IRVINGTON, Ala. — Florida’s Johnny Gilbertson held off Dave Mader III to win Saturday night’s 360 winged sprint car feature at Mobile Int’l Speedway.
Gilbertson led the final 20 laps to score his first career victory at MIS and claim $2,500 for his efforts. It was the first time winged sprint cars had competed at the historic half-mile speedway since 2019.
Butch David took the lead from his pole position starting spot at the green. He immediately had Gilbertson breathing down his neck for the lead followed closely by Mader III. Gilbertson was finally able to wrestle the top spot when David encountered lapped traffic on lap four.
Over the final 20 laps, Mader III was able to catch Gilbertson on multiple occasions as he struggled with lapped traffic. Mader III was able to get alongside Gilbertson several times during the second half of the race.
The yellow flag flew on lap twenty-three for third place running Butch David who lost a right-front tire entering turn four. Gilbertson would cruise to a 4.166-second margin of victory in clean air the final two laps over Mader III with Branded Blenden rounding out the top three.
“The car was pretty good” explained Gilbertson. “I was trying to conserve tires because we ran the same tires tonight as we did at Citrus County (Florida) a couple months ago. That 18 snuck up on me one time and surprised me. I knew I had to step it up. We had that caution with two to go and it cooled the tires down enough so that I could push them a little hard the final two laps.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 77-Johnny Gilbertson; 2. 18-Dave Mader III; 2. 32-Branden Blended; 4. 13-Todd Fayard; 5. 67-Blake Mallette; 6. 6-Chase Wood Sr.; 7. 21-Butch David; 8. 83-Blake Carrier; 9. 56-Stan Smith; 10. 94-Parker Davis; DNS 27-JR Wood; 121-Todd Bliss
