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Brian Brown and Don Droud Jr. Victorious at 2020 Ultimate Challenge!

by Bill Wright

Oskaloosa, IA, August 9, 2020 – Veterans Brian Brown and Don Droud Jr. took home $4,000 apiece for their respective wins Sunday night at the Sage Fruit Ultimate Challenge presented by Searsboro Telephone Company at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Grain Valley, Missouri’s Brian Brown is a two-time winner of the Front Row Challenge, but this time took the ASCS portion of the Ultimate Challenge. Droud earned his win with the POWRi/WAR non-wing sprint cars.

A four-car pileup marred the start of the 30-lap ASCS main event. When Jamie Ball spun, it caught Roger Crockett, Matt Covington, Kelby Watt and Carson McCarl in the fray. All were o.k., but done for the night. Jordon Mallett was on the scene, exiting his car and pulling Crockett from his before it was engulfed in flames. No one was injured.

Brian Brown streaked out to an early lead, ahead of fellow front row starter, Dominic Scelzi and Brock Zearfoss. Austin McCarl was running fourth when he slowed with rear-end issues seven laps in. It would prove to be the final caution.

Brown shot out to another lead and entered lapped traffic on lap 17. Scelzi slowly but surely cut into Brown’s lead in traffic. On the last lap, he saw his chance and slid in front of Brown in turn three.

Brown was able to power back by and won by a car length over Scelzi, Zearfoss, Shane Golobic and Colby Copeland. Trey Starks, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Tim Kaeding, Scott Bogucki and Sawyer Phillips rounded out the top ten. With a $1,000 bonus from Country Builders Construction, Brown’s check totaled $4,000.

Heat winners Colton Heath, Garret Williamson, Austin McCarl, Harli White and Scelzi received a right rear tire from Hoosier Tire of Knoxville. Blake Hahn received a KSE Power Steering Pump for being the feature’s hard-charger. Other giveaways came from HRP, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, All Star Performance and Wilwood Brakes.

Don Droud Jr. broke out from his pole starting spot to lead early in the 25-lap POWRi/WAR feature over Riley Kreisel and Landon Simon. Chris Morgan slowed to a stop three laps in, while Tyler Graves also had issues that sidelined him.

Droud led the field back to green, ahead of Kreisel, Landon Simon, Chris Simon and Glenn Saville. Wyatt Burks shot from sixth to fourth on the restart.

On lap five, Kreisel slid by Droud for the lead and began pulling away. He was in lapped traffic by the eleventh circuit. Things continued that way before Chris Simon spun into the infield while running fifth, with just seven laps to go. The caution negated a Landon Simon pass of Droud for second.

Three laps after the restart, disaster struck the leader, as Kreisel got over the cushion and made contact with the turn one wall. As he slowly pulled off the track, Droud assumed the lead. He went on to win the $4,000 first place prize in the Mark Burch Motorsports #1m, ahead of Landon Simon, Burks, Morgan and Saville. Jonathan Hughes, Shane Hopkins, Anthony Nicholson, Tommy Rockwell and Neal Matuska completed the top ten.

Heat winners Landon Simon and Kreisel received Chalk Stix torsion bars. Jason Billups earned a KSE Power Steering Pump for being the feature’s hard-charger.

Monday, August 10, will be the 25th Annual Sage Fruit Front Row Challenge presented by Musco Lighting. With the Country Builders Construction $1,000 bonus the 410 feature will pay $11,000 and the IMCA Racesaver Sprints will pay $2,000 to the winner.

Sage Fruit Ultimate ASCS Challenge Presented by Searsboro Telephone Company Results

Sage Fruit Ultimate ASCS Challenge Main Event (started), 30 laps: 1. 21, Brian Brown, Grain Valley, MO (1) 2. 41, Dominic Scelzi, Fresno, CA (2) 3. 3z, Brock Zearfoss, Jonestown, PA (3) 4. 17wx, Shane Golobic, Fremont, CA (5) 5. 5c, Colby Copeland, Roseville, CA (4) 6. 44s, Trey Starks, Puyallup, WA (12) 7. 15H, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, TX (7) 8. 35m, Tim Kaeding, San Jose, CA (10) 9. 28, Scott Bogucki, McLaren Vale, SA, Aust. (13) 10. 3P, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (17) 11. 52, Blake Hahn, Sapulpa, OK (23, prov.) 12. 3, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (21) 13. 17w, Harli White, Lindsay, OK (14) 14. 24, Garret Williamson, Columbia, MO (16) 15. 63, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (20) 16. 33, Colton Heath, Marysville, WA (8) 17. 47x, Dylan Westbrook, Scotland, ONT, Can. (11) 18. 14, Jordon Mallett, Greenbrier, AR (24, prov.) 19. 17A, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (6) 20. 1K, Kelby Watt, Adel, IA (9) 21. 5J, Jamie Ball, Knoxville, IA (15) 22. 95, Matt Covington, Glenpool, OK (18) 23. 11, Roger Crockett, Broken Arrow, OK (19) 24. 27, Carson McCarl, Altoona, IA (22). Lap Leader: Brown 1-30. KSE Hard-charger: Hahn.

Oskaloosa True Value Hardware Heat one (started), 8 laps: 1. Colton Heath (1) 2. Brock Zearfoss (4) 3. Dylan Westbrook (2) 4. Shane Golobic (6) 5. Sawyer Phillips (5) 6. JJ Hickle (7) 7. Roger Crockett (9) 8. 88, Travis “Rowdy” Reber, Rapid City, SD (8) 9. 11F, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (3)

Taso’s Steak House Heat two (started), 8 laps: 1. Garret Williamson (2) 2. 50z, Zach Chappell, Talala, OK (1) 3. Trey Starks (3) 4. Colby Copeland (7) 5. Ayrton Gennetten (5) 6. 24D, Danny Sams III, North Port, FL (4) 7. 44, Chris Martin, Ankeny, IA (8) 8. 17B, Ryan Bickett, Ramona, SD (6) DNS – 5H, Michael Faccinto, Hanford, CA

SeaFoam Motor Treatment Heat three (started), 8 laps: 1. Austin McCarl (2) 2. Brian Brown (3) 3. 14B, Bailey Sucich, Granite Falls, WA (1) 4. Jamie Ball (5) 5. 77x, Alex Hill, Six Nations, ONT, Can. (6) 6. Matt Covington (7) 7. Blake Hahn (9) 8. 22B, Jesse Baker, Grants, NM (8) 9. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (4)

Searsboro Telephone Company Heat four (started), 8 laps: 1. Harli White (2) 2. Kelby Watt (6) 3. 28F, Davie Franek, Sussex, NJ (4) 4. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (7) 5. Scott Bogucki (9) 6. 24N, Nate Mills, Bondurant, IA (3) 7. 29w, Wyatt Wilkerson, Morning Sun, IA (8) 8. 75x, JT Imperial, Mesa, AZ (1) 9. 53, Jack Dover, Springfield, NE (5)

Heat five (started), 8 laps: 1. Dominic Scelzi (2) 2. 51A, Elliot Amdahl, Flandreau, SD (1) 3. 9, Chase Randall, Waco, TX (3) 4. Carson McCarl (5) 5. Tim Kaeding (8) 6. 1B, Chelsea Blevins, Janesville, CA (4) 7. 22x, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (7) 8. 6, Jett Carney, El Paso, TX (6) 9. Jordon Mallett (9)

Qualifier one (started, qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Tim Kaeding (1) 2. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (3*) 3. Colton Heath (4*) 4. Dylan Westbrook (7*) 5. Kelby Watt (6*) 6. Harli White (5*) 7. Ayrton Gennetten (9) 8. Roger Crockett (10) 9. Bailey Sucich (8) 10. Elliot Amdahl (2)

Qualifier two (started, qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Brian Brown (4) 2. Trey Starks (1*) 3. Dominic Scelzi (5*) 4. Scott Bogucki (3*) 5. Jamie Ball (7*) 6. Davie Franek (2) 7. Garret Williamson (6*) 8. Blake Hahn (10) 9. JJ Hickle (9) 10. Alex Hill (8)

Qualifier three (started, qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Shane Golobic (2) 2. Colby Copeland (4*) 3. Brock Zearfoss (5*) 4. Austin McCarl (6*) 5. Sawyer Phillips (8) 6. Matt Covington (9) 7. Carson McCarl (7) 8. Zach Chappell (3) 9. Chase Randall (1) 10. Chris Martin (10)

B Main one (started), 12 laps: 1. Sawyer Phillips (1) 2. Roger Crockett (4) 3. Ayrton Gennetten (3) / 4. Davie Franek (2) 5. Alex Hill (7) 6. Riley Goodno (8) 7. Bailey Sucich (5) 8. Chelsea Blevins (9) 9. Jett Carney (10) 10. Wyatt Wilkerson (6) 11. Tanner Gebhardt (12) 12. Jesse Baker (11) DNS – Elliot Amdahl, JT Imperial, Michael Faccinto

B Main two (started), 12 laps: 1. Matt Covington (1) 2. JJ Hickle (6) 3. Carson McCarl (2) / 4. Blake Hahn (4) 5. Chase Randall (5) 6. Danny Sams III (8) 7. Ryan Bickett (9) 8. Jordon Mallett (12) 9. Colton Fisher (11) 10. Rowdy Reber (10) 11. Nate Mills (7) 12. Zach Chappell (3) DNS – Chris Martin, Jack Dover

POWRi WAR Non-wing Sprints

A main (started), 25 laps: 1. 1m, Don Droud Jr., Lincoln, NE (1) 2. 24, Landon Simon, Indianapolis, IN (4) 3. 77K, Wyatt Burks, Topeka, KS (7) 4. 9w, Chris Morgan, Topeka, KS (8) 5. 19, Glenn Saville, Razorback, NSW, Aust. (6) 6. 67, Jonathan Hughes, Knoxville, IA (10) 7. 21R, Shane Hopkins, Placerville, CA (9) 8. 16, Anthony Nicholson, Bartlett, TN (3) 9. 95, Tommy Rockwell, Towanda, IL (11) 10. 48, Neal Matuska, Waukee, IA (13) 11. 2, Jason Billups, Holt, MO (17) 12. 25, Kelly Graham, Hedrick, IA (14) 13. 12, Doug Sylvester, Ottumwa, IA (15) 14. 27, Steve Thomas, Ludlow, IL (12) 15. 91, Riley Kreisel, Warsaw, MO (2) 16. 23s, Kyle Simon, Covington, OH (5) 17. G2, Tyler Graves, Chariton, IA (16). Lap Leaders: Droud 1-4, Kreisel 5-21, Droud 22-25. KSE Hard-charger: Billups.

SeaFoam Motor Treatment/HRP Heat one (started), 8 laps: 1. Landon Simon (1) 2. Don Droud Jr. (8) 3. Anthony Nicholson (6) 4. Kyle Simon (9) 5. Tommy Rockwell (2) 6. Steve Thomas (3) 7. Kelly Graham (5) 8. Tyler Graves (4) 9. Jason Billups (7)

Oskaloosa True Value/Taso’s Steak House Heat two (started), 8 laps: 1. Riley Kreisel (3) 2. Glenn Saville (1) 3. Wyatt Burks (2) 4. Chris Morgan (4) 5. Shane Hopkins (6) 6. Jonathan Hughes (8) 7. Neal Matuska (7) 8. Doug Sylvester (5)

Photos: Brian Brown (Paul Arch Photo) and Don Droud Jr. (Chuck Stowe Photo) celebrate their wins at the Ultimate Challenge Sunday

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