From Bill Wright
MOBERLY, MO (September 3, 2021) – Ayrton Gennetten stewed for a month over a lost photo finish at the Randolph County Raceway near Moberly, Missouri. He got his revenge on Friday night, sweeping his heat, the Dash and the 25-lap feature aboard his family #3 car. It was worth $2,000 to the Gravois Mills, Missouri driver. The win was the third in his career with the Sprint Invaders at Moberly, and fourth overall.
Gennetten led from the start in the main event, after starting outside of row one. Jonathan Cornell settled into the second spot, ahead of Garret Williamson, who won the photo finish event with Gennetten here in August. Ironically, Williamson was driving Scott Bonar’s #50 car, the entry Gennetten drove here a month ago.
Gennetten was flying on the top side of the 4/10-mile high banks, just feet from the wall, and entered lapped traffic on the eighth circuit. By lap ten, he had a straightaway lead, as Williamson won a battle with Cornell for the second spot.
Alex Vande Voort, making his first Sprint Invaders start, came to a stop with ten laps to go, bringing the only caution of the event. The restart saw Gennetten leading Williamson, Cornell, Miles Paulus and Gunner Ramey back to green.
Gennetten extended his lead again to a straightaway with three to go, but he struggled a bit when caught behind a lapper. Williamson closed the gap to eight car lengths but couldn’t catch Gennetten.
Missouri drivers occupied the top seven spots. Following Gennetten and Williamson were Cornell, Ramey and Paulus. Ben Brown, Austin Alumbaugh, Colton Fisher, Tanner Gebhardt and Kaley Gharst rounded out the top ten. Gennetten won his heat and the dash, and Williamson took the second heat.
“Chad (Morgan), Steve and my Dad have had us dialed in here lately,” said Gennetten. “We’ve been rolling good in both the 360’s and the 410’s. Lapped traffic was a little hairy. We were really good in three and four, and could get up against the fence. The car was really, really nice. We just got left rear down a little after the restart. That made it a little interesting the last few laps, but there wasn’t a question on who won tonight.”
“I seem to get around this place really good and I have a lot of fun racing here,” said Williamson. “The track is always good whether it is super dry, or super heavy. It always seems to race good. I can’t thank Scott enough for giving me the opportunity to race his car here this week. It got right up on the fence tonight, and it was badass. I wish we could have got to battling a little bit more, but it was what it was.”
“I felt like this was going to be one of the tracks on the schedule that we might dominate because of my experience here,” said Cornell. “The last couple of years I haven’t ran, and Ayrton and Garret have. I think not racing enough the last couple years has definitely affected me here, and not being as aggressive getting into turn one. We made quite a few changes with the car since the last time we were here, and we really can’t complain about a podium finish.”
The Sprint Invaders next action will be Saturday, September 11 at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. For more information on the Sprint Invaders, visit www.SprintInvaders.com or look us up on Facebook.
Sprint Invaders A main (started), 20 laps: 1. 3, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (2) 2. 50, Garret Williamson, Kingdom City, MO (4) 3. 26, Jonathan Cornell, Sedalia, MO (1) 4. 21, Gunner Ramey, Sedalia, MO (5) 5. 99, Miles Paulus, Marshall, MO (3) 6. 7B, Ben Brown, Marshall, MO (9) 7. 33, Austin Alumbaugh, Higginsville, MO (7) 8. 11, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (6) 9. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (11) 10. 78, Kaley Gharst, Decatur, IL (13) 11. 35, Josh Higday, Des Moines, IA (14) 12. 29w, Wyatt Wilkerson, Morning Sun, IA (8) 13. 9, Daniel Bergquist, Burlington, IA (10) 14. 5A, Alex Vande Voort, Knoxville, IA (12). Lap Leader: Gennetten 1-25. KSE/$75 Christine Wahl-Levitt Hard-charger: Gharst. Hard-charger: Brown.
Randall’s Performance Heat one (started), 8 laps: 1. Ayrton Gennetten (4) 2. Colton Fisher (1) 3. Miles Paulus (6) 4. Wyatt Wilkerson (2) 5. Daniel Bergquist (3) 6. Alex Vande Voort (5) DNS – Kaley Gharst
Joshua Denning & Associates Heat two (started), 8 laps: 1. Garret Williamson (2) 2. Jonathan Cornell (3) 3. Austin Alumbaugh (4) 4. Gunner Ramey (5) 5. Ben Brown (6) 6. Tanner Gebhardt (1) DNS – Josh Higday
Shottenkirk Automotive Shake-up Dash (started), 6 laps: 1. Ayrton Gennetten (1) 2. Mile Paulus (3) 3. Garret Williamson (4) 4. Gunner Ramey (5) 5. Jonathan Cornell (2) DNS – Colton Fisher
Contingencies
MPD Racing: Colton Fisher
DMI: Jonathan Cornell
Ti22: Kaley Gharst
Saldana Racing Products: Josh Higday
CenPeCo $50 Mystery Spot: Daniel Bergquist