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Stapp On The Gas
Greensburg resident J.T. Stapp, perhaps better known in the area as “The Tree City Tornado,” put the pedal to the floor and blasted his way to his first career sprint car feature win last Saturday night at the Clay County Speedway in Flora, Ill.
For years, Stapp has been involved in racing. He is an experienced sprint, midget, TQ midget and mini-sprint driver.
His lucky races were the second event of the 2009 SCORA Spring Series schedule. Stapp’s lucky night started off with a nine car field running an eight lap heat race, the first of the night. Stapp worked his way through the field, sliding around his competition to finish third.
That third place finish was then inverted for the eight lap qualifying race. Stapp finished second, coming up from behind for the harrowing finish.
The lineup for the 20 lap A-Main race was set by a lucky fan who drew the much revered and feared “8 pill” to invert the top eight in points following the heat and qualifying races. For Stapp, that meant that he would start in seventh place.
When the race got underway, the competitors shot from their marks and began the high speed duel. Before one lap was made, one of Stapp’s competitors named Tony Sessions dumped his number 17 mount hard between the third and fourth turns. Fortunately, he walked away from the wreck uninjured.
The feature race finally got the green on the second try as the top four racers, Matt Humphrey, Dusty Wright, Alex Coonan and Stapp himself began their battle hard for the first half of the race.
The night's only yellow flag came out when Coonan and Stapp got together in the third turn as Stapp was attempting to pass him on the top. The collision would take Coonan out of the event and Stapp restarted in third place behind Humphrey and Wright. Humphrey picked up the gas early on the backstretch but the green still came out. An elbows-up kind of battle continued with the three cars, as Stapp worked on Wright and picked him off around the top heading into the first turn and dove under Humphrey down the backstretch to take the lead. Stapp would lead the remaining five laps to get the victory in the 20 lap showdown. He was driving the Bryan Robinson owned Osgood Grub Co., Competition Race Fuels, number 57R Maxim. Dusty Wright would take second place and Matt Humphrey, in only his third race in a sprint car would come home third.
The SCORA Sprint Car Series will now head into a big weekend with races at Kankakee, Ill on Friday and Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell, Ind. on Saturday. Stapp leads the point standings heading into the doubleheader weekend.
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