Cooney Wins in Photo Finish
Story by Josh Reynolds
STUART, IOWA (June 10) – Stuart Speedway welcomed back racers and fans for the sixth night of the 2012 racing season with the return of the IMCA Late Models to the track. Fans were hoping to see some hard racing and close finishes and they would not be disappointed! Austin Paul, Marcus Fagan, Shannon Anderson, Luke Wanninger, Todd Cooney and Wade King took the wins on First State Bank Night at the Races.
The first feature for the evening was for the IMCA Northern Sportmods with Austin Paul and Jerry Hinton on the front row. Paul took over the point with Hinton and David Schlicht following close behind for the first eleven laps. Nick Roberts and Schlicht battled hard for third while Paul was closing in on lap traffic. Paul had to be thinking of the week before when he was leading and his car shut off, but there would be none of that as he went on to take his second win of the year in the caution free event. Hinton finished second with Roberts winning the fight for third over Schlicht and Clint Luellen. Paul and Cole Ferguson were the heat race winners.
Changing up the lineup a bit to try and help out the track’s rough heat race conditions, the IMCA Stock Cars came out next with Scott Bailey and Bryan Snell on the front row. Fourth starting Jeremy Gettler set sail on the top side to lead lap one with first Bailey and then Jamie Schirm in the runner up spot. Jeff Joldersma passed Schirm on lap seven, just before Jeff Anderson rolled over out of turn two. Anderson was ok but he would be done for the evening. Gettler and Joldersma stayed 1-2 until lap fifteen when ninth starting Marcus Fagan moved past Joldersma and set his sights on Gettler. Fagan took over the lead on the next lap with Gettler fighting hard on the top side and Joldersma close behind. Brian Blessington closed on Joldersma to fight over third while Gettler continued to try out the top side as the white flag flew. Fagan stayed the course and led coming out of turn four as the crowd came to their feet! As the cars came to the finish line Gettler pulled alongside Fagan, but would come up just short as Fagan pulled out the win over Gettler by less than a foot! The win was Fagan’s first of the year. Joldersma settled for third with Blessington fourth and Schirm fifth. Fagan, Blessington and Gettler were the heat race winners.
IMCA Hobby Stocks were up next with Jamie Songer and Andrew Burg bringing the field to green. Songer led lap one with Shannon Anderson moving up to the top spot on lap two. Songer fought back on the bottom to lead lap three, but Anderson was too strong on the top side and took over for good on lap four. Cautions on laps nine and ten tightened up the field and set up a five lap shootout for the win. Anderson held strong to take his second win of the year over Songer. Brandon Pruitt ended in third with John Watson fourth and Jason Kohl fifth. Watson and Austin Luellen were the heat race winners.
Devon Havlik and Rex Parkison led the IMCA Modifieds to the green flag with third starting Luke Wanninger moving to the point on lap one. Parkison stayed in second until lap three when Josh Gilman moved past and worked to close on Wanninger. Todd Shute moved into third on lap five and the trio held form until a lap sixteen caution slowed the field. Shute went to the back after changing a tire, leaving Wanninger and Gilman to fight it out for the win. Gilman tried all that he could, but Wanninger was too strong and picked up his third win at the speedway. Gilman settled for second with Nick Deal third, Parkison fourth and Kent Croskey fifth. Parkison and Shute were the heat race winners.
Next up was the IMCA Late Models, gracing the stage for the second time this season. Dave Carlisle and Paul Glendenning pulled the first two chips out to make up the front row and Glendenning took the lead right out of the gate. Chad Cooney made it to second and set out to chase down Glendenning with Darrell DeFrance in third. DeFrance would slow on lap nine, bringing out the caution and setting up an eleven lap dash to the checkered flag. Glendenning held the lead on the bottom side while Todd Cooney moved past Chad Cooney on lap eleven on the high side. Glendenning stayed the course on the bottom for the rest of the race while Todd Cooney was almost scraping the mud off of the wall all the way around the track! Glendenning led at the white flag with Todd Cooney less than a car length behind. As the cars made it through turns three and four, Glendenning slowed for just a moment to get around a lap car. Glendenning put the hammer down out of four with Todd Cooney closing in and the crowd rose to their feet to see who would win! Todd Cooney would have just enough and took his second win in as many starts by less than a foot at the line! Glendenning finished in a disappointing second with Chad Cooney third, Vic Lovejoy fourth and DeFrance rebounding to finish fifth. Glendenning and DeFrance were the heat race winners.
The last race for the night was the 6 Cylinder FWD’s with Andy Forcht and Jer Pedersen on the front row. Third starting Wade King shot out to the lead right away and never looked back in picking up his second win at the track in as many starts. Forcht, the heat race winner, was second with Pedersen third.
We’d like to thank all who came out to support the race track on a warm and windy Sunday evening. Next week the dirt will fly as the IMCA Stock Cars battle it out for $1000 in the Stew Hansen Dodge Stock Car Shootout! Modifieds, Sportmods and Hobby Stocks will race for $400 to win and there will be a draw/redraw format as well. See you there!
Late Models – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 8 30 Todd Cooney Des Moines, Ia 40.00 2 2 33 Paul Glendenning Mount Ayr, Ia 39.00 3 4 31 Chad Cooney Des Moines, Ia 38.00 4 10 2V Vic Lovejoy Minilla , Ia 37.00 5 6 99D Darrell Defrance Marshalltown , Ia 36.00 6 11 8 Sterling Perkins Lamoni , Ia 35.00 7 1 32 Dave Carlisle Shannon City, Ia 34.00 8 3 11 Randy Faux Earlham , Ia 33.00 9 5 78 Joe Miller Vail , Ia 32.00 10 7 3 Kevin Sather Des Moines, Ia 31.00 11 9 24 Scott Fitzpatrick Urbandale , Ia 30.00
Modifieds – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 3 20 Luke Wanninger Jefferson , Ia 40.00 2 7 83G Josh Gilman Earlham , Ia 39.00 3 10 55D Nick Deal Walnut , Ia 38.00 4 2 31R Rex Parkison Earlham , Ia 37.00 5 4 12C Kent Croskey Polk City, Ia 36.00 6 9 5 Todd Shute Des Moines, Ia 35.00 7 1 5D Devon Havlik Iowa Falls, Ia 34.00 8 6 37 Alison Davidson Redding , Ia 33.00 9 11 131S Ed Seibert Dexter , Ia 32.00 10 8 19 Jimmy Gustin Marshalltown , Ia 31.00 11 5 3z Randy Havlik Madrid , Ia 30.00 DNS
Stock Cars – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 9 1F Marcus Fagan Adair , Ia 40.00 2 4 23A Jeremy Gettler Adair , Ia 39.00 3 8 66 Jeff Joldersma Mcclelland , Ia 38.00 4 7 92B Brian Blessington Breda , Ia 37.00 5 6 56 Jamie Schirm Dexter , Ia 36.00 6 12 0 Tony Hardisty Corning , Ia 35.00 7 10 26K Butch Bass Winterset , Ia 34.00 8 14 11 Steve Campbell Des Moines, Ia 33.00 9 3 11G Nyle Godwin Redfield , Ia 32.00 10 5 25 Bob Daniels Des Moines, Ia 31.00 11 11 7 Kenny Hansen Audubon , Ia 30.00 12 17 3 Joe Zadina Corning , Ia 29.00 13 16 711 Michael Walrod Desoto , Ia 28.00 14 15 6 Adam Hilgenberg Waukee , Ia 27.00 15 19 23H Rick Houseman Winterset , Ia 26.00 16 18 78 Jeff Anderson Atlantic , Ia 25.00 17 1 64 Scott Bailey Carlisle , Ia 24.00 18 2 3S Bryan Snell Coon Rapids, Ia 23.00 19 13 4 Ron Godwin Earlham , Ia 22.00 20 20 76 Norman Belew Granger , Ia 21.00 DNS
SportMods – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 1 A5 Austin Paul Monroe , Ia 40.00 2 2 34J Jerry Hinton Adel , Ia 39.00 3 9 23JR Nick Roberts Des Moines, Ia 38.00 4 6 19 David Schlicht Grand Junction, Ia 37.00 5 7 3L Clinton Luellen Minburn , Ia 36.00 6 4 3F Cole Ferguson Dexter , Ia 35.00 7 8 92P Michael Pruitt Redfield , Ia 34.00 8 5 99K Kody Havens Wiota , Ia 33.00 9 14 23 Jared Hansen Audubon , Ia 32.00 10 10 8.0 Josh Pruitt Stuart , Ia 31.00 11 3 32L Ty Luellen Minburn , Ia 30.00 12 12 46 Trevor Oberholtz Adair , Ia 29.00 13 13 39 Larry Embrey Madrid , Ia 28.00 14 15 64X Jeff Gruebel Lacona , Ia 27.00 15 16 11J Darrin Hardisty Cumberland , Ia 26.00 16 11 13T Taylor Musselman Norwalk , Ia 25.00
Hobby Stocks – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 4 78 Shannon Anderson Urbandale , Ia 40.00 2 3 96R Jamie Songer Ankeny , Ia 39.00 3 8 10B Brandon Pruitt Dexter , Ia 38.00 4 7 4W John Watson Des Moines, Ia 37.00 5 5 27 Jason Kohl Missouri Valley, Ia 36.00 6 12 38R Aaron Rudolph Grand Junction, Ia 35.00 7 2 78B Andrew Burg Adel , Ia 34.00 8 11 7C Chad Legere Des Moines, Ia 33.00 9 9 35G Phillip Castellano Des Moines, Ia 32.00 10 14 224 Gina Gruebel Lacona , Ia 31.00 11 13 31 Ben Truetken Knoxville , Ia 30.00 12 10 12M Matt Mcdonald Scranton , Ia 29.00 13 6 3A Austin Luellen Minburn , Ia 28.00 14 1 17 Nathan Lange Dexter , Ia 27.00 DNS
6 cyl. FWD – Feature Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points 1 3 43 Wade King Pleasantville , Ia 33.00 2 1 17 Andy Forcht Stuart , Ia 32.00 3 2 11 Jer Pedersen Dana , Ia 31.00
Category: Iowa, News, Stuart Speedway
