by Ken de la Bastide
ANDERSON — Minnesota racer Ayrton Brockhouse made his first visit to Anderson Speedway a memorable one.
Brockhouse, along with his father and Rose Borntreger, made the trip to Indiana for Saturday’s opening night
Ayrton Brockhouse set the fast time during qualifying with 17 drivers on hand.
The invert put Sam Johnson on the pole position, and he led the first circuits before Brockhouse took the lead on Lap 4 with an inside pass entering Turn 3.
The race was red-flagged when Eddie Fornight made heavy contact with the Turn 2 wall, which wiped out a comfortable lead for Brockhouse.
The running order remained unchanged to the finish with Brockhouse winning by 1.8 seconds over Johnson and Frankton’s John Robbins finishing third.
“We practiced on Friday,” Brockhouse said. “This track is similar to Slinger (in Wisconsin). I used all my experience at Slinger. This track has a lot more bank and is a lot more fun.”
The return of Modifieds as a full-time division got off to rocky start with a pile-up on the back straight of the opening lap damaging six of the eight competitors.
Dalton Conner set the fast time during qualifications, and the invert put veteran Joe Beaver and Tyler DeHart on the front row.
On the opening lap, Beaver and DeHart made contact in front of the entire field. Since no laps were completed, Speedway officials moved the feature on the racing schedule to allow teams to make repairs.
Five drivers answered the bell for the feature with Conner leading the entire distance and Nathan Greene and Andrew Evans rounding out the top three.
Conner’s car suffered a broken left-front tie rod in the melee, and the crew was able to make repairs.
“Definitely appreciate the track allowing us time to make repairs,” Conner said in victory lane. “I love this place, no matter what I’m racing in.”
Ohio driver Josh Sage, no stranger to Anderson Speedway, took the lead in the Ford Division feature on the third circuit and was able to hold off Ron Phipps and Colson Gray.
Defending Thunder Roadster champion Doug Dugger won a battle with John Robbins to capture the feature race, with Phil Jenkins rounding out the top three.
Originally posted on heraldbulletin.com