EAST MOLINE, Ill. — Ayrton Gennetten captured his third career win with the Sprint Invaders Wednesday night at the East Moline Speedway during the Rock Island County Fair.
The native of Gravois Mills, Mo., earned $2,000 for his victory aboard the Scott Bonar/Midland Performance No. 50.
After winning the Shottenkirk Automotive Shake-up Dash, Gennetten drew the pole for the 25-lap main event. Before a lap was completed, however, two incidents slowed things. Kaley Gharst suffered a mechanical breakdown stemming from a heat race incident in which he was collected by the machine of Rob Kubli, who had broken an axle.
Blaine Jamison was cruising on the cushion in one and two at the next try at green, when he contacted the right rear tire of another car and flipped hard in turn two. Braydn Greubel also tipped over at the same time.
On the second attempt to start the race, the drivers ran 25 laps without incident. Gennetten shot out to his lead over Jonathan Cornell, Austin McCarl, Chris Martin and Tanner Gebhardt. He was into lapped traffic by the sixth circuit.
McCarl started gaining on Cornell and passed him on the low side in lapped traffic at the halfway point for the runner-up position. Gennetten and McCarl used the highest stretches of the high-banked quarter-mile to pull away from the field.
McCarl closed late on Gennetten, but ran out of time, and settled for second. Cornell was third, ahead of Martin and Garret Williamson from row six.
“I’ve been racing a lot with the Outlaws, and at a lot of different tracks night in and night out,” said Gennetten ne. “It kind of helps me there, being able to adapt. This track reminds me of Double X (Speedway near California, Missouri). It’s where I started, and where I got my first win. It was super narrow in one and two, and on the wall. I love it like that. I didn’t know how big a lead I had, and the lapped cars were running different lines. I was trying to be patient, but set a good pace. I saw Austin down there with a slider, and I’m glad we didn’t have another lap. I wanted to move around some, but not too much. The momentum was the key to get the win.”
McCarl finished second.
“I kind of felt like we needed more traffic to get Gennetten to move around,” said McCarl. “He did a good job. Another good job by everyone here on the (Jimmy Davies) No. 99 car. We’re chipping away at a win here, and we’re slowly getting better. I needed (Gennetten) to make a mistake late there, and I was trying not to make them. He did a good job, and I felt we did everything we could do with what we had there at the end.”
Travis Denning won the IMCA modified feature and Jimmy Dutlinger topped the sport compact main event.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 50, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (1) 2. 99, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (3) 3. 26, Jonathan Cornell, Sedalia, MO (2) 4. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (4) 5. 24, Garret Williamson, Columbia, MO (11) 6. 88, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (12) 7. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (5) 8. 40c, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (7) 9. 11, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (9) 10. 83, Kurt Mueller, Reynolds, IL (10) 11. 23K, Rob Kubli, Milo, IA (18) 12. 9, Daniel Bergquist, Burlington, IA (13) 13. 11T, Dugan Thye, Burlington, IA (14) 14. 13, Brayden Gaylord, Wever, IA (15) 15. 29w, Wyatt Wilkerson, Morning Sun, IA (17) 16. 31P, Travis Porter, Rock Island, IL (21) 17. 10T, Tim Moore, Moline, IL (19) 18. 35, Josh Higday, Des Moines, IA (6) 19. 51J, Blaine Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (8) 20. 99x, Braydn Greubel, Lacona, IA (20) 21. 78, Kaley Gharst, Decatur, IL (16) DNS – 84K, Wayne Kniffen, Fort Madison, IA. Lap Leader: Gennetten 1-25. KSE/$75 Christine Wahl-Levitt Hard-charger:Kubli.