By Charlie Spry
COLUMBUS, WI. (Sunday, October 2, 2011). Gary Stark Jr. not only had the fastest qualifying laps and won the fast dash, he also had a little bit of luck on his side, as he crossed the finish line in second place, but won the 100 lap Bandit Bowl II feature event after the apparent winner failed post-race inspection at the Columbus 151 Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
Tom Bleeker jumped into the lead at the start of the event from his pole position starting spot, but his rhythm was broken when the caution flag was displayed on lap four for debris on the racing surface. On the restart, Bleeker again jumped out to the lead, as Bob Kohn settled into second spot, with Mark Johler holding onto third. Haley Kapp began making her move towards the front, taking over third spot, while Kyle Stark began moving up from deep in the field.
On lap 12, Kyle Stark would drop out of the event, with John Beale and Gary Stark moving up through the pack. At this point, Derek Dixon also made his way past several cars, becoming a factor in the race. Stark cleared Beale for fourth on lap 24, and took the third spot three laps later. Dixon also disposed of Beale on lap 30, and passed Kapp for fourth on lap 27. Dixon wrestled third spot from Stark, and then second spot from Kohn on lap 37, then made his way past Bleeker on lap 40 for the lead, while Kapp had a tire go down on her machine at the same time, dropping her momentarily from the event. At this point, Dixon began stretching his lead on the pack, until Gary Stark took over the second spot and began attempting to chase down Dixon. He got as close as Dixon's rear bumper several times as lapped traffic held up the leader a bit, but in clear traffic Dixon would stretch the lead. As the laps continued on, Dixon seemed to pull away in the late stages, as Stark appeared to be settling for the second spot. As the field crossed under the checkers, Dixon took the apparent win, with Stark second, John Beale third, Mark Johler fourth, Bleeker fifth, and Kohn sixth. However, during post-race inspection, Dixon was disqualified from the event, giving second finishing Gary Stark the big win, and moving everyone else up. These four cylinder racers did a very nice job, as the lap four caution was the only stoppage of the race.
Three qualifying races were run in order fill the field, with Bleeker and Johler qualifying from the first, Mike Storkson and Carl Benn from the second, and Bob Kohn and Shaun Scheel qualifying from the third event. Making the big show from the last chance races were Jay Orr, Waylin Willman, and Jeremy Bredeson in the first, and Kyle Riedner, Dave Schmidt, and Ed Klug in the third. A "B-main" event was run for those not qualifying for the feature, with Barrett Hammond taking the win. Gary Stark Jr. set fast time at 15.420 seconds, and also won the fast dash.
The Backup racers also ran a feature, with Rick Verdon taking the lead at the start and holding it to the end to record his first feature win of the season. John Von Allmen closed in at the end, but ran out of time to chase Verdon down, settling for second.
This article was posted to the website on October 2nd, 2011
