By Bill Wright
(Stuart, IA 6-4-23)-
Stuart International Speedway
Stuart, IA
Malvern Bank 360 Series
19 cars
Great weather welcomed the first 360 sprint car race in the quarter-mile track’s history.
Heat one (started): 1. Cam Martin 4 (1) 2. Monty Ferriera 45 (2) 3. Chase Brown 55 (3) 4. Colton Fisher 11 (6) 5. Brandon Stevenson 91 (5) 6. Boyd Peterson 57B (4) 7. Riley Valentine 32 (7)
Ca. Martin led the distance and won convincingly in a mostly single-file affair. 8-lap heats used passing points to set the feature.
Heat two (started): 1. Chris Martin 44 (1) 2. John Klabunde 77 (2) 3. Stu Snyder 23s (5) 4. Don Droud Jr. 1m (4) 5. Austin Miller 83A (6) 6. Bradyn Greubel 99 (3)
Martin led the distance Greubel exited early. Snyder got a good jump on the start to move up two spots.
Heat three (started): 1. Cody Ledger 35L (2) 2. Jason Martin 36 (3) 3. Joey Danley 14 (1) 4. Justin Jacobsma 10J (4) 5. Josh Higday 1E (5) 6. Ethan Jones 23J (6)
Ledger led wire to wire. J. Martin grabbed second with a slider on Danley on lap two.
A main (started): 1. Ch. Martin (3) 2. J. Martin (4) 3. Snyder (7) 4. Droud Jr. (11) 5. Ledger (6) 6. Danley (9) 7. Ca. Martin (1) 8. Ferriera (5) 9. Higday (15) 10. Stevenson (14) 11. Brown (8) 12. Valentine (19) 13. Peterson (17) 14. Fisher (10) 15. Jones (16) 16. Klabunde (2) 17. Jacobsma (12) 18. Miller (13) 19. Greubel (18)
The track was juiced and set up a great feature. With the dry tracks lately around the Midwest, this one was a treat to watch. Klabunde led the 25-lapper early over J. Martin and Ca. Martin. Chr. Martin grabbed third from his brother on lap three. Miller got upside down on lap five. He was uninjured. Jacobsma got over the rear tire of another car that was slowing for the red and broke his front end. Klabunde led J. Martin, Ch. Martin, Ca. Marin and Ledger back to green. Snyder moved into the top five on the restart, and Klabunde was in lapped traffic when he went a little high in turn one, hit the wall and got upside down. He was unhurt. J. Martin assumed the lead ahead of Ch Martin, Ca Martin, Ledger and Snyder. Ledger jumped up to third on the restart before Brown spun nine laps in collecting Fisher, who had nowhere to go. Snyder moved by Ca. Martin for fourth on that restart. Fisher spun on lap ten, and was sent pitside for causing two cautions though the first was unavoidable as he was collected. Anyway, it was the last slowdown. J. Martin took off with Ch. Martin in tow. Snyder moved into third shortly after. Ch. Martin slowly reeled in J. Martin and shot a slider in turn two at him with two to go. It would stick and he’d take home the $2,000 prize. Droud was the hard-charger.