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Reaid Captures Anderson 125; Oakes, Williams Score Wins
(April
15, 2012) –
In his first visit to Anderson Speedway T.J. Reaid set fast time
and then led the final 91 laps to win the season opener for the ARCA/CRA
Super Speedway on Sunday.
Reaid, driving for NASCAR legend Bill Elliott set fast time during
qualifications for the Anderson 125 presented by Great Deals Magazine and
started sixth following the inversion.
Greenfield’s Kenny Tweedy jumped into the lead at the start and maintained
the lead until a restart on lap 35. Behind Tweedy, Johnny VanDoorn, and fast
qualifiers Reaid and Bubba Pollard were making their way to the front.
On the lap 35 restart, Reaid starting on the outside powered around Tweedy
to grab the lead entering turn one and never looked back.
During several restarts Reaid didn’t follow the conventional wisdom and
elected to start on the outside lane. He used that to his advantage holding
off first Johnny VanDoorn and then Bubba Pollard to record the victory.
Following Reaid to the checkers were Pollard, Scott Hantz, Eddie Van Meter
and Tweedy, who passed Mason Mingus on the final lap. VanDoorn lost a chance
for a top five finish when he slowed with 16 laps remaining.
“We were pretty good on the long runs,” Reaid said following the win. “We
changed motors after practice and that gave us a little more power. It’s
good to be back in victory lane.”
Reaid and Pollard both said they would return for the Redbud 300 on July 26.
“We had a good race car,” Pollard said. “He (Reaid) was a little better than
we were. The car got tight the last 25 laps. We learned something this
weekend.”
Only half of the 28 cars that started were running at the finish. The race
was slowed by eight caution periods and two red-flags.
As is expected on the tight Anderson Speedway the race was one of attrition
with only 19 of the 28 car starting field running at the halfway point.
There were two red flags in the first 35 laps for multi-car incidents.
Defending Red Bud 300 champion Steve Dorer’s day ended on lap 24 in
spectacular fashion when he was caught up in a multi-car crash entering turn
one. Dorer’s car got on top of Rick Turner’s and he flipped up against the
outside retaining wall.
The race was red-flagged for a second time on lap 35 when nine cars blocked
the track in turn three following a chain reaction incident that eliminated
the cars of Joe Beaver, Jordan Sims, who started on the pole, rookie
contender Travis Braden and Damon Ecoff.
Brett Robinson was the driver on the move in the first half of the race,
climbing from the 27th starting spot to seventh after 60 laps when Johnny
VanDoorn slide through the infield grass and collected Robinson in turn
three.
In WMDH ThunderCar action Frankie Oakes led from start to finish chased by
Rob Allman, fast qualifier Rob Wyman, Hannah Lundy and Doug Dugger.
Several times Wyman looked to the high side to pass Allman for second, but
was unable to get far enough along-side to challenge for the position.
Alexandria’s Jeff Williams used the inside line entering turn three to pass
Ron Phipps on the eighth lap to win the G.W. Pierce Front Wheel Drive Oval
feature.
Williams, the defending champion was followed to the checkers by Phipps,
Chris Jennings, Andy Jennings and Joseph Jennings.
Anderson Speedway returns to action on Saturday, April 21 for the Custom
Door Products Night of Thrills. Featured events include IOFS Outlaw Figure
8's, Culver's Trailer Race, Cork Screw Race, Backward Race, IOFS Super Karts
and IOFS Front Wheel Drive Figure 8's.
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