From David Sink
April 26, 2025 – Irvington, Alabama – Tampa, Florida’s Johnny Gilbertson held off Dave Mader III to win Saturday night’s 360 winged sprint car feature at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama. Gilbertson led the final twenty laps to score his first career victory at MIS and claim $2,500 for his efforts. It was the first time winged sprint cars had competed at the historic half-mile speedway since 2019.
Butch David took the lead from his pole position starting spot at the green. He immediately had Gilbertson breathing down his neck for the lead followed closely by Mader III. Gilbertson was finally able to wrestle the top spot when David encountered heavy lapped traffic on lap four.
Over the final twenty laps, Mader III was able to catch Gilbertson on multiple occasions as he struggled with lapped traffic. Mader III was able to get alongside Gilbertson several times during the second half of the race.
The yellow flag flew on lap twenty-three for third place running Butch David who lost a right front tire entering turn four. Gilbertson would cruise to a 4.166 margin of victory in clean air the final two laps over Mader III with Branded Blenden rounding out the top three.
The only serious incident of the night occurred on the final lap of heat race #1. Todd Fayard made contact with JR Wood. The contact pushed Wood into the infield where he tipped the car on its side. Wood was ok but was unable to start the feature event.
“The car was pretty good” explained Gilbertson I victory lane. “I was trying to conserve tires because we ran the same tires tonight as we did at Citrus County (Florida) a couple months ago. That 18 snuck up on me one time and surprised me. I knew I had to step it up. We had that caution with two to go and it cooled the tires down enough so that I could push them a little hard the final two laps” concluded Gilbertson.
Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. 77-Johnny Gilbertson; 2. 18-Dave Mader III; 2. 32-Branden Blended; 4. 13-Todd Fayard; 5. 67-Blake Mallette; 6. 6-Chase Wood Sr.; 7. 21-Butch David; 8. 83-Blake Carrier; 9. 56-Stan Smith; 10. 94-Parker Davis; DNS 27-JR Wood; 121-Todd Bliss