FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The common theme among those who didn’t win Friday night’s Rumble in Fort Wayne feature was simple: second just isn’t good enough.
Three drivers spun out of the runner-up position during the 50-lap midget feature, all while racing for the lead and a shot at the $2,000 winner’s check at the end of the road.
Jim Anderson, who won at the Rumble on New Year’s Eve in 2010, was the first to drop from contention. He moved into second on the sixth round and delivered several well-placed shots to the back bumper of Kaiser’s No. 10 machine, nearly spinning Kaiser out on two occasions but not able to make the pass.
Finally, Anderson stepped over the line just enough that he spun out exiting turn two with 13 to go while chasing Kaiser for the top spot. However, he said he wouldn’t have changed his approach.
“I was going for it,” said Anderson. “I wanted another Rumble trophy. This is unlike everything we do as drivers for the rest of the year. I was there a few times, but just couldn’t get all the way up alongside him (Kaiser) to complete the pass. We’ll go after it one more time tonight.”
Two-time event winner Justin Peck was the next to hold the second position, inheriting it after Anderson’s spin after charging forward on the high lane.
Peck took a shot to Kaiser’s inside when the green flag waved after Anderson’s troubles, but the lead pair made contact and Peck spun to a stop in turn two, while Kaiser continued on to the win.
Joe Liguori then became the runner-up as the laps wound down, but Liguori drove in too deep on the white flag lap and went around in turn four coming to the checkered flag, relegating him to eighth.
Liguori made it clear after the race that he would rather have spun than ran second by half a car length.
“It’s the Rumble, you do everything you can to win,” Liguori said. “I didn’t want to finish second. I was going to push hard and that’s what I did. Seeing that win drive away … that’s a horrible feeling as a driver. I had to go for it and just gave it a little too much.”
– Travis Welpott’s third-place run was his best finish in three A-main starts at the Rumble in Fort Wayne, as well as his second-straight top-five effort inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
Welpott will seek his first Rumble win on Saturday night in the No. 18 Gorman Racing Munchkin, carrying confidence after his best effort yet in Fort Wayne.
“We could have been a little better, I think, but we had an oil leak at the end and things were getting slick,” noted Welpott, who won the fourth heat race on Friday. “This is a confidence-builder, though. I think we’ve got something good here.”
– Austin Nemire’s rough luck inside the Coliseum continued on Friday night, after a kill switch and battery issue put him outside the top 20 in qualifying and buried him for his heat race.
Nemire nearly raced his way in through one of four last chance showdowns, but spun while battling for second and failed to move on after that.
“We just need some luck, man,” lamented Nemire. “At least we know what the problem was now, it’s fixed and we can come back Saturday and make another run at it.”
– Brothers Nick and Kyle Hamilton made their eighth Rumble feature as a sibling pair and fifth in a row, but both ran into issues early in Friday night’s feature that forced them to the infield.
Kyle Hamilton was involved in the lap-two accident that eliminated former NASCAR star Tony Stewart, with a bent axle ending his night, while Nick Hamilton was running in the top five when a fuel pump wire came loose and stymied his efforts.
– John Ivy’s pair of victories in the winged and non-winged 600cc micros Friday night extended his own record for the most wins by a single driver in Rumble in Fort Wayne history.
Ivy now has 18 victories across all the classes he’s competed in during his Rumble career, including four straight and five of the last six in micro action.
