ANDERSON, Ind. – Tyler Roahrig ran the table Saturday, leading all 125 laps to capture the 21st running of the Glen Niebel Classic for non-winged pavement sprint cars at Anderson Speedway.
It was Roahrig’s third consecutive non-winged sprint car win at Anderson on Saturday, bringing sponsor CB Fabricating the victory in the race they sponsored.
Right after the field took the green flag pole sitter Jerry Coons Jr. and Kody Swanson tangled on the front straight, bringing out the caution flag when it appeared Coons blew a tire on the start.
Both Coons and Swanson suffered damage, with Coons restarting at the tail and Swanson taking four laps in the pits for repairs.
That put Roahrig and Billy Weason on the front row, but on the second lap Wease spun in turn two, ending his night with Roahrig on the point.
Roahrig was chased through the first half of the race by Dakoda Armstrong, Caleb Armstrong, Bobby Santos and Eric Gordon, but no one was able to match the leader’s pace.
The race was red flagged on lap 69 when Scotty Hampton appeared to lose an engine in turn two.
Following the restart Roahrig continued to pull away, with Kyle O’Gara making a late race charge to finish second, 7.9 seconds back.
Santos finished third, followed by Dakoda Armstrong and Gordon.
“I was sorry to see that happened at the start,” Roahrig said from the Star Financial Winner’s Circle of the incident involving Swanson and Coons. “I love racing against those guys.
“The crew worked really hard and gave me great car tonight,” he said. “I hope we’re standing here in September (Little 500). At the end I was working on what the car would need for a longer run.”
O’Gara gained the most positions on the night starting 16th and showed a lot of patience in coming home second. He didn’t crack the top five until there were less than 25 laps remaining.
Swanson drove to a ninth place finish after turning some of the fastest laps of the night.
Indianapolis 500 veteran James Davison started 12th in the field and finished seventh during his first appearance at the bullring.
The finish:
Tyler Roahrig, Kyle O’Gara, Bobby Santos III, Dakoda Armstrong, Eric Gordon, Chris Neuenschwander, James Davison, Nick Hamilton, Kody Swanson, Ronnie Wuerdeman, Derek Bischak, Scotty Hampton, Caleb Armstrong, Chris Jagger, Johnny Gilbertson, Jerry Coons Jr., Billy Wease, Travis Welpott, Brian Vaughn.