Open 4x4 Nationals at Bonne Terre a Huge Success

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By JEFF MILLS
BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- (June 10, 2006) Big River Sand Drags hosted the inaugural Open 4x4 Nationals and attracted 77 competitors and the largest grandstand crowd at the track in years. There were a lot of memorable events during the Open 4x4 Nationals, but none like the story of Steve Barton vs. John Dreher in the first place race for Competition Eliminator.
Big money and a good title were on the line: Both racers had been running great! Then as the tree comes down! Dreher red-lights with a .393 reaction-time. Well normally that would have just given the win to Barton, but guess what? Barton broke at the starting line! So if anyone other than Barton touched the car he would have been disqualified. So what did he do? He got out and literally pushed a 2,200 pound car across the finish line some 300-foot away. It took some time and some unbelievable hard work by Barton, but with the crowd chanting his name and cheering him on he pushed the car through the sand and across the finish line. It was an unbelievable effort.
Another key moment came when Daniel Wies of Wentzville won first place in Open 4x4, but J.R. Dreher of Wentzville took top eliminator and second place. J.R. also posted the fastest ET of the night at 3.592 sec.and 89.71 mph.
In Competition Eliminator, Barton won first place, but John Dreher came back and captured second and then top eliminator when Barton could not get his car fixed in time to race.
In Stock Eliminator, it was unreal. For years Gladys Edwards of Bonne Terre and Philip Beaird of St. Louis battled for the top spot even when there was only two or three cars there. Well Saturday night it was the same basic results, but with a 28 car field. Philip won first place and top eliminator with Gladys taking second.
In Super Pro ATV, Mark Dickens of Bloomsdale finished first, Shawn Jasper of Festus second and Doug Brown of Bloomsdale third.
In Junior ATV (PeeWee), Andrew Zack of High Ridge was first with Courtney Kling of O'Fallon, Mo. taking second and top eliminator.
Special awards were handed out to David Mallow of Bonne Terre for "Best Reaction Time" in Open 4x4; Steve Barton of Bonne Terre for "Best Package (of results from reaction time/time closest to dial-in) in Competition Eliminator; and Ronnie Maples of Farmington for "Best Package."
Racing action at Big River Sand Drags will continue this Saturday night (June 17) with the Driver's Seat's "Buggy Nationals." Gates open at 3 p.m. with time trials at 4 and racing at 7. For more information go to: www.bigriversanddrags.com or phone (573) 358-5009.
 




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