WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa — Sixteen-year-old Jack Thomas has been fast this season with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders, but Saturday night he proved he has what it takes to win as he topped the field at 34 Raceway.
The Bates City, Mo., driver topped another 16-year-old in Evan Semerad, who posted a career best second place finish with the Sprint Invaders. Cole Schroeder, at the ripe old age of 20, rounded out the podium.
Thomas started outside row one of the 25-lap main event, and led early over pole-sitter and series’ point leader, Sawyer Phillips, Cody Wehrle, Semerad and Joey Moughan. Moughan used the low side on the well groomed three-eighths-mile surface to move up to fourth on lap two.
Four laps in, Nathan Murders flipped on the frontstretch to bring the red. He was uninjured. Thomas led Phillips, Wehrle, Moughan and Semerad back to green. Schroeder worked into the top five on the restart, but Semerad battled back by on lap six.
The final caution came out for a stopped McCain Richards seven laps in. Semerad worked under Moughan for fourth on the restart and then used the same groove to take third from Wehrle on lap nine. Schroeder worked back into the top five and shot by Wehrle for fourth on lap 12.
Phillips briefly shot by Thomas for the lead, but Thomas was able to maintain coming back to the line. By lap 16, Semerad had the momentum to get under Phillips for the second spot. Thomas was into lapped traffic on the 17th circuit.
Schroeder went by Phillips for third with six to go. Chase Brown, who started in row seven had moved into the top five and took the fourth spot from Wehrle with three laps to go.
Thomas won by about a straightaway, to gain his first ever win with the Sprint Invaders, and in a 360 sprint car. Semerad came home second, ahead of Schroeder, the hard-charger Brown and Phillips.
“We started the year off kind of rough,” said Thomas, celebrating his first 360 sprint car win. “We tore a lot of stuff up, but here recently, we’ve gotten into a groove. We’ve been doing pretty decent, so I’m trying to keep that up. When I came down the backstretch, I saw Sawyer’s crew chief tell him to go to the bottom down there. I figured there was something I needed to do and I couldn’t really tell out front. I tried it coming off of four, and it did better. So I kept doing that, and then I finally figured out how to run there. It worked out for us.”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 63, Jack Thomas, Bates City, MO (2) 2. 59, Evan Semerad, Malcolm, NE (3) 3. 3, Cole Schroeder, Bozeman, MT (8) 4. 55, Chase Brown, Yutan, NE (13) 5. 7s, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (4) 6. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (1) 7. 99, Joey Moughan, Springfield, IL (5) 8. 5A, Alex Vande Voort, Knoxville, IA (10) 9. 15JR, Cole Mincer, Burlington, IA (11) 10. 57, Cam Sorrels, Hallsville, MO (9) 11. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (6) 12. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (18) 13. W28, Alan Woods, Brisbane, QLD, Aust. (20) 14. 16, Dustin Clark, Agency, IA (15) 15. 7B, Nick Guernsey, West Burlington, IA (21) 16. 51J, Ryan Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (12) 17. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (16) 18. 9L, Lincoln Martin, Monmouth, IL (19) 19. 11x, Jaden Alexander, Knoxville, IA (17) 20. 17, Nate Parks, Burlington, IA (14) 21. 71, Nathan Murders, Burlington, IA (7) DNS – 25Y, Brett Yeager, Coal Valley, IL, 11T, Dugan Thye, Burlington, IA .
