Weir Rides High At Gas City

GAS CITY, Ind. — Defending track champion Scotty Weir used the high line to become the third different 25-lap non-winged sprint car feature winner in as many races this season at Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday night.

Weir passed former track champion Shane Cottle to win the fifth annual Jack and Jiggs Classic. 

Weir started 10th and used the high line to blast through the field while the early leaders, polesitter Jack Hoyer and fellow front-row starter Colten Cottle, Shane’s nephew, duked it out up front. Weir continued to use the high side to advance from seventh on lap two to fourth on lap three, and then he took third on lap four from Matt Goodnight. Goodnight got him back on lap five on the backstretch, but Weir retook third on lap six right before a yellow flew, erasing Colten Cottle’s 0.536-second lead over Hoyer. 

The yellow was for an incident on the backstretch which saw the sixth-place car driven by Shane Cockrum and the seventh-place car driven by Kyle Shipley become hooked together. An altercation ensued between the pair which drew a red flag. Their cars eventually got unhooked and they both restarted at the rear. 

Weir was ready to strike on the restart in Scott and Donna Pedersen’s DRC/Pedersen Chevy, which is sponsored by Red’s Racing Engines, Indy Race Parts and AFCO.  He passed Hoyer high in turn four on lap seven for second, and took the lead in the same spot from Colten Cottle on lap eight. 

Shane Cottle got around Hoyer on lap nine to move into third and he took second from his nephew on lap 16.

Hoyer was running fifth when he spun between turns three and four with 20 laps down, and Garrett Abrams, who was 15th at the time, slid into him. That yellow wiped out Weir’s 1.720-second lead over Shane Cottle and gave Cottle another chance to pass him, but Weir still had a 1.414-second advantage over Shane Cottle at the checkered. 

Colten Cottle finished third in the famous Hazen No. 57. Korbyn Hayslett came from 11th to finish fourth, while Chad Boespflug came from 12th to place fifth. 

The 20-lap United Midwestern Promoters modified feature was a battle of track champions too. Derek Losh, the 2020 modified champion, came from the rear to beat Bub Roberts, the 2021 champion. 

Jackson Macenko said he let two United States Speed Association Kenyon midget feature victories get away from him earlier this year. He made sure that didn’t happen again as he led every lap of the 30-lap Kenyon midget feature. 

There was a new winner in the street stock class, as Lee Hobbs won that 15-lap main event over the driver who dominated the first two street stock features of the year, James Headley. 

Landon Arcaro celebrated his 15th birthday on Wednesday and continued to celebrate in victory lane on Friday after winning his second 15-lap hornet feature in a row.