Thornton, Nichols, Luellen, Anderson and Benischek Win on First State Bank Season Opener at Stuart
by Jeremy Fox
Stuart, Iowa (May 8th, 2016) - Sunday Night the Stuart International Speedway opened its 2016 season with 60 cars signed in to compete in five classes on First State Bank Season Opener.
Ricky Thornton Jr (IMCA Modifieds), Mike Nichols (IMCA Stock Cars), Clint Luellen (IMCA SportMods), Shannon Anderson (IMCA Hobby Stocks) and Jake Benischek (IMCA Sport Compacts).
First feature of the night was the IMCA SportMods 15 lap feature and it was Jake McBirnie grabbing the early lead. McBirnie knew that Clint Luellen was coming and saw the 3L stick his nose there several times. Luellen made the right move and took the win ahead of McBirnie. Adam Armstrong, Shawn Cooney and Austin Luellen round out the top five.
Jake Benischek made the long trek well worth it as he led all ten laps from his outside front row starting spot. John Gill came home second ahead of Curtis Miller, Jacob Reiter and Steve Prusia.
Mike Nichols led all 20 laps in the caution free IMCA Stock Car feature event. Chris Pruitt ran second, Robbie Merkle was third. Brian Blessington moved from tenth to fourth and Marcus Fagan finished fifth.
John Watson hoped to get a win on the weekend at Stuart in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Watson looked to be the man in charge but the caution came out on lap six and seven, both restarts allowed Shannon Anderson to get a great restart which allowed Anderson to get by Watson on lap ten. Anderson took the win, Watson was second, Buck Schafroth in third, Ryan Grochala in fourth and Jamie Schirm in fifth.
Final feature of the night was the IMCA Modifieds 20 lap feature event and it was Dylan Book taking early control but Josh Gilman grabbed the top spot away on lap four and appeared to be pulling away only to see the caution come out on lap eight. That allowed Ricky Thornton Jr to get a great restart and set his sights on getting by Gilman. Thornton would do exactly that on lap 11 and two laps later the final race caution came out on lap 13. Thornton went on to take the win ahead of Tim Ward, Todd Van Eaton, Matt Webb and Jacob Murray.
Next Sunday Night, its T&T Siding and Scott Concrete Night at the Races with all five IMCA Classes racing plus the MADCRA Mod Lites. Hot Laps at 5:30pm and Racing to Follow!
For more information check out http://www.stuartspeedway.net/
