Squires, Yotter, Martintoni win "Triple Nickel" Loot!

By Steve Birmingham
 

September 25, 2004; Granite City, IL – In what looked like a dress rehearsal for Tri-City Speedway's October 2 "Demolition Derby Night of Destruction," Rick Squires, Pat Yotter and Bobby Martintoni emerged victorious and cashed $500 checks in Saturday's "Triple Nickel."

Squires led from the pole of the Mountain Dew Sportsman leg of "Triple Nickel" and was able to stay ahead of the carnage that visited itself on more than half the field. While Squires maintained a three-length lead, Terry Chester and Junior Benton ran side by side for seven laps in their battle for the second spot. On lap 18 Chester held the spot but was drilled from behind by Benton as they entered turn three. Chester, restored to his second spot with Benton relegated to the tail of the field, chased Squires but missed by mere inches at the checkers. Crossing the stripe behind the two were Scott Drew, Pat Chalmers and Bert Jacoby.

A post-race inspection, however, turned up discrepancies in rules interpretations for both Drew and Chalmers, relegating them to the disqualified list and placing Jacoby, Mark Schnurbusch and Nate Bowman in third through fifth spots. The heats went to Benton and Drew.

In the Budweiser Modified leg, Bobby Martintoni paced the field through 20 relatively tame laps, with Chad Naylor, Ricky Huebner and Leon Rakers taking turns chasing the leader. At the $500 checkered flag it was Martintoni, Rakers, Huebner, Jay Hughes and Bob Newberry. The heats went to Rakers, Ray Wagner and Naylor with Brian McCormick grabbing the Semi.

A crazed crash fest masqueraded as the Domino's Street Stock feature and littered with trashed race cars. By its conclusion, Tommy Gegg crossed the line first with Pat Yotter, Josh Jackson, Kevin Goodbrake and David Parker trailing. However, those pesky engine rules were misinterpreted once again and Gegg was disqualified from the win, moving Yotter to the top spot. The heats were won by Brad Yotter, Brandon Hogenson, Jason Stanton and Jackson with Goodbrake nabbing the Semi.

Justin Anderson fought tooth and nail with Mike Bryant in a battle that saw the two swap the lead several times each lap before Anderson emerged the winner of the Dodge Ironman Late Model main. Bryant, Shannon Kuhn, Steve Meyer, Jr. and Don Patton rounded out the top five. The heats went to Bryant and Anderson.

Lloyd Donelson won the Auto Trader Factory Stock feature, besting Todd Erickson, Dan Wait, David Pulley, Jr., and heat winner Don McDowell.

Next Saturday, October 2, the real "Demolition Derby Night of Destruction" gets under way at 7 p.m with heats and a huge $1,000 to win Demolition Derby for the Full Size cars and Figure-Eight qualifying heats and a Demo Derby main event for the Compact Cars. Spectator gates open at 6 p.m. with Demos at 7 p.m. Adults $12.00, Students 6 to 12 years $5.00 and children 5 and under are FREE. Parking is always FREE.

Tri-City Speedway is located one-half mile south of I-270 on Illinois Route 203 south (exit 4), just 10 minutes north of downtown St. Louis.