Eric Gordon continued to add his legendary career by winning his ninth career Little 500 at Anderson Speedway Saturday. Gordon started 20th in the fastest qualifying field in the 62 year history of the event and took the lead from Shane Cottle after Cottle had to make a stop for fuel with less than 70 laps to go. Cottle was able to get his lap back from Gordon, but ran out of time to mount a challenge for the victory.
Levi Jones used the pole position to take the lead over fellow front row starter Shane Hollingsworth fell into second place and outside front row starter Chet Fillip dropped back in the field. Jones dominated the early portion of the event until the first round of pit stops.
After the first pit cycle Jacob Wilson set a blistering pace out front that narrowed the lead lap cars down. Meanwhile Chet Fillip in his unique home built sprint car made blistering pit stops with dual fuel pickups and a starter. Fillip eventually fell victim to an on track incident and retired from the event.
Wilson continued his as Gordon continued his march through the field. By lap 313 he was challenging Jones for the second spot. After the second round of pit stops Gordon passed Wilson in traffic on lap 357 and set out after then leader Shane Cottle.
Cottle survived a couple of close calls including avoiding a slowing Jeff Bloom on the backstretch and somehow save his car that was completely sideways and avoided a big crash in turn three that involved Chris Windom running over the front of Cottle’s car. The one thing Cottle could not avoid though was bad fuel mileage and had to make a pit stop with 55 laps to go and put him one lap down to Gordon.
Cottle did get back on the lead lap, but ran out of time as Gordon motored to the win over Cottle, Tony Hunt, Jones, and Wilson. More on this race to come!