Last year’s Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour champion and runner-up, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Johnny Herrera dueled to a close finish at the Missouri State Fair Speedway on Saturday.
At the drop of the checkered flag, the defending champ picked up his fifth-straight victory in as many races, winning the Protect the Harvest A-Feature by mere feet.
“We just had a really dominant car through (turns) three and four, and we could run a line that really nobody could run down there,” Hafertepe Jr. said.
2016 Warrior Region champion and Sedalia native, Jonathan Cornell, finished third in his first race of the 2017 season. Emerging from his car with the dustiest jacket on the podium, Cornell said he learned plenty from following National Tour powers.
“They’re the best in the nation, man” Cornell said. “We tried to do our best to hold them off … This track was real dusty, and when you get behind these guys, you build a lot of dirty air and the cars don’t want to handle real well. I noticed these guys were doing a lot of good things by getting their car away from the car in front of them before they enter the corner.”
Blake Hahn, Kyle Bellm and Skylar Gee, who started No. 1, rounded out the top six.
Waiting for an ambulance on the grounds, Saturday’s events were delayed by more than an hour. Using the downtime to water and grade the track, Saturday’s winner said the historic half-mile was consistent.
“Normally day shows lay rubber really bad,” Hafertepe Jr. said. “That’s what we were expecting to happen … They had a little patch of rubber around three and four, but they did a heck of a job on the race track.”
Nobody appeared faster on the far-side straightaway than Herrera, who led Cornell and Hahn after a reset on lap eight.
By lap 15, Hafertepe Jr. had passed Cornell and caught Herrera.
Herrera and Hafertepe Jr. swapped near the first turn and again on the straightaway before the No. 15H car claimed victory on the outside line.
“I could race all day long with Sam like that,” Herrera said. “He’s picked up where he left off. He’s going to be tough to beat all year … Just a lot of fun.”
Going 5-for-5 to begin the 2017 National Tour, Hafertepe Jr. matches a record set by Gary Wright in 2005. He called the feat unbelievable.
“Just can’t describe how happy we are to do that,” Haftertepe Jr. said. “Hopefully we can keep this streak going.”
Aaron Ruetzel made the largest jump of the race, passing 11 drivers. He finished seventh.
Randy Martin, who spun out in his heat race, leaped 10 spots to finish 13th. He claimed $600 in 10-lap Warrior Dash between heats and the feature.
