KOKOMO, Ind. — Passing up his high school graduation for four days of sprint car racing, Zeb Wise came home the winner of the 40-lap, $26,000-to-win, FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions third annual Rayce Rudeen Foundation Race at Kokomo Speedway Sunday night.
The 18-year-old Wise, from Angola, Ind., wheeled his Sun Dollar Restoration/Quick Pits-sponsored, Wise-Priddy Racing entry No. 10 sprinter to the victory, finishing 1.882-seconds ahead of Tyler Courtney. Rico Abreu, Cole Macedo, Scotty Thiel and Justin Peck rounded out the top six in the 25-car field.
Courtney, who had won All Star Indiana Invasion feature races at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis on Thursday and Friday, was the overall Invasion series champion, picking up $10,000 for his effort. Courtney, from Indianapolis, also leads the current All Star point standings.
Courtney looked to be on his way to another victory after starting on the front row and holding off the early challenge of Buddy Kofoid. Yellow flags and three red flag incidents slowed the action with the likes of Courtney, Brady Bacon and Kerry Madsen leading the way at one time or another. Coming on strong, Wise slipped by Madsen for the lead, with Madsen flipping between turns one and two on the 35th circuit.
With six laps to go, Wise had Courtney and Abreu right behind him for the final restart with Wise holding the top spot the rest of the way.
“I knew Tyler (Courtney) was going to try and roll the bottom here,” said Wise. “I knew I had to stay on the top through (turns) one and two. I went to the bottom (groove) in (turns) three and four to protect the bottom and it seemed to work.”
Bacon was the event’s fastest qualifier among 42 entries with a lap of 11.083 second around the quarter-mile oval.
Logan Seavey won the 25-lap Hoosier State Showdown for non-winged 410 sprint cars. Seavey took the lead away from Thomas Meseraull, who finished second with Brent Beauchamp taking third. Seavey wheeled the Baldwin Brothers Racing LLC/Fox Paving No. 5 to the win, finishing a 0.117-seconds ahead of Meseraull. It was the second win of the weekend for Seavey as the 23-year-old Sutter, Cal., driver won at Putnamville, Ind., on Saturday.
“It was a real tricky race track after the winged cars ran,” said Seavey. “There was kind of a narley cushion all away around the track. The 47 car (Meseraull) moved up at the perfect time and kind of got me flustered. I had enough to run him back down and got by him in lapped traffic.”
The finish:
Zeb Wise, Tyler Courtney, Rico Abreu, Cole Macedo, Scott Thiel, Justin Peck, Cory Eliason, Hunter Schuerenberg, Giovanni Scelzi, Paul McMahan, Parker Price-Miller, Same Hafertepe Jr., Zack Hampton, Danny Dietrich, Bill Balog, Brady Bacon, Brandon Long, Kerry Madsen, Cap Henry, Paul Nienhiser, Kevin Thomas Jr., Brinton Marvel, Buddy Kofoid, Ian Madsen, Carson Short.