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No intersection stop lights at FC Fair Figure 8 races

Press photo by John Burbridge Jordan Apel (car # 810) gets a piece of Joe Dorn in the middle of the Figure 8 dirt track during a Stock heat, Friday at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.
Press photo by John Burbridge
Jordan Apel (car # 810) gets a piece of Joe Dorn in the middle of the Figure 8 dirt track during a Stock heat, Friday at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.
By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Figure 8 and cruiser car drivers are pretty resilient, and so are the vehicles they pilot.

These cars can endure broken tie rods, sheared off quarter panels, flat tires and even a complete extraction of a tire yet somehow complete a lap or limp across the finish line just to add a few more points to the season total.

“But what is that?” a fan in the bleachers queried about an object on the track during Friday’s Figure 8 races put on by Gunderson Racing as part of the Floyd County Fair’s slate of grandstand events.

“Is that a drive shaft? Then how was the car still moving?”

Likely because it was embedded within a cluster of stock class racers pushing it along while negotiating one of the dirt track’s tight turns.

Though a traditional mid-season stop for the Gunderson series, Figure 8 racing made its return as part of the fair’s activities after being washed out at last year’s fair — other than the FC Fair itself, the series regularly has at least two other events a season at the fairgrounds’ track.

Though there was plenty of paint being exchanged, especially during the tight turns, there weren’t any spectacular T-bone incidents during the heats and the features.

Even when the field would spread apart at the point of the race when things tend to get hairy, the drivers’ displayed remarkable skill and vehicle handling in missing each other while traversing the dangerous intersection.

It’s later in the season with class championships and final point standings on the line is when the possibilities of vehicular carnage and bodily injury tend to increase dramatically.

During Friday’s races, first-responders were present but for the most part only had to act as spectators.

In the Cruiser Car Class — two persons per car; driver steers, passenger hits the gas — Zach Lewis and “Fast” Eddy Johnson won the feature and accumulated the most points (88) that night. In the feature they finished ahead of the teams of Kevin and Lane Leerhoff (2nd), Devon and Caleb Ackerson (3rd), “Nitre” Nikki Dunn and Steve Robel (4th), and Ryan Mittelstadt and Anthony Marshall (5th).

In the Stock Class, Nick Taylor won the feature and accumulated the most points (90). Other feature placers included Randy Van Lines (2nd), Ed Putney (3rd), Dana Dohrman (4th) and Jesse Zander (5th).

In the Pro Stock Class, Justin Wedeking won the feature ahead of “Fast” Eddy (2nd), Duane Zander (3rd), Zach Lewis (4th) and Jeremy Johnson (5th) — Zander recorded the most points (86) among Pro Stock drivers.

In the Small Car Class, Tim Eisenmenger won the feature ahead of runner-up Josh Dunn, who edged Eisenmenger in most points earned (88 to 86), Other feature placers included Tabitha Drewlowe (3rd), Jordan Ollendick (4th) and Brandon Christian (5th).

In the Open Class feature, Dan Wauters won the $500 first-place cash prize ahead of Mark Schuring and Allen Scholten.

At the midway point of the season with six more events scheduled including Sunday’s (July 22) races in Hampton, class leaders include Lewis and Johnson (Cruiser), Putney (Stock), Lewis (Pro Stock) and Eisenmenger (Small).

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