STUART, Iowa — An extremely competitive night, featuring the first co-sanction by the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders and the Malvern Bank 360 Sprints ended in a last-lap victory for Chase Porter.
Five lead changes highlighted the barnburner on the quarter-mile Stuart Int’l Speedway on Sunday night.
Once the 34-car field was whittled to 20, the 25-lap $2,000 to win feature began. Porter started outside row one and led early over Tasker Phillips, Jake Blackhurst and Kade Higday.
Phillips sized up Porter, and rode the turn four cushion around him to lead lap eight. He was in lapped traffic the following circuit.
On lap 12, Gaige Weldon performed a 360 spin, bringing the first caution. Phillips led Porter, Blackhurst, Higday and Colton Fisher back to green. Phillips got too high in turn four after the restart, and Porter shot back by to the point.
Meanwhile, Fisher moved up to fourth, and former winner at Stuart, Chris Martin, entered the top five.
On lap 18, Cam Martin, Garrett Benson and Tyler Lee tangled, ending the night for all. All were uninjured. Porter now led Phillips, Fisher, Blackhurst and Chris Martin. Blackhurst snatched third on the restart, while Terry McCarl shot all the way up to fourth, running the low side of the track.
On laps 20, 21 and 22, Phillips slid across Porter’s bow in turn four, only to have the Missouri driver cross back down the track and retain the lead. McCarl moved into third on lap 21.
With two laps to go, Phillips hit the frontstretch wall hard and then spun with damages in turn one. That set up a green, white, checker finish that saw McCarl nail the low side of the track and driving by Porter to lead coming to the white flag.
Porter hit the high side of one and two well, however, and then blocked McCarl’s low groove in turn three, to regain the lead and his second career Sprint Invaders win is as many years.
McCarl was second, ahead of Fisher, Chris Martin and Blackhurst.
Late model ace Ryan Gustin made his sprint car debut. Things looked promising in his heat race, as he ran second with two to go, only to jump the cushion and flip.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 2c, Chase Porter, St. Joseph, MO (2) 2. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (7) 3. 11, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (5) 4. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (8) 5. 99, Jake Blackhurst, Hanna City, IL (3) 6. 50, Paul Nienhiser, Chapin, IL (10) 7. 3z, Cole Vanderheiden, Papillion, NE (14) 8. 63, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (15) 9. 24x, Kade Higday, Knoxville, IA (4) 10. 55, Chase Brown, Yutan, NE (20) 11. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (6) 12. 03, Shayle Bade, Lincoln, NE (12) 13. 13G, Gaige Weldon, Hinton, IA (11) 14. 22x, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (19) 15. 11D, Dominic White, Plainview, NE (18) 16. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (1) 17. 7, Tyler Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA (9) 18. 4, Cam Martin, Ankeny, IA (16) 19. 2B, Garrett Benson, Concordia, MO (13) 20. 2, Brandon Anderson, Glenpool, OK (17).
