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John Schulz Tops Sensational Sprint Invaders Feature in Eldora!

It had been around 25 years since any sprint car outside of a 305 had traversed Eldon Raceway’s “Super Half-mile”, but that all changed Friday night. The Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders put on a show that saw five lead changes and had a good Wapello County Fair crowd on the edge of their seats! In the end, veteran John Schulz used his experience on 18-year-old Chris Martin to claim his eleventh career Sprint Invaders victory.

Jarrod Schneiderman shot out from his pole position to lead the first circuit of the 20-lap feature. A spin by Brandyn Martin slowed things one lap in. Cody Wehrle would battle the leader and take the point on lap three. Meanwhile, Chris Martin, who had won the Dash, snatached fourth from Josh Schneiderman.

Martin would climb to third, getting by John Schulz on lap six. Meanwhile, the leaders were battling hard. Jarrod Schneiderman used the low side to shoot back by Wehrle to reclaim the lead on lap seven. At that point, Martin threw his hat in the ring and worked on Wehrle for second. At the halfway point of the event, he shot around him and began to track down the leader.

The lead pair were locked in yet another battle, and Martin claimed the point for himself on lap 14. Shortly after, Jarrod Schneiderman performed a 720-degree spin and came to a stop in turn two, surrendering the runner-up spot. Martin now led Josh Schneiderman, Schulz, Wehrle and Harold Pohren back to green.

Schulz used the cushion to move by his nephew into second. The last yellow flag flew for Tim Moore, who spun with four laps to go. Schulz repeated his move on the previous restart to snatch the lead from Martin, and pulled away the last four laps to claim victory. Martin was second, ahead of Josh Schneiderman, hard-charger Jon Agan and Pohren. Wehrle, Jarrod Schneiderman, Nate Van Haaften, Dave Getchall and Chase Wanner, who received a bonus as the highest finishing 305, completed the top ten.

Two sets of heats were run, with the second set lined up with a complete invert of the first set’s finishes. Jarrod Schneiderman, Josh Schneiderman, Schulz and Pohren won the heats, while Martin won the Shake-up Dash. Jarrod Schneiderman also won the Alan Shearer “Best Race Ever” Award, and Alan was remembered with a “missing man” formation before the feature.

“We were struggling in the middle part of the race,” said Schulz in Victory Lane. “We could not get through one and two. I decided to go to the top, and we started getting better and better. We got to second and we got to Chris. I thought if he gave me the top, we had a shot to win it. He left the door open, and we were able to get through there. I can’t thank Jimmy Davies and this team enough. My hat’s off to the track here. You could run the bottom or the wall on both ends. As a driver, what more could you ask for?”

“I was able to race a lot of drivers really hard,” said Martin. “We push each other’s limits, and that’s always the most fun. I can’t complain. I had a great racecar all night. It was a really fun racetrack, and I wasn’t expecting that. Unfortunately, (Schulz) really worked his butt off to get around us on the top. I was trying to keep the tires underneath me, but he had the momentum on the restart. I think we put on a show for the fans, and we were happy to get to the front from sixth. We’d like to thank Grain Train Express out of Bloomfield, Iowa for their help tonight.”

“We didn’t need those late cautions,” said Josh Schneiderman. “We went with a H12, and I think most of the other guys were on RD stuff. Once we got heat in it, we were as good as they were. The restarts just killed us though. We were really good under green in lapped traffic. We kind of left the door open for John on the second to last restart, and he took advantage of it. He’s still a great racecar driver. I always have a lot of fun racing with uncle John. He taught me a little bit again tonight. I was disappointed that Jarrod spun out. I was looking forward to racing with him, but he is really coming around. He’s built a really nice team there.”

The Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders next event will be their second of the year at the Iowa State Fair Speedway Wednesday, June 22. For more information on the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders, visit www.SprintInvaders.com!

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