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Shaffer Shines in Friday STN Prelim

Tim Shaffer snapped a victory drought dating back more than a year by wiring the field in Friday night’s 25-lap preliminary feature at the 29th Annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires atop the ¼-mile I-30 Speedway clay oval.

“The Steel City Outlaw” gunned into the lead at the outset and led all the way in the non-stop affair aboard the DR Racing/Rudzik Excavating No. 49x for his second career STN preliminary feature win.

While the past Knoxville Nationals champion from Aliquippa, PA, locked into his seventh career Short Track Nationals finale, Brian Bell and Terry McCarl both picked up starting berths in Saturday night’s $15,000-to-win finale as well by virtue of finishing second and third, respectively. It will be Bell’s first STN finale while McCarl is now two-for-two in making the cut at the event.

The trio joined Thursday’s top three finishers of Sammy Swindell, Tim Crawley and Jason Johnson as the half dozen drivers among the 64-car field locked into Saturday’s finale. The remaining 58 will battle it out for the remaining 14 starting positions in the $2,000-to-start finale.

While McCarl led the field to the green flag in Friday’s main event, Shaffer pounced into the early lead at the drop of the green flag with fifth-starter Bell needing just two laps to move the FSR Racing Products No. 23 into second.

Shaffer reached traffic within nine laps and spent the remainder of the race negotiating lapped cars as Memphis’ Bell tried to chase him down.

Bell closed in on several occasions, only to have Shaffer deny his advances as he raced to his first win since an All Star Circuit of Champions triumph at Ohio’s Fremont Speedway on September 18 of 2015.

Runner-up honors were sufficient for Bell, as he held off a last-lap advance from Altoona, Iowa’s McCarl in the Country Builders No. 24.

Bouncing back from a Thursday night flip in similar fashion to Bell, two-time STN champion Tony Bruce, Jr., raced to a fourth-place finish with Derek Hagar picking up four positions in the early going to round out the top five.

Shane Stewart was sixth with Pennsylvania’s Mark Smith, local shoe Zach Pringle, Ohio’s Chad Kemenah and Indiana’s Parker Price-Miller completing the top ten.

Jonathan Cornell, Aaron Reutzel, McCarl, A.G. Rains, Bruce, Jr., Claud Estes, Sheldon Haudenschild and Zach Pringle captured heat race wins among Friday’s field of 59 with Stewart, Marshall Skinner, Shaffer and Parker Price-Miller winning the qualifiers.

Jordan Thomas and Tommy Snellgrove scored “C” Main wins with Jason Sides and Trey Starks winning the “B” Mains.

The 29th Annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tries wraps up with Saturday night’ STN championship slate of events that goes green at 8:00 p.m.

The 29th Annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires resumes with racing action at 8:00 p.m. Friday night at I-30 Speedway.

The Saturday night slate will include six STN Saturday Night Showdowns that award double finishing/passing points added to preliminary night point totals. The top eight in total points will advance to positions seven through 14 of the main event, with the next 24 going to two “B” Mains and the balance going to three “C” Mains. The top three finishers will advance in “C” and “B” Main action.

The six locked in drivers will set the lineup of the front three rows in the Pack’s Dash for Cash, while the first three non-transfers from each “C” Main will mix it up in the Inaugural “Red Shirt Dash” in Honor of Lanny Edwards.

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