Rookies Take Pole at Madison and Springfield

Question: What do you get when you put two rookies on the front row of an ASA race?

Answer: You get a multi-car, first lap pile up that takes many of the top cars, such as Tim Sauter out of the race.

This is exactly what happened Saturday at Madison International Speedway, as the front row, made up of rookies Robbie Pyle and Scott Wimmer got together in turn one, just after taking the green flag. The resulting accident left several of the possible winners heading for their pits for repairs. This incident may have left the door open for Gary St. Amant, as he used lapped traffic and great pit stops to win the ACDelco Factory Motor Parts 300. His only real competition in the race came from home state favorite Kevin Cywinski, as they swapped the lead early in the race. Finally, St. Amant pulled ahead for good with 62 laps remaining and captured his second ASA/AC Delco win of the season.

St. Amant gave all the credit for the win to his team, saying," We were the first ones in and out of the pits all night, the team made all the right calls. Bill McGowan and this team made a lot of changes all night long, the car was almost perfect in then end." If the car was almost perfect, so was the driver, as he skillfully used the lapped traffic to increase his lead, both in the race and in the points standings. As the ASA goes to the world famous Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, August 27, St. Amant leads Cywinski by 323 points.

ARCA (Auto Racing Clubs of America) News Briefs

In the only ARCA race of the season on dirt, the Par-A-Dice 100, Frank Kimmel added one more victory to his impressive career which includes being the 1998 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde champion and winning at Pocono, Charlotte and Michigan. The Illinois State Fairgrounds dirt mile, one of the premier dirt ovals in the country had eluded Frank for many years, but now he has this one under his belt as well.

In a real surprise, it was a rookie who sat on the pole next to Kimmel in the race. Damon Rusk, making his first ever start on dirt led the field to the green flag, but was quickly passed by Kimmel, who led the first 20 laps until he made a pit stop under caution. Kimmel held back waiting for his opportunity until lap 78 when he took the lead for good.

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