By Ken de la Bastide

(July 15, 2013) - In his first appearance ever at Anderson Speedway, A.J. Ridner led all 30 laps to capture the Street Stock feature by holding off a closing Josh Tharp.

Ridner started on the outside of the front row as a result of a total
inversion of the field from the qualifying results.

Ridner took the lead on the start from Danny Adams, who was passed by Josh Tharp on the third lap. Tharp was behind the wheel of the car owned by Josh Poore, who captured the 200-lap race and $1,000 to win Motion Motors 75.

Adams lost two more spots when he drifted high in turn two and was passed by Jimmy Kirby and fast qualifier Calvin Parham.

Tharp closed the gap on Ridner with three laps remaining as the two
leaders closed on two slower cars, but Ridner held on for the win. Tharp
finished second followed by Kirby, Parham and Tyler Marsh.

“This is awesome,” Ridner said of the win. “I spent a lot of nights here
watching my dad (Tony) race.”

There was plenty of action in the heat race that was won by defending
division champion Jimmy Kirby, his second heat win of the year.

Adams took the lead at the start and swapped it several times with Andrew Cook over the first four laps.

Cook lost positions to Tyler Moore and Kirby on laps five and six as he
surrendered the inside line on the front straight.

On the eighth circuit, Cook and Parham made contact in turn three. Cook’s car bounced off the outside retaining wall, suffering front end suspension damage and Parham’s car had a flat rear tire as a result of the incident.

Kirby took the lead on the restart with an inside pass of Adams entering
turn three and Tharp grabbed the second spot on the front straight. Adams, Marsh and Colby Lane rounded out the top five.