WHEATLAND, Mo. — In order to capture the Easter Bowl Enduro 150 on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway, it took avoiding on-track mayhem and mechanical malfunction while also getting a passing grade in the post-race trip to the tech building.
Will Tattershell was able to meet all three of those standards. As a result, despite taking the checkered flag in second place, Tattershell came away the $1,500 first prize in the headliner of Lucas Oil Speedway’s season-opening program.
Other feature winners included Logan Roark (POWRi Midwest Mods), Justin Wells (POWRi Hermitage Lumber Late Models) and Darin Porter (POWRi Pure Stocks). A total of 95 cars checked into the pits in the four divisions.
The finale was the third annual marathon and it appeared that Derrek Wilson was the winner of the race that took one hour and four minutes to complete. Wilson took the lead with 45 laps remaining and held it to the finish, taking an apparent win over Tatterhsell by about a straightaway’s margin.
But Wilson was disqualified afterward when his car failed post-race inspection.
Kevin Perkins took the lead on lap 47 and built an 11.6-second lead by lap 60. Alex Thomas cut the gap to just under six seconds when Perkins had a flat right-front tire on lap 84 and had to pull off, giving the lead to Thomas.
Wilson was 9.1 seconds behind when Perkins went off, but he began to chase down Thomas. He caught him on lap 105, taking the lead in turn two. Tattershell was in third, 10 seconds behind Thomas as the only other car on the lead lap at that point.
Wilson’s lead was 4.7 seconds by lap 120 with Tattershell 7.2 behind the leader as the finish began to come into focus. Thomas, who set the early pace as he started on the pole, began to fade by lap 130 and surrendered the runner-up position to Tattershell with 20 to go. Wilson maintained his lead as the laps continued to click away.
Tattershell kept cutting into the deficit, drawing within 4.5 seconds of Wilson with 10 laps to go. But Wilson cleared lapped traffic and was able to maintain his lead at just over four seconds with five remaining.
Wilson, with earlier Enduro wins this season at Springfield Raceway and 81 Speedway, hung on from there and took the checkers 6.3 seconds clear of Tattershell.
Bill Polzin officially wound up second with Thomas taking third followed by Blake Davidson and Jet Herrick.
Feature Finish:
1. 81WT-Will Tattershell[9]; 2. 11A-Bill Polzin[6]; 3. 42-Alex Thomas[1]; 4. 8B-Blake Davidson[39]; 5. 12-Jet Herrick[19]; 6. 44D-harold Hawk[35]; 7. 3P-Kevin Perkins[7]; 8. 10-Josh Stringer[10]; 9. 723-Dustin McNamara[23]; 10. 2T-Tom Lampe[27]; 11. 07-Jordan Goddard[29]; 12. 85-Nicholas Fritch[11]; 13. K4-Jack Wood[12]; 14. 1L-Zachary Lescault[13]; 15. 15-Curt Turpin[16]; 16. 1T-Tara Turpin[17]; 17. 55-Dallas Butchee[18]; 18. 41-Aaron Copher[20]; 19. 00X-Anthony Stark[21]; 20. 8-William Parr[4]; 21. 3-Kevin Synder[2]; 22. 32-Michael Groesbeck[34]; 23. 69A-Tyler McCoy[37]; 24. 7J-Jacob Walker[24]; 25. 279-Scott Benedix[14]; 26. 22-Troy Mitchell[38]; 27. 24J-Jermey Catron[5]; 28. 33-Michael Gillis[33]; 29. 203-George Turpin[32]; 30. 1-Trenton Parr[3]; 31. 94-Henry Whaley Jr[15]; 32. 1K-Butch Knox[8]; 33. 0-John Lampe[26]; 34. 179-Scott Lampe[28]; 35. 77J-wayne russell[30]; 36. 44-Shane Headley[36]; 37. 27-Payten Dinges[22]; 38. (DNS) 13SS-Andrew Pavlovic; 39. (DQ) 317-Derrek Wilson[25]