CANTON, Ill. — Terry McCarl made a late pass on a restart and won the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders feature Sunday at Spoon River Speedway.
The Altoona, Iowa veteran cashed in $3,000 for his 14th win with the series and his first since the 2021 “Fall Haul” at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. He was also the Tom Knowles Memorial winner at Spoon River Speedway in 2000.
Colton Fisher took off early in the 25-lap main event ahead of McCarl, Cody Wehrle, Zach Daum and Tasker Phillips.
While Fisher pulled away, Luke Verardi moved by Phillips into the top five on lap seven. Fisher started lapping traffic on lap eight. He built a straightaway lead at the midway point, and had a number of lapped cars between he and McCarl.
McCarl slowly reeled the leader in after finding rubber in the middle of turns one and two. He pulled up to the bumper of Fisher a couple of times before the ninth place running Jaden Alexander spun over the top of turn two with just four laps to go.
Fisher led McCarl, Wehrle, Daum and Verardi back to green. Fisher, who had been running a fast low line in one and two, returned to his groove. McCarl stuck the rubber in the middle of one and two, however, and shot by to take the point.
McCarl pulled away from there for the win, ahead of Fisher, Wehrle, Daum and Phillips, who recaptured fifth on the late restart.
“It’s been about 20 years since I’ve been here,” said McCarl. “It’s one of my favorite tracks honestly. It’s such a high-banked fun track. You can run the top or the bottom. (Fisher) was a lot faster than us earlier. I kept waiting for traffic. I got my car where I wanted to, and my wing where I wanted to. I felt good at the end. He’d been running the bottom, and I’d been running the top. I was catching him for the longest time. If he went low, I had to go high, if he went high I had to go low. I’ve got to thank Ricky Warner. He gave me some advice tonight, and I’ve got to thank Manny Rockhold. My motor was missing a little, and he helped me tune it in.”
“Leading the race like that, form green to 20 in…it’s tough, because you know rubber is coming,” said Fisher. “You’re trying to work around lapped cars. I was really good early, so I really didn’t want to abandon the line I was running. I knew rubber was coming in. We had that caution, and Terry showed me his car. I knew he was there. I kind of searched around under caution, and decided to stick with what I was doing. Looking back, I wish I would have moved higher in one, but that’s racing. It’s one of those deals that you’d rather be running second there than leading it.”
“I’ll always take a decent run here,” said Wehrle. “This place hasn’t been the nicest to me this year trying to run a 410, and last year we had a little incident on the last lap. It’s nice to get a finish and run up front. That’s always good. After the way things have gone this year…Lee County was a good start to turning things around. The momentum stayed in our favor tonight. We can’t complain about that at all. It’s nice to go into the end of the season that way, and hopefully, we can finish out and head into next year on a good foot.”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (3) 2. 11, Colton Fisher, Danville, IA (1) 3. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (2) 4. 99, Zach Daum, Pocahontas, IL (4) 5. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (5) 6. 7, Tyler Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA (8) 7. 49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (9) 8. 28, Luke Verardi, Taylorville, IL (8) 9. 11G, Luke Griffith, Sandusky, OH (10) 10. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (13) 11. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (15) 12. 15JR, Cole Mincer, Burlington, IA (6)j 13. 33, Alan Zoutte, Knoxville, IA (17) 14. 11x, Jaden Alexander, Knoxville, IA (12) 15. 2A, Austin Archdale, Brimfield, IL (14) 16. 51J, Blaine Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (16) 17. 50, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (11) DNS – 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA, 71, Nathan Murders, Burlington, IA.
