Krankel Crowds Trophy Case,
Wins Fourth Ironman Late Model Main!
By Steve Birmingham
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June 5, 2004; Granite City, IL – Tom Krankel swept up the house to make room for another trophy, winning his fourth straight Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Racing Series Ironman Late Model feature at Tri-City.
Krankel easily won his heat and led every lap of the Dash for Cash, setting the stage for his run to Victory Lane. While the crowd encouraged him to take the $100 bonus and a sixth starting spot for the nightcap, Krankel chose the pole and never once looked back to see first heat winner Michael Kloos, Terry James, Pat Ryan and Steve Meyer, Jr. trailing behind.
With more sheet metal ending up in the infield that on the race cars, the crash-strewn Mountain Dew Sportsman main struggled to a conclusion with David Walker sailing across the line ahead of Bubb Mitchell and Bert Jacoby.Winning the heats were Walker, Mitchell and Rick Jones. Steve Johnson took the Semi.
Mark Pflueger won his first career Dominos Street Stock feature, besting Rick Huebner and Tony King. Pflueger, Tony Miller and David Parker won the heats with Brad Gilleland the Semi.
Dean Vickers won his first Budweiser Modified main of the season ahead of Ricky Huebner and John Stanton.Jerry Degrendele, Paul Bailey and Bobby Martintoni nabbed the heats with Jay Hughes taking the Semi.
Todd Erickson won his first Auto Trader Factory Stock main event, topping Todd Oplt and Ken Bell, Gary Price, Josh Porch and Robert Crawford, Jr. won the heats.