Chris Martin Opens Sprint Invaders Season With Win at 34 Raceway
WEST BURLINGTON, Ia. — Chris Martin of Ankeny, Iowa led from start to finish in the season lid lifter for the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders Saturday at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. The two-time Sprint Invaders champion’s win earned him $2,000 aboard the Chris Martin Racing #44 and came over 30 competitors. It was his third career win with the series on the 3/8-mile oval, and the ninth overall.
Martin started on the pole by virtue of a win in the Agriland FS Dash, but the 20-lap feature got off to a rocky start when contact from another car caused Tasker Phillips to do a 360 when completing the first lap, and back in the pack, Blaine Jamison got the worst of a chain reaction, flipping hard down the front stretch. He was uninjured. Tasker was forced to restart at the tail of the field, surrendering his front row starting spot.
Martin led Josh Schneiderman, Tanner Gebhardt, Brandon Anderson and defending series’ champion Paul Nienhiser early, before Colton Fisher broke his front end after contact two laps in. On the double-file restart, Nienhiser advanced two spots to third before a lap four caution for debris. On that restart, a multi-car pileup saw eighth running Carson McCarl and Nathan Murders go off on the hook, while sixth running Terry McCarl had to restart at the tail.
While Martin continued to lead Schneiderman and Nienhiser, Anderson and Gebhardt exchanged fourth. Just as Martin was entering lapped traffic at the halfway mark, Cole Mincer got over the top of the turn two corner and did a 360, bringing yellow again. One more lap was in the books, when Sawyer Phillips caught an infield tire, sending it skyward and taking off the top wing of his brother Tasker, who retired.
The lead five remained the same through a second Mincer spin, this one on lap 19. A one-lap Dash decided the finish, with Martin taking the win over Schneiderman and Nienhiser. Terry McCarl made a late charge on the bottom for fourth, ahead of Anderson. Gebhardt, Cody Wehrle, hard-charger Chase Porter, Riley Goodno and Cam Martin rounded out the top ten. Tasker Phllips, Schneiderman, Gebhardt and Anderson took the heat race wins, and Jamison claimed the B.
“I want to thank all the fans that came out on this chilly night,” said Martin in Victory Lane. “I’m happy I didn’t see any of it (the incidents behind him). We just kept our nose clean. We just kept on trucking. I’d like to thank my Dad (Richard), my crew chief, Danny Lasoski who couldn’t be here tonight. He’s been working hard with me to get this thing dialed in. My crew guy Graham and I spend more time with each other than our significant others sometimes.”
“I was tickled with the car right out of the box,” said Schneiderman. “This is a car we really didn’t race a lot last year, but Jarrod worked hard on it all winter and got it shined up. It’s always good to start out the season with a top three. You always want to win, but I gave it everything I had on that last lap. I tried the bottom just to see what was down there, but all in all, it was a solid evening.”
“It was good to get back in the car,” said Nienhiser. “We had a few things to clean up, but got pretty good by the end of the night. By the time we got to third, there wasn’t much we could do. I was trying some last ditch efforts. We couldn’t make anything happen there, but we tried. It was a pretty good start to the year.”
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Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders Results
Alchemy Skin & Health A main (started), 20 laps: 1. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (1) 2. 49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (4) 3. 50, Paul Nienhiser, Chapin, IL (5) 4. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (9) 5. 2, Brandon Anderson, Glenpool, OK (6) 6. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (3) 7. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (10) 8. 2x, Chase Porter, St. Joseph, MO (20) 9. 22, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (12) 10. 4, Cam Martin, Ankeny, IA (19) 11. 3P, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (7) 12. 7, Tyler Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA (23) 13. 55, Chase Brown, Yutan, NE (18) 14. 4G, Cole Garner, Sioux Falls, SD (16) 15. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (24) 16. 15JR, Cole Mincer, Burlington, IA (17) 17. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (2) 18. 27, Carson McCarl, Altoona, IA (15) 19. 71, Nathan Murders, Burlington, IA (22) 20. 5A, Clint Garner, Sioux Falls, SD (14) 21. 28, Luke Verardi, Taylorville, IL (11) 22. 99, Jake Blackhurst, Hanna City, IL (8) 23. 11, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (13) 24. 51J, Blaine Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (21). Lap Leader: Ch. Martin 1-20. KSE Hard-charger: Porter.
Randall’s Performance Heat one (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Tasker Phillips (2*) 2. Cody Wehrle (1*) 3. Luke Verardi (3*) 4. Riley Goodno (5*) 5. Carson McCarl (7*) 6. Chase Brown (8*) 7. McCain Richards (4) 8. 7B, Nick Guernsey, Burlington, IA (6)
Dennis Woodworth, Attorney at Law Heat two (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Jake Blackhurst (1*) 2. Terry McCarl (3*) 3. Paul Nienhiser (6*) 4. Colton Fisher (5*) 5. Chase Porter (4*) 6. Cam Martin (8*) 7. Tyler Lee (2) 8. 6, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (7)
Morning Sun Farm Implement Heat three (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Tanner Gebhardt (3*) 2. Josh Schneiderman (4*) 3. Sawyer Phillips (7*) 4. Cole Mincer (2*) 5. 99D, Tucker Daly, Hallsville, MO (1) 6. 52D, Skyler Daly, Columbia, MO (6) 7. 63, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (5)
Budweiser King of Beers – Golden Eagle Distributors Heat four (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Brandon Anderson (2*) 2. Chris Martin (5*) 3. Clint Garner (1*) 4. Cole Garner (3*) 5. Blaine Jamison (4) 6. Nathan Murders (7) 7. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (6)
Agriland FS Dash (started), 6 laps: 1.Chris Martin (2) 2. Tasker Phillips (7) 3. Tanner Gebhardt (3) 4. Josh Schneiderman (4) 5. Paul Nienhiser (6) 6. Brandon Anderson (5) 7. Sawyer Phillips (1) DNS – Jake Blackhurst
B main (started), 10 laps: 1. Blaine Jamison (1) 2. Nathan Murders (2) 3. Tyler Lee (7) 4. McCain Richards (4) / 5. Tucker Daly (6) 6. Nick Guernsey (5) 7. Riley Scott (3) DNS – Skyler Daly, JJ Hickle, Dustin Selvage
Contingencies
King Racing Products – Cody Wehrle
DMI – Tyler Lee
Saldana Racing Products – McCain Richards
BMRS – Tanner Gebhardt
BR Motorsports – Luke Verardi
Rod End Supply – Tasker Phillips, Tyler Lee, Josh Schneiderman
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