From Bill Wright
Brad Sweet chased James McFadden for 29 laps at 34 Raceway and finally was able to make the pass on the final circuit as McFadden was trapped low by lapped cars in High Limit Racing action Friday night.
34 Raceway
High Limit Sprint Cars
44 cars
Cars were divided into two qualifying groups. Kerry Madsen (7th car out to time) set quick time in the first group and quick time overall on the 3/8-mile oval at 12.884 seconds. Aaron Reutzel (5th car out) was second quick, followed by Zeb Wise (9th), Brad Sweet (17th) and James McFadden (11th). Brent Marks (20th car out) was quickest in the second group, followed by Brenham Crouch (3rd), Tanner Thorson (8th), Cory Eliason (6th) and Brandon Wimmer (10th).
Heat one (started): 1. McFadden 83 (2) 2. Wise 26 (1) 3. Madsen 55V (4) 4. Chase Randall 2KS (3) 5. Hunter Schuerenberg 19H (6) / 6. Spencer Bayston 5 (7) 7. Corey Day 14 (8) 8. Kasey Kahne 9 (10) 9. JJ Hickle 7 (5) 10. Josh Schneiderman 49J (9) 11. Cole Mincer 15JR (12) 12. Chase Richards 4x (11)
8-lap heats took the winner and fastest qualifier who made the top five to the Dash. McFadden led wire to wire. Madsen took third from Randall on lap two.
Heat two (started): 1. Sweet 49 (1) 2. Parker Price-Miller 9P (2) 3. Reutzel 87 (4) 4. Chris Windom 55 (5) 5. Ayrton Gennetten 3 (3) / 6. Scotty Thiel 73 (10) 7. Paul Nienhiser 50 (8) 8. Cam Martin 4 (6) 9. Sterling Cling 34 (7) 10. Jon Hughes 67 (11) 11. McKenna Haase 55T (9)
Most single-file other than a good battle for second, with Reutzel pressuring throughout.
Heat three (started): 1. Wimmer 6 (2) 2. Thorson 88 (1) 3. Marks 19 (4) 4. Emerson Axsom 27 (3) 5. Brian Bell 23B (6) / 6. Justin Peck 13 (5) 7. Skylar Gee 99 (8) 8. Jacob Allen 1a (7) 9. Chris Martin 44 (9) 10. Sawyer Phillips 3P (11) 11. Todd King 47 (10)
Wimmer led throughout. Marks took third from Bell on lap two. Axsom took the fifth and final transfer from Peck on the same lap, and then took third from Bell on lap seven.
Heat four (started): 1. Eliason 8 (1) 2. Brian Brown 21 (3) 3. Rico Abreu 24 (2) 4. Tyler Courtney 7BC (5) 5. Garet Williamson 23 (6) / 6. Crouch 1 (4) 7. Christopher Thram 24T (8) 8. Matt Juhl 25 (9) 9. Austin McCarl 88A (7) 10. Tyler Lee 7T (10)
Eliason led the distance. Courtney snagged fourth from Crouch on lap four. Williamson pressured in the late stages for the final transfer and passed Crouch for it on the last lap.
Dash (started): 1. McFadden (2) 2. Reutzel (1) 3. Sweet (3) 4. Marks (4) 5. Eliason (5) 6. Brown (7) 7. Madsen (6) 8. Wimmer (8)
The 6-lap Dash set the starting lineup for the first four rows in the feature. It was a mostly single-file affair.
B main (started): 1. Day (7) 2. Hickle (1) 3. Thiel (5) 4. Crouch (2) / 5. Bayston (3) 6. Peck (4) 7. Phillips (16) 8. Allen (10) 9. Lee (18) 10. Ch. Martin (13) 11. Thram (8) 12. Haase (21) 13. Ca. Martin (12) 14. Cling (15) 15. Edwards (22) 16. Mincer (19) 17. McCarl (15) 18. Kahne (11) 19. Gee (6) 20. Nienhiser (9) 21. King (20) 22. Hughes (17) DNS – Juhl, Schneiderman
The 12-lap hooligan saw the top four head to the feature. It took three tries. The first lap saw Peck get turned around, collecting Thram, Hughes and Chr. Martin. Gee brought out the caution on the second try, and a gaggle of cars getting together on the third saw Nienhiser flip. He was uninjured. Hughes, Gee and Thram were also colleted. Hickle led early over Crouch, Day and Bayston. Thiel picked the pocket of Bayston on the low side of four on lap four. Day took second from Crouch on lap six. McCarl suffered a flat with two laps to go setting up a restart that saw Day leading Hickle, Thiel, Crouch and Bayston. The top four stayed the same. Bayston pressured for the final transfer, but couldn’t make it stick. Four provisionals would be used by High Limit regulars.
A main (started): 1. Sweet (3) 2. McFadden (1) 3. Marks (4) 4. Reutzel (2) 5. Brown (6) 6. Thorson (10) 7. Eliason (5) 8. Day (21) 9. Windom (15) 10. Wise (9) 11. Madsen (7) 12. Courtney (16) 13. Randall (13) 14. Price-Miller (11) 15. Abreu (12) 16. Axsom (14) 17. Schuerenberg (17) 18. Peck (27, prov.) 19. Allen (26, prov.) 20. Thiel (23) 21. Gennetten (19) 22. Williamson (20) 23. Bayston (25, prov.) 24. Crouch (24) 25. Wimmer (8) 26. Bell (22) 27. Kahne (28, prov.) 28. Hickle (22)
The 30-lapper went non-stop. McFadden led Sweet, Reutzel, Marks and Eliason early. Brown would take fifth from Eliason on lap two, while Marks took third from Reutzel. Thorson would move by Brown into the top five on lap four. The low groove was the way to go for the leaders, and McFadden got to traffic by lap nine. It looked to be a train until Sweet started using the high side in three and four, and a few times in one and two. Traffic allowed him to reel in the leader. With four to go, McFadden was slowed by the lapped car of Thiel. Sweet led lap 26. McFadden stayed true to the low side, with Sweet hitting the high side of three and four. Sweet looked to have it in the bag until the last lap in three and four. McFadden used the low side to surge and pulled beside the leader. Sweet still edged him by .012 of a second. Day was the hard-charger.