GAS CITY, Ind. – Due to rain on Friday night, seven features were run in the second half of the third annual Fall Festival of Speed and Non-Wing Nationals Saturday as Gas City I-69 Speedway concluded its season in a mega day of action on the quarter-mile dirt oval.
C.J. Leary won the 25-lap non-winged 410 sprint car feature held over from Friday night on Saturday afternoon, while Jason McDougal won a similar 25-lap feature on Saturday night to headline the top class, which had 38 entries.
Polesitter Shane Cockrum was committed to running the high side in the first 410 sprint feature Saturday afternoon, and he led the most laps of that race. Leary started fifth and experimented with both the low and the high lines in an effort to gain an advantage. He had to pass Cockrum twice, once on lap two and again on lap 19, to secure the victory in the No. 81X sponsored by Gray Auto, Speedtown Comfort Heating and Cooling, Applegate’s Seed House and Risch Innovations.
Leary’s winning move came after a slide job with Cockrum where space ran out and Cockrum slipped from first to fourth on the backstretch working lap 19. Leary was now in the lead again, and Cockrum’s misfortune elevated Jadon Rogers of Worthington, Ind., and track champion Scotty Weir to second and third, respectively.
Cockrum wasn’t done, though. He passed Weir on lap 20 to regain third, but Weir passed him back on lap 22.
Rogers, who was second, threw everything he had at Leary in an effort to win, but on that same lap with 22 laps down Rogers hit the outside wall on the frontstretch and flipped hard, ending his hopes for victory.
Cockrum regained second by passing Weir in turn four on the white-flag lap. Weir held on for third while McDougal finished fourth. Steve Irwin and Emerson Axsom came from 19th and 20th, respectively, to finish fifth and sixth.
Cockrum also finished second in the second 410 sprint feature Saturday night which McDougal won in the KO Motorsports No. 5 sponsored by Peterbuilt and CAM2.
That race was even closer. McDougal led the first two laps before Mario Clouser of Auburn, Ill., used the high line to pass him in turn one. Clouser and McDougal ran nose-to-tail until Ryan Thomas spun to a stop high in turn four with seven laps down to bring out a yellow flag.
Clouser maintained the lead by .009 seconds after the restart, but there was contact between Clouser and McDougal working lap nine that caused Clouser to spin and drop to 18th place and gave the lead to McDougal. Clouser went to the work area but it was all for naught.
Clouser’s absence elevated Robert Ballou to second. Leary came on strong shortly thereafter and rose from fifth on lap 12 to third by lap 13 by passing both Cockrum and Matt Westfall of Pleasant Hill, Ohio. Leary got second by passing Ballou on lap 17, but Ballou got him back on the next lap.
Cockrum was back in fourth place while all this was going on, but he dipped under Leary for third in turn four on lap 21, and used the same low line to pass Ballou for second on lap 22. He tried his best to pass McDougal too, but fell short by .258 seconds.
Weir passed Ballou on the last lap for third. Ballou hung on for fourth and Leary finished fifth.
Jake Kouba was victorious in the 25-lap IRA Auto Meter Wisconsin wingLESS sprint car feature postponed from Friday. Dan Wade posted his first win ever in the second feature for that series Saturday night.
Pavement star Tyler Roahrig, the winner of this year’s Pay Less Little 500 asphalt sprint car race at nearby Anderson Speedway, won the 20-lap modified feature in only his third start ever on a dirt track.
Veteran Ervin Turner won the 20-lap street stock main event in a division that attracted 33 entries.
Landon Arcaro closed the season by winning the 15-lap hornet feature in his first race at Gas City.