FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Eagle, Nebraska – August 3, 2012 – John Anderson took advantage of race long leader Jesse Stovall’s misfortune to claim Friday night’s caution filled “Rumble in the Bull Ring” National Championship Racing Association of Park City, Kansas presented by Precise Racing Products and MARS DIRTcar topless late model feature event at Eagle Raceway in Eagle, Nebraska.
Tony Jackson, Jr. started on the pole for the forty lap feature but it was outside front row starter Jesse Stovall taking the lead as the green flag fell. Anderson moved into the runner up position from his third starting position and watched as the current MARS DIRTcar point leader opened up a ten car length lead.
Lapped traffic first came into play on lap four before several lapped cars were just in front of Stovall two laps later. Those lapped cars would prove to be fatal for Jackson as he would tangle with one in turn four and spin to bring out the first of the many cautions that would plague the event.
Several cautions dotted the next several laps, including the first of two red flags coming when Brandon Morton, Dean Moore, Jackson and Justin Asplin all tangled down the backstretch causing Morton to roll onto his roll cage on lap nineteen. Morton was uninjured but done for the night.
Anderson was hot on the leaders rear bumper on the restart and after another caution fell on lap twenty-three, Anderson got the momentum he needed as he used the top of the tracks quarter mile oval to race past Stovall down the backstretch.
However, Stovall would slow entering turns three and four and come to a stop on the front stretch with a flat right rear tire.
On the restart it was Anderson, followed by fourth starting Tommy Weder, Jr., Craig Preble, twelfth starting Kyle Berck and ninth starting Corey Zeitner with still sixteen laps remaining.
Berck, the former two-time NCRA series champion and already with two feature victories to his credit thus far on the 2012 race season, would dispose of Preble on the restart to take over the third position.
Weder would show his front bumper to the high flying Anderson and despite several more cautions, including the last with five laps to go, Anderson would hold on to claim his first NCRA victory of the year by six car lengths. Weder, who came into the night second in the NCRA point standings and already a feature winner on the tour this year, settled for second while Berck would come home third. Zeitner’s strong run ended with a fourth place finish while Preble rounded out the top five.
Current series point leader Gary Gorby had a rough night as he starting ninth and was caught up in a couple cautions that would eventually send him pit side and a 21st place finish.
The three, ten lap heat races for the twenty-three car field were won by Weder, Matt Johnson and Jackson.
1st Heat: 1) Tommy Weder, Jr., 2) Jesse Stovall, 3) Craig Preble, 4) Chase Junghans, 5) Kyle Berck, 6) Clinton Benson, 7) Scott Koskovich, 8) Alonzo Grosse
2nd Heat: 1) Matt Johnson, 2) John Anderson, 3) Gary Gorby, 4) Ben Sukup, 5) Brandon Morton, 6) Michael Leal, 7) Leroy Johnson, 8) Colton Leal
3rd Heat: 1) Tony Jackson, Jr., 2) Brian Kenkel, 3) Dean Moore, 4) Corey Zeitner, 5) Dan Battoglia, 6) Chris Avery, 7) Justin Asplin
A Feature; 1) 2 John Anderson, 2) 02 Tommy Weder, Jr., 3) 14b Kyle Berck, 4) 26 Corey Zeitner, 5) 22 Craig Preble, 6) 18 Chase Junghans, 7) 07 Ben Sukup, 8) 28 Leroy Johnson, 9) 45 Don Battoglia, 10) 23 Chris Avery, 11) 13 Michael Leal, 12) 00s Jesse Stovall, 13) 5j Matt Johnson, 14) 00b Clinton Benson, 15) Alonzo Grosse, 16) 14m Dean Moore, 17) 56 Tony Jackson, Jr., 18) 11m Brandon Morton, 19) Justin Asplin, 20) Scott Koskovich, 21) 7c Gary Gorby, 22) 13x Colton Leal, DNS: 33k Brian Kenkel