Floria, IL — (May 3, 2014) — A full house was on hand at Clay County Speedway, Saturday, to see winged sprint cars on the 1/3 mile oval for the first time, and the drivers of the Midwest Open Wheel Association Sprint Car Series presented by Casey’s General Stores did not disappoint.
Jerrod Hull and Joey Moughan put on an epic battle up front throughout the feature event, with Hull eventually winning his 13 career MOWA Sprint Car Series presented by Casey’s General Stores feature, and the second of the 2014 season. Moughan would finish second for the second night in a row, after taking the runner-up spot, Friday, at Lincoln Speedway, also.
Critter Malone led early, but keeping his ride on the bottom of the speedway proved to be his downfall, he said after the race, as Moughan would blow by him on the high side on lap three to take the lead.
As the field worked to complete lap 4, Andy Baugh brought the first caution of the event when he spun in turns one and two. Moughan was the race leader, with Malone running second and Hull third when the green flag flew.
On the re-start Hull was able to get to the outside of Malone out of turn two and take the second spot before the caution flew again for Kent Schmidt. As the field completed lap four, Schmidt, who was running a wing for first time in racing action, said he moved the wing to far back to tighten a loose handling car. When he did that, the car would not turn out of turn four where he got hard into the wall and then put the wing into the catch fence. He was OK, but he was out of the race.
Moughan would lead for the next four laps, before bobbling and jumping the cushion in turn two. Hull was there to pounce, and when the field completed lap 9, Hull was the new race leader.
The field would run the rest of the race green-to-checkered with Moughan staying within one to three car lengths as the lead pair began to work through lapped traffic on lap 12.
Heavy lapped traffic allowed Moughan to close again over the final two laps, as they were less than a car-length apart as they took the wave of the green for two laps to go. Hull would make a great move though, splitting a pair of lapped cars entering turn one, which gave him enough breathing room to go relatively unchallenged over the last lap-and-a-half for the win.
Malone, who was making his first start with the series during the 2014 season, picked up the dash win as he dominated the six lap event and started the feature in the pole position. He would hold on for third in the feature.
John Dines picked up his second career heat race win, while Ben Wagoner also picked up a heat race win.
Chris Urish was the only other car on the lead lap, finishing fourth, while Wagoner rounded out the top five going one lap down on the last lap.
Track officials clocked Paul Nienhiser, with an unofficial lap time of 12.6 seconds during his heat race. Nienhiser, however, blow a motor just a couple laps later.
MOWA Results For Clay County Speedway – 2014-05-03
Starting Positions in ( )
Heat Results
Heat 1: 1 – John Dines 31(1), 2 – Jeremy Standridge 10S(3), 3 – Kent Schmidt 5K(4), 4 – Critter Malone 7(8), 5 – Caleb Wankel 5W(5), 6 – Andy Baugh 6B(7), 7 – Paul Nienhiser 9(2), 8 – Kody Kinser 4K(6),
Heat 2: 1 – Ben Wagoner 84(2), 2 – Jerrod Hull 12H(5), 3 – Chris Urish 77U(4), 4 – Joey Moughan(8), 5 – Logan Faucon 52F(6), 6 – Robbie Standridge 99S(7), 7 – Trey Datweiler 23D(1), 99 – A.J. Bruns(99),
Dash Results
1 – Critter Malone 7, 2 – Joey Moughan 83, 3 – Ben Wagoner 84, 4 – Jerrod Hull 12H, 5 – John Dines 31, 6 – Jeremy Standridge 10S,
A-Main Results
1 – Jerrod Hull 12H (4), 2 – Joey Moughan 83 (2), 3 – Critter Malone 7 (1), 4 – Chris Urish 77U (8), 5 – Ben Wagoner 84 (3), 6 – Logan Faucon 52F (9), 7 – Jeremy Standridge 10S (6), 8 – John Dines 31 (5), 9 – Robbie Standridge 99S (12), 10 – Caleb Wankel 5W (10), 11 – Andy Baugh 6B (11), 12 – Trey Datweiler 23D (14), 13 – Kent Schmidt 5K (7), 14 – A.J. Bruns 44 (16), 15 – Kody Kinser 4K (15), 99 – Paul Nienhiser 9 (99),