Carson Short Wins IRA/MOWA Main at 34 Raceway

2018 MOWA Midwest Open Wheel Association Top Story Logo

4/6/19

34 Raceway

West Burlington, IA

IRA/MOWA

36 cars

Bill Balog (9th car out to time) set quick time at 13.278 seconds on the 3/8-mile oval. Austin McCarl (16th car out) was second quick, followed by Carson Short (1st), Joey Moughan (7th), Jeremy Schultz (8th), Scotty Thiel (15th), Scott Neitzel (3rd), Ben Schmidt (25th), Josh Schneiderman (22nd) and Chris Martin (6th). The track surface was dry from the get-go. John Schulz did not get a time in.

Heat one (started): 1. Schneiderman 49 (2) 2. Joe B. Miller 51B (1) 3. Balog 17B (4) 4. Parker Price-Miller 96 (6) 5. Lynton Jeffrey 83 (7) / 6. Schultz 10w (3) 7. Brayden Fox 53 (5) 8. Jeremy Standridge 10s (9) 9. Zach Daum 5D (8)

10 lap heats took the top five to the feature. Heat winners and the top six qualifiers making it through the heats redrew for the first five rows of the feature. Schneiderman led the distance over Miller, Balog and Price-Miller, up from sixth. Daum worked his way from eighth to the fifth and final transfer spot before going up in smoke on the last lap.

Heat two (started): 1. Mike Reinke 02 (1) 2. Martin 44 (2) 3. McCarl 2KS (4) 4. Paul Nienhiser 9x (5) 5. Thiel 64 (3) / 6. Steve Short 8s (8) 7. Daniel Bergquist 9 (9) 8. Cody Wehrle 40c (6) 9. Cory Bruns 44x (7)

Reinke led the distance over Martin and McCarl. The best duel was for fourth between Nienhiser and Thiel. Wehrle was in contention for a transfer spot before the defending Sprint Invaders champion suffered issues four laps in. Thiel grabbed fourth late, before Nienhiser stormed back by on the last lap.

Heat three (started): 1. C. Short 21 (4) 2. Neitzel 2w (3) 3. Jake Blackhurst 25 (6) 4. Steve Meyer 85m (5) 5. Tanner Gebhardt 81 (7) / 6. Kris Spitz 4K (2) 7. Jacob Patton 79J (8) 8. Ryan Jamison 51J (1) 9. Hunter Custer 29 (9)

Jamison led C. Short, Neitzel and Meyer early. C. Short ran down Jamison to lead lap four. Neitzel would follow him into second a lap later. Blackhurst moved into fourth on lap six, and the defending IRA champion continued riding the low groove under Jamison for fourth on lap nine. Disaster struck for Jamison on the last lap when his driveline let go, surrendering a transfer spot, which Gebhardt snatched up Jamison was taken to the hospital for observation. Gebhardt was one of a handful of 360 drivers getting laps in. He was the only one to qualify for the main event.

Heat four (started): 1. Brooke Tatnell 55 (1) 2. Joey Moughan 29m (4) 3. Russel Borland 23 (2) 4. Schmidt 73 (3) 5. Craig Dollansky 50 (5) / 6. Robbie Standridge 17* (7) 7. Jordan Goldesberry 65 (6) 8. John Schulz 99 (9) 9. Kyle Schuett 9K (8)

Tatnell led wire to wire. Borland and Schmidt trailed him early, but Moughan was using the low side of the track to move forward. He won a back and forth battle with Schmidt for third on lap four. A pass of Borland was negated by a Schulz spin, but he won the spot on lap six.

B main (started): 1. Schultz (1) 2. Spitz (2) 3. Jo. Standridge (3) 4. Fox (5) / 5. Patton (7) 6. Goldesberry (6) 7. Bergquist (8) 8. S. Short (4) 9. Schulz (10) 10. Je. Standridge (9) 11. Schuett (11) 12. Custer (12) DNS – Jamison, Daum, Wehrle, Bruns

Spitz took the early lead over Schultz, Jo. Standridge and Goldesberry. Schultz took the lead from Spitz with two to go in traffic. Goldesberry slowed with two to go, handing the final transfer to Fox. Patton grabbed fifth on the final lap, but wouldn’t be able to use his first alternate status.

A main (started): 1. C. Short (6) 2. McCarl (4) 3. Tatnell (8) 4. Blackhurst (14) 5. Schmidt (5) 6. Moughan (9) 7. Balog (10) 8. Nienhiser (15) 9. Reinke (3) 10. Jeffrey (19) 11. Price-Miller (17) 12. Thiel (2) 13. Martin (11) 14. Fox (24) 15. Spitz (22) 16. Miller (12) 17. Ro. Standridge (23) 18. Dollansky (18) 19. Borland (13) 20. Schultz (21) 21. Schneiderman (7) 22. Neitzel (1) 23. Meyer (16) 24. Gebhardt (20)

Balog shot over the berm in turn one at the start of the 25-lapper, sending him for a restart at the tail. He would climb back to seventh. Thiel led Neitzel, McCarl and C. Short early. He jumped the turn four cushion on lap two, and Neitzel moved to the point, and McCarl shot to second. Four laps in, Neitzel would spin, collecting Thiel. Neitzel would retire, and Thiel restarted at the tail. McCarl led the field back to green, ahead of C. Short, Reinke and Blackhurst, up from 14th. Blackhurst shot into third before five more laps were in and Schneiderman got over the turn one berm, bringing another caution. McCarl led C. Short, Blackhurst, Schmidt and Tatnell back to green. Tatnell gained fourth, and the leaders hit lapped traffic on lap 15, and C. Short was sizing the leader up before Schultz had an incident in turn three. After the restart, McCarl got over the turn four cushion in the marbles, and C. Short pounced on the opportunity to take the lead. Tatnell would claim third before Borland spun to bring a final caution with two to go. C. Short pulled away to the win.