MOBERLY, Mo. — Ayrton Gennetten stewed for a month over a lost photo-finish at the Randolph County Raceway.
He got his revenge on Friday night, sweeping his heat, the dash and the 25-lap feature aboard his family No. 3 car.
It was worth $2,000 to the Gravois Mills, Mo., driver. The win was the third in his career with the Sprint Invaders at Moberly and fourth overall.
“Chad (Morgan), Steve and my dad have had us dialed in here lately,” Gennetten said. “We’ve been rolling good in both the 360s and the 410s. Lapped traffic was a little hairy. We were really good in three and four, and could get up against the fence. The car was really, really nice. We just got left rear down a little after the restart. That made it a little interesting the last few laps, but there wasn’t a question on who won tonight.”
Gennetten led from the start in the main event, after starting outside of row one. Jonathan Cornell settled into the second spot, ahead of Garret Williamson, who won the photo finish event with Gennetten here in August.
Ironically, Williamson drove Scott Bonar’s No. 50 car, the entry Gennetten drove at the track a month ago.
Gennetten was flying on the top side of the four-tenths-mile high banks, just feet from the wall, and entered lapped traffic on the eighth circuit. By lap 10, he had a straightaway lead, as Williamson won a battle with Cornell for the second spot.
Alex Vande Voort, making his first Sprint Invaders start, came to a stop with 10 laps to go, bringing the only caution of the event. The restart saw Gennetten leading Williamson, Cornell, Miles Paulus and Gunner Ramey back to green.
Gennetten extended his lead again to a straightaway with three laps to go, but he struggled a bit when caught in traffic. Williamson closed the gap to eight car lengths but couldn’t catch Gennetten.
Missouri drivers occupied the top-seven spots. Following Gennetten and Williamson were Cornell, Ramey and Paulus.
Ben Brown, Austin Alumbaugh, Colton Fisher, Tanner Gebhardt and Kaley Gharst rounded out the top 10.
Gennetten won his heat and the dash. Williamson took the second heat.
“I seem to get around this place really good and I have a lot of fun racing here,” Williamson said. “The track is always good whether it is super dry, or super heavy. It always seems to race good. I can’t thank Scott enough for giving me the opportunity to race his car here this week. It got right up on the fence tonight, and it was badass. I wish we could have got to battling a little bit more, but it was what it was.”
The Sprint Invaders next race will be Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa.
The finish:
Ayrton Gennetten, Garret Williamson, Jonathan Cornell, Gunner Ramey, Miles Paulus, Ben Brown, Marshall, Austin Alumbaugh, Colton Fisher, Tanner Gebhardt, Kaley Gharst, Josh Higday, Wyatt Wilkerson, Daniel Bergquist, Alex Vande Voort