(Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
10/19/24
Riverside International Speedway
West Memphis, AR
ASCS vs. USCS World Short Track Challenge Finale
53 cars
Derek Hagar and Dale Howard locked themselves into the $10,000 to win 40-lap finale tonight by finishing first and second in Friday’s Prelim. Points had the remaining 51 drivers who signed in set up in their heats.
Brad Bowden went up in smoke in hot laps and was done for the night.
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 2C-Hank Davis[2*]; 2. 10M-Morgan Turpen Havener[4*]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 4. 55Z-Zach Pringle[5]; 5. 91A-Ernie Ainsworth[1]; 6. 44-Ronny Howard[8]; 7. 4C-Cooper Looney[7]; 8. 27J-Joseph Poe Jr[6] DNS – 95-Matt Covington
10-lap heats were set by Friday’s points, but everyone started fresh with passing points taking the top eight to the feature to join Hagar and Howard. The top four locked into the Dash. Davis led wire to wire. Havener took second from Ainsworth with a slide job in turn four on lap two. J. Martin followed her into third on lap five.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2*]; 2. 6J-Kyle Jones[4*]; 3. 10-Terry Gray[3]; 4. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 5. 88-Terry Easum[1]; 6. 28-Jeff Willingham[8]; 7. 16-Hannah Merritt[7]; 8. 21M-Spencer Meredith[6]
Hafertepe led the distance going away, with Jones going from fourth to second right away. Gray passed Easum for third on lap four. Meredith hit the wall and pulled to the infield early.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 6-Cody Gardner[4*]; 2. 71T-Christopher Townsend[1]; 3. 121-Jan Howard[6*]; 4. 84-Brandon Hanks[2]; 5. 88C-Brogan Carder[8]; 6. 48-Wade Buttrey[5]; 7. 40-Howard Moore[3]; 8. 16S-Steven Howell[7]
Hanks led Townsend, Gardner and J. Howard early. Gardner and Townsend swapped sliders, with Townsend’s getting negated when Moore got upside down on lap four. He was unhurt. Buttrey was also involved. Hanks led Gardner, Townsend and J. Howard back to green. Gardner quickly took the lead on the restart. Townsend slid by for second on lap six, and J. Howard passed Hanks for third with two to go.
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 37-Ayden Gatewood[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 3. 31-Casey Wills[5]; 4. 17B-Brayden Taylor[4]; 5. 8-Joseph Wray IV[6]; 6. 23L-Lance Moss[2] DNS – 8x-Brad Bowden, 8XR – Hayden Martin
Gatewood led flag to flag. L. Moss rode out the wall in three and four, but kept it going. It did bring a caution for fence repair. Not much action after that.
Heat five (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 3-Jordon Mallett[2*]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel[1]; 3. 10L-Landon Britt[4]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 5. 23W-Conner Wray[6]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[5]; 7. 15D-Andrew Deal[9]; 8. 13X-Jake Brashier[8]; 9. 2T-Todd Bradford[7]
Mallett led the distance in a mostly single-file affair.
Heat six (started, *qualified for feature): 1. 26-Marshall Skinner[1]; 2. 21-Carson Short[3]; 3. 91-Kyle Connery[5]; 4. 88M-Trent Moss[9*]; 5. 56T-DL (Tank) Brashier[8]; 6. 91H-Chase Howard[6]; 7. 901-Tucker Boulton[2]; 8. 5L-Anton Hernandez[4]; 9. 29R-Corey Ray[7]
Ray got upside down on the first lap. He was uninjured, but done for the night. Boulton led Skinner, Hernandez and Short early in a spirited start that saw close racing. Skinner took the lead on lap two, before Boulton and Hernandez tangled and got into the turn one wall. Both were ok, and done for the night. Skinner led the restart, ahead of Short, C. Howard and Connery. C. Howard bowed out with two to go. T. Moss earned a feature spot by finishing fourth after starting ninth.
C main one (started): 1. 15D-Andrew Deal[2]; 2. 48-Wade Buttrey[4]; 3. 88-Terry Easum[3]; 4. 16-Hannah Merritt[6]; 5. 16S-Steven Howell[8] / 6. 23L-Lance Moss[5]; 7. 2T-Todd Bradford[10]; 8. 13X-Jake Brashier[7]; 9. 21M-Spencer Meredith[9]; 10. 44-Ronny Howard[1]; DNS - 95-Matt Covington, 8XR-Hayden Martin
12-lap C’s took the top five to the B’s. Deal led R. Howard, Easum, Buttrey and L. Moss on lap one. Things shook up on lap two when Buttrey went from fourth to second, before R. Howard lost control on the backstretch, narrowly avoiding taking out L. Moss. The restart saw Deal leading Buttrey, Easum, Merrill and Meredith. Meredith dropped out late, giving the final transfer to Howell.
C main two (started): 1. 91A-Ernie Ainsworth[2]; 2. 40-Howard Moore[6]; 3. 4C-Cooper Looney[5]; 4. 2J-Zach Blurton[4]; 5. 28-Jeff Willingham[1] / 6. 27J-Joseph Poe Jr[8]; DNS - 91H-Chase Howard, 901-Tucker Boulton, 5L-Anton Hernandez, 29R-Corey Ray, 8X-Brad Bowden;
Ainsworth dominated the distance. Looeny held down second until Moore shot by him on the last lap. Moore had gained third from Willingham on lap two. Blurton moved into fourth.
Dash (started): 1. 3-Jordon Mallett[1]; 2. 6-Cody Gardner[2]; 3. 47-Dale Howard[4]; 4. 2C-Hank Davis[3]; 5. 9JR-Derek Hagar[6]; 6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]
The 6-lap Dash determined the starting positions for the first three rows of the feature. There wasn’t much action in this one.
B main one (started): 1. 37-Ayden Gatewood[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 71T-Christopher Townsend[4]; 4. 10L-Landon Britt[5]; 5. 31-Casey Wills[3] / 6. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[8]; 8. 23W-Conner Wray[10]; 9. 48-Wade Buttrey[12]; 10. 16-Hannah Merritt[14]; 11. 56T-DL (Tank) Brashier[6]; 12. 88-Terry Easum[13]; 13. 16S-Steven Howell[15]; 14. 15D-Andrew Deal[11]; 15. 10-Terry Gray[7]
The top five were set on lap one, but all eyes were on Bergman, who was trying to make the high side work in running down Wills for the final transfer spot. He didn’t quite get there.
B main two (started): 1. 26-Marshall Skinner[1]; 2. 16G-Austyn Gossel[4]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 4. 55Z-Zach Pringle[7]; 5. 40-Howard Moore[12] / 6. 84-Brandon Hanks[10]; 7. 91A-Ernie Ainsworth[11]; 8. 91-Kyle Connery[3]; 9. 88C-Brogan Carder[5]; 10. 4C-Cooper Looney[13]; 11. 17B-Brayden Taylor[8]; 12. 8-Joseph Wray IV[9]; 13. 2J-Zach Blurton[14]; 14. 21-Carson Short[2]; 15. 28-Jeff Willingham[15]
Short led Skinner, Gossel, J. Martin and Connery early. Pringle got by Connery for the final transfer on lap two. Short suffered a flat right rear tire, something that plagued him all weeken, and retired from the lead. Skinner now led Gossel, J. Martin, Pringle and Connery. Moore grabbed fifth on the restart for Short. Hanks was coming from deep as well, and passed Moore after a Taylor spin on lap eight. Moore worked back by him, however, completing a run from 12th.
A main (started): 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[5]; 2. 3-Jordon Mallett[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]; 4. 2C-Hank Davis[4]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[13]; 6. 47-Dale Howard[3]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[16]; 8. 10M-Morgan Turpen Havener[8]; 9. 6J-Kyle Jones[9]; 10. 26-Marshall Skinner[12]; 11. 40-Howard Moore[20]; 12. 31-Casey Wills[19]; 13. 37-Ayden Gatewood[11]; 14. 10L-Landon Britt[17]; 15. 71T-Christopher Townsend[15]; 16. 16G-Austyn Gossel[14]; 17. 121-Jan Howard[10]; 18. 6-Cody Gardner[2]; 19. 55Z-Zach Pringle[18]; 20. 2J-Zach Blurton[21]; 21. 88M-Trent Moss[7]
The 40-lapper had a hard time getting going. On the first try, Pringle came to a stop. Then T. Moss tipped over. The third attempt saw Jones and Gatewood tangling in one and two. Finally, Mallett led Gardner, Davis, Hafertepe and Hagar early on. Hagar worked the low side to get by Hafertepe for fourth on lap five. There wasn’t much going on on the high side of the track, but Hagar tried the middle and got by Gardner for third on lap 10. Davis had shot by Mallett for the lead, but that was negated (split yellows were not used) when a caution came out. On lap 11, Hafertepe tagged Gardner’s rear bumper, spinning him. Mallett led Davis, Hagar, Hafertepe and D. Howard back to green. Mallett hit lapped traffic on lap 22 before Townsend brought the yellow out again for a 360 spin. Hagar used the restart to try the middle again, and got by Davis for second. He reeled in Mallett slowly and entered turn one high and came down the low side of turn two on lap 34 to take the point. He hit lapped traffic on lap 35, but had no issues in taking another win. J. Martin was the hard-charger.