DONNELLSON, Iowa — Patience paid off for Colton Fisher Friday night at the Lee County Speedway.
The Danville, Iowa, driver had led on three other occasions this year, only to come up empty in West Burlington, Quincy and Bloomfield.
Friday, his patience in traffic proved to be the difference in the outcome, and he was rewarded with $2,000 and his second career victory both with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders and at the Lee County Speedway.
Two-time series’ champion, Cody Wehrle led the 25-lap main event early, over Cam Sorrels, Fisher and Riley Goodno. On lap three, JJ Hickle entered the top five before McCain Richards spun in turn four, bringing caution. Chris Martin got sideways on the restart, collecting Zach Daum. Both continued at the tail.
Hickle moved by Goodno into fourth on the restart. Fisher passed Sorrels for second on lap five in what would be a good battle. Sorrels fought back by on lap seven, while Fisher would get back by on lap 11. That allowed Wehrle to increase his lead until hitting traffic, and Hickle was within a few car lengths of the pair in fourth.
Wehrle slowed in turn four in heavy lapped traffic on lap 13, and Fisher pounced on the opportunity by taking the lead. Sorrels would follow him into second on lap 15.
Sorrels slowly closed on the leader and made one last attempt late to get by him. Fisher’s win would come by just .278 of a second over the seventeen-year-old Sorrels. Hickle would grab third coming for the white flag, as Wehrle and Goodno finished fourth and fifth.
It was a disastrous night for Terry McCarl, who entered the night as the series’ point leader. McCarl blew his engine staging for his heat on Friday and was a scratch for the night.
“I’ve just been stepping on it,” said Fisher. “I feel like I unload a really fast race car every night, and I just continue to (mess) up. So this feels good. We race good here. I feel like I’ve got good notes. We’ve been good everywhere. There’s been a lot of places where I’ve felt we have the stuff to win. I just couldn’t do it. I plan on having a lot more. Cam raced me hard early. I was hoping we could fall in line and just race the leader. We just kept throwing bombs back and forth. Then once I really cleared him, I felt really good in lapped traffic. I kind of cleaned up Cody there when it got deep. The race car was just really good.”
“We went at it,” said a happy Sorrels, who celebrated his best sprint car finish. “I made a few mistakes. We started this pretty much a little over a year ago. We’re just learning as we go. I’ve always been told to race as much as possible. That’s the secret to going faster. We doing the best we can, and we have a great group behind us. I went to the bottom of three and four after the checkers and realized it was better than sliding myself like I was doing, but the first time running second in one of these…I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
“We were happy to end up third, after starting eighth,” said Hickle. “We didn’t get it done in our heat, but Blake (Cook) went to work, and man this car was awesome. It was really fun to drive and the track was on point. What a blast of a race tonight! Wehrle and I were a little closer than we’d both like, but it got a little slick off of two and the holes were closing up faster than we wanted. Overall, it was good hard racing with a lot of good drivers here. Another night at the skids having a blast!”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 11, Colton Fisher, Danville, IA (4) 2. 57, Cam Sorrels, Hallsville, MO (3) 3. 63, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (8) 4. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (1) 5. 22, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (2) 6. 4, Cam Martin, Ankeny, IA (13) 7. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (7) 8. 50, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (15) 9. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (5) 10. 28, Luke Verardi, Taylorville, IL (9) 11. 7, Tyler Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA (6) 12. 49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (16) 13. 99, Zach Daum, Pocahontas, IL (14) 14. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (12) 15. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (18) 16. 51J, Blaine Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (17) 17. 15JR, Cole Mincer, Burlington, IA (11) 18. 11x, Jaden Alexander, Knoxville, IA (19) 19. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (10) 20. 71, Nathan Murders, Burlington, IA (20) DNS – 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA.
