by Rustin Nelson
6/30/04
Lee County Speedway, Donnellson, IA
Sprint Invaders
31 cars
Heat 1) (started) 1. 15 Bobby Mincer (2) 2. 51J Ryan Jamison (3) 3. 10x Jeff
Mitrisin (7) 4. D1 Jesse Giannetto (4) / 5. 5H Tyson Hart (6) 6. 16s Donnie
Steward (8) 7. 12 Lyle Sylvester (1) 8. 35 Brian Hetrick (5)
Mincer led the distance in the non-stop affair with a very stacked field
behind him. Mitrisin, piloting Steve Wares' car drew a bad pill, but put on
a serious charge to the front. He closed on Jamison (and the transfer into
the Shake-up dash), but couldn't make the pass.
Heat 2) (started) 1. 5h Bobby Hawks (1) 2. 3 Matt Sutton (2) 3. 45 Matt
Rogerson (5) 4. 4G Justin Parrish (3) / 5. 50 Manny Rockhold (7) 6. 97x
Dustin Whiting (6) 7. 16 Mark Knapp (4) 8. 9x Bart Andrews
Hawks dominated from his front-row starting spot. Rockhold had a bad draw,
and spent too much time trying to work the low groove to move into a
transfer.
Heat 3) (started) 1. 77u Chris Urish (1) 2. 72 Curtis Boyer (4) 3. 2s John
Schulz (7) 4. 20 Stevie Walsh (5) / 5. 9 Jeff Nehring (6) 6. 53H Matt Harms
(3) 7. 36 Justin Newberry (2) 8. 93 Jamie Needham (8)
Urish had a strong run from the front row and wasn't challenged. New Haven,
Missouri's Curtis Boyer has been doing some more traveling this year, and
had a fine run holding off a very fast John Schulz. Walsh had been on the
outside looking in for the better part of the race, but made a bid on the
final lap for the transfer. The New Zealander put a wicked slider on Justin
Newberry in turn four with the checkered in the air. Newbs didn't lift, and
they made contact sending Newbs hard into the fence & Walsh onto the A.
Heat 4) (started) 1. 7x Larry Ball Jr. (1) 2. 99 Jimmy Davies (5) 3. 49 Josh
Schneidermann (7) 4. 4B Scott Boles (3) / 5. 1 Jason Ditzworth (6) 6. 25
Nick Eastin (2) 7. 10 Brent Antill (4)
Antill attempted to run three-wide down the front chute into turn 1 at the
start, and ended up getting together with Eastin. Both made hard contact
with the rail, with Eastin taking an endo. Both were unhurt, but suffered
heavy front-end damage. Antill was done for the night. Ball Jr. led the
abbreviated field to the green and proceeded to almost put a lap on the
field before the checkered waved.
Shake-up Dash) (started) 1. Mincer (1) 2. Hawks (2) 3. Ball Jr. (4) 4.
Jamison (5) 5. Urish (3) 6. Boyer (7) 7. Sutton (6) 8. Davies (8)
Ball Jr. got a good surge at the start, but couldn't catch Mincer & Hawks.
Hawks barreled harder than anybody into turn three, but couldn't make up
ground. Mincer pulled the 2 pill, starting him outside pole for the
feature, and putting Boyer on the pole.
B-Main) (started) 1. Rockhold (2) 2. Hart (1) 3. Steward (4) 4. Nehring (6)
/ 5. Ditzworth (3) 6. Knapp (9) 7. Andrews (12) 8. Needham (13) 9. Hetrick
(11) 10. Whiting (5) 11. Harms (10) 12. Sylvester (8) 13. Eastin (7)
Rockhold led the distance, with Hart giving chase. Eastin exited on lap
four. Hart smacked the front stretch wall on lap eight allowing Steward to
close in, but it was to no avail.
A-Main) (started) 1. Hawks (3) 2. Mincer (2) 3. Ball Jr. (4) 4. Mitrisin (9)
5. Schulz (11) 6. Rogerson (10) 7. Rockhold (17) 8. Jamison (5) 9. Sutton
(7) 10. Urish (6) 11. Hart (18) 12. Giannetto (13) 13. Steward (19) 14.
Nehring (20) 15. Walsh (15) 16. Davies (8) 17. Boyer (1) 18. Boles (16) 19.
Schneidermann (12) 20. Parrish (14)
Mincer grabbed the lead before things were halted on lap two for a tangle
with Parrish and Schneidermann. Young Josh flipped over in the incident,
and both were done. Lap four saw Hawks rocket into the lead, with Ball Jr.
following dropping Mincer to bronze. Mitrisin and Schulz were flying to the
front, and began to reel in the leaders. Ball Jr. set his sights on Hawks,
and put a slider on him on the ninth circuit. Hawks didn't let him get
away, and passed him back in traffic on lap eighteen of the twenty-five
lapper. Mincer also got by Ball Jr. and looked as though he had something
in store for Hawks. Mitrisin and Schulz also closed on the leaders, making
it anybody's race with five to go. With only two to go, Boyer went up in
smoke big time down the front chute, halting the furious pace. This was a
very tough break as he was running a solid fourth at the time. Hawks
cruised in the 2-lap dash and brought the loot back to Jacksonville, IL.
Hawks sang praises of the Invaders and their solid group of 10 guys that
could win any given night * and I couldn't agree more. Rockhold was the
hard-charger, breaking into the top-10 from the B. The Sprint Invaders
return to the Lee County Speedway on July 9th for fair week.