of the bumping. I knew he wasn’t going to take me out. We’re going to race hard. What we’re here for is to put on a show. Brock and I did a pretty good job of that, I think.”
Heger lost second on the final lap when Christopher Polvoorde went past.
For the first half of the race, Polvoorde was hindered by visibility problems when his hood kept flopping in front of his windshield. When it finally flew off, Polvoorde was able to advance after falling back into fourth at one point.
“You always love to be on the podium, but you always want that top spot,” Polvoorde said. “After a race like today, getting second, I’m pretty thankful. I couldn’t see anything and I ran right into a tractor tire. I was barely holding on.
“Once (the hood) fell off, it was time to go the work. We were hunting the boys down up front, finally caught them and just didn’t have enough time to get up on top.”
Heger said he might have been overly cautious in protecting the lead and that’s what ended up costing him.
“I still had a fast truck today,” Heger said. “I was trying to super patient and trying to hit my marks. I think it bit me. I ended up making mistakes by trying not to make them. It is what it is. Overall, it was a good day.”
In other action, points leader Jerett Brooks, driving a new home-built truck, led all the way to win the Pro 2 but it wasn’t easy. Brooks held off Doug Mittag, who made repeated pass attempts over the final three laps.
Bouncing back from a seventh-place finish on Friday after a flat tire, two-time reigning Turbo UTV champion Corry Weller of Chandler, Ariz, captured Saturday’s race. She finished 3.3 seconds in front of Ronnie Anderson.
Eliott Watson of El Centro, Calif., made it back-to-back wins at Wheatland in the Pro Buggy division, starting up front and leading every lap. Just like Friday, Trey Gibbs wound up a distant second.
Flipping the script from a day earlier, Brock Heger beat Myles Cheek for the win in a two-way battle in Production 1000 UTV.
Connor Barry regained the lead with one lap to go and held off Brody Eggleston for the Mod Kart victory in a lead-swapping event. It was his second win of the season in four attempts.
Lake Adler started fourth, took the lead on the opening lap and held off a determined charge from Logan Leggitt to win the JR 2 Kart race for his first win in the class.
T.J. Siewers of Mesa, Ariz., made it two wins in two days and three on the season in the RZR 170 class.