WAYNESFIELD, Ohio – Cole Duncan has often times compared driving a 410 sprint car at Waynesfield Raceway Park to flying a fighter jet in a gymnasium.
If that’s the case Duncan was an ace pilot at Waynesfield Saturday as he defended his home turf against the All Star Circuit of Champions invaders, executing a late race pass for his the $5,000 payday.
It was the Circleville, Ohio, driver’s second All Star win of the year and the sixth series win of his career. He used a caution with five laps to go to hunt down and pass Cory Eliason, who picked up his first All Star win of the year Friday night, with three laps to go. While most of the field was using the extreme high line or bottom groove of the bullring, Duncan put his top wing in the trunk and drove the middle of the track perfectly for the victory.
Waynesfield Promoter Shane Helms gave Duncan an extra $1,000 for defending the FAST series against the All Stars.
“I think the only thing that was going to screw me up before that restart was traffic. Traffic was kind of running down where I wanted to be. He got a hell of a restart and I wasn’t sure going into one…we have five laps but it’s going to take all five of them. We were terrible in the heat race…I wasn’t trying to save my tire, we were just that bad. My guys went to work and went back to what we know works. Shane Helms and Greg gave us a hell of a race track tonight. I don’t think you can ask for much better than that. When the track gets slick we throw the wing back and the car got to working good and I can carry speed into the corner. They were throwing crumbs off the bottom and I could use those for traction,” said Duncan.
Cap Henry and Eliason brought the field to green for the 30-lap All Star feature and after an opening lap caution, Henry grabbed the lead over Eliason, Tyler Courtney, Max Stambaugh and Zeb Wise. After three laps of side-by-side racing, Eliason took the lead on lap four. Henry didn’t give up though and Courtney joined his challenge for the lead.
Eliason raced into traffic by the 10th circuit allowing Courtney to close as Wise raced into third with Henry and Duncan in pursuit. Another caution on lap 14 gave Eliason a clear track and he used it to his advantage to pull away slightly from Courtney. By lap 18 Duncan was on the move, racing into third and two circuits later drove under Courtney for second.
Eliason had built a substantial lead but Duncan began to chop away when the caution flew with five laps to go with the running order Eliason, Duncan, Justin Peck, Courtney and Spencer Bayston. Eliason executed a great restart but Duncan maintained his middle line and closed quickly, diving under Eliason for the lead on lap 27. Duncan drove away for the win over Eliason, Peck, Bayston and Henry.
In other action, Jared Horstman led all 25 laps of the K&L Ready Mix NRA Sprint Invaders feature to secure his fifth series championship.
The finish:
1. 22C-Cole Duncan [5]; 2. 26-Cory Eliason [2]; 3. 13-Justin Peck [8]; 4. 11-Spencer Bayston [11]; 5. 4-Cap Henry [1]; 6. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [3]; 7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [15]; 8. 91-Kyle Reinhardt [10]; 9. 16-DJ Foos [9]; 10. 5-Ian Madsen [12]; 11. 97-Greg Wilson [17]; 12. O7-Skylar Gee [14]; 13. 17B-Bill Balog [16]; 14. 81-Lee Jacobs [19]; 15. 18-Cole Macedo [13]; 16. 3C-Cale Conley [7]; 17. 21N-Frankie Nervo [18]; 18. 5M-Max Stambaugh [4]; 19. 14-Chad Wilson [20]; 20. 10-Zeb Wise [6]; 21. 23-Chris Andrews [21]; 22. 7M-Geoff Dodge [22]