By David Sink
September 24, 2022 – Meridian, Idaho – Colton Nelson survived a first lap pileup and cruised to his second consecutive Pink Lady Classic victory Saturday night at Meridian Speedway in front of a packed grandstand.
The Speed Tour and NSRA event, with a promotional co-sanction with Must See Racing, has become the premier winged pavement sprint car race in the entire country in recent years. The race has been referred to as the Knoxville Nationals of pavement. This year’s field included drivers from 7 states and Canada.
Polesitter Aaron Willison got the jump at the start and lead the first 38 laps and was the leader at the conclusion of the first of three segments. The first segment featured 2 red flags including a lap one pileup that ended the night for several cars.
Willison would draw a 6 for the inversion of the second segment. Willison, who was the events fast qualifier, would not be one of the 10 cars to advance to the final segment. He spun after contact with Troy DeCaire and was forced to go to the tail. He wouldn’t be able to work his way back into the top 10.
Casey Tillman would win the second segment and the right to start on the ole for the final 24-lap segment alongside Colton Nelson who finished second in the Second segment.
When the green flag waved to start the final segment, Nelson powered into the lead and never looked back as he went on to win the event and collect $20,000 in the process. Nelson methodically worked his way into the lead by the start of the third segment from the 22nd starting position.
“It feels really good” explained Nelson in victory lane. “We earned this the hard way. The last time we locked in and didn’t have to run any of the qualifying races. We came from 22nd, avoided all the cars in the lap one crash. And worked our way to the front and got it done”.
“I made zero contact on that first lap crash. It was just duck and dive. Luckily, I didn’t get hit, nothing. At the start of the final segment, I knew I had to get on the motor and not let Tillman paly any games with me on that restart. Once I got in front of him it was clean sailing from there” concluded Nelson.
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 07-Colton Nelson; 2. 81-Casey Tillman; 3. 12L-Ron Larson; 4. 91-Bryan Warf; 5. 71-Riley Rogers; 6. 41-Tyler Roahrig; 7. 99-Cory Lockwood; 8. 6g-Bryan Gossel; 9. 81t-Mike Murgoitio; 10. 68-Mike Anderson; 11. 9-Troy DeCaire; 12. 14-Aaron Willison; 13. 36-Ryan Burdett; 14. 36d-Austin Luttmer; 15. 14j-Davey Hamilton Jr.; 16. 16-Rob Grice; 17. 63-Brent Collins; 18. 22L-Richie Larson; 19.8-Brad Aumen; 20. 77-Anthony Quintana; 21. 33-Kyle Alberding; 22. 2-Nate Little; 23. 57-Evan Margeson; 24. 24-Matt Elliott; 25. 12-Aaron McPeak; 26. 4-Aiden Spiers; 27. 16g-Austyn Gossel; 28. 4b-Alan Beck