Harr Handles Rocky Mountain Midgets at I-76
FORT MORGAN, Col. (August 29, 2015) -The RMMRA returned for the second race in a row to Butch Speicher’s I-76 Speedway. This week however, the club brought 22 cars ready for battle!!! With a strong car count and a well prepared race surface the night was setting up to be one for the ages.
Heat race action started with Ryan Oerter taking heat 1, Tony Rossi capturing heat 2, and Luke Icke crossing the stripe first in heat 3. This was the first outing for RMMRA veteran Icke.
Scott Fennell and Cory Mallo lead the field to the green in the feature. Fennell wasted no time jumping out to a lead and would lead the first three circuits. Second row starter Luke Icke would make his way around Fennell on lap four and continue until an early race caution came out for Greg Schaefer in turns one and two. On the restart Icke would jump to the lead followed by Chris Sheil, Bob Harr, Scott Fennell , and Keith Rauch. Icke would continue to lead the field on the restart followed closely by the next four cars. The lead pack would battle closely until a slowing Dustin Weland would come to a stop in turn one bringing out another caution.
After the restart, 9th place starting Zack Merritt, a 2015 Rookie of the Year contender would begin his charge to the front. While the lead group of cars focused on the bottom line of the race track, Merritt would set his sights on the top side making his way up to the leader. Unfortunately, while attempting to pass Icke on the high side, the car would upset and Merritt would fall back to fifth. Second place running Sheil would take advantage of the line Merritt was running, eventually running the high groove past race leader Icke. Attempting to pass Sheil back, Icke would spin in turn three collecting third place running Rauch. Unfortunately, both cars would be unable to continue due to mechanical damage.
The final restart would see Sheil jump to the lead with Bob Harr, Tony Rossi, and Mark Chisholm following suit. It looked like Sheil would be on his way to the win but veteran Harr ran the middle groove and was able to put a nose under Sheil with two laps to go. The two would race side by side for the next lap with Harr eventually overtaking the spot and racing his way to victory. This was the first win of 2015 for the RMMRA veteran!!! Sheil, Chisholm, Rossi, and Merritt would round out the top five.
Results:
Heat One (8 Laps) – Ryan Oerter, Bob Harr, Cory Mallo, Josh Hansen (R), Shane Reavis (R), Ashley Oerter (R), Larry Bensenberg (DNF), Mark Chisholm (DNF)
Heat Two (8 Laps) – Tony Rossi, Chris Sheil, Scott Fennell, Lance Bennett, Mark Hamilton (R), Troy Simpson (R), Dustin Weland (DNF)
Heat Three (8 Laps) – Luke Icke, Keith Rauch, Zack Merritt, Greg Schaefer, Colin Reinhart, Randy Oerter, Matt Martinez (DNS)
“A” Feature (25 Laps) – Bob Harr, Chris Sheil, Mark Chisholm, Tony Rossi, Zack Merritt, Scott Fennell, Cory Mallo, Colin Reinhart, Lance Bennett, Troy Simpson (R), Greg Schaefer, Randy Oerter, Ashley Oerter (R), Luke Icke, Keith Rauch, Josh Hansen (R), Mark Hamilton (R), Ryan Oerter, Dustin Weland, Matt Martinez (DNS), Shane Reavis (DNS), Larry Bensenberg (DNS)
