Lonnie Wheatley, ELDON, Iowa (June 16, 2022) – Knoxville, Iowa’s Riley Goodno broke into Sprint Invaders victory lane for the first time by topping Thursday night’s 20-lap feature atop the ½-mile Eldon Raceway dirt oval.
After starting fifth, Goodno slid past early leader Bret Tripplett on a lap six restart and led the rest of the way to secure the win aboard the Quality Traffic Control No. 22x J&J Sprint Car.
It wasn’t without some pressure though, as Tripplett fought back in the latter stages in traffic only to climb Goodno’s right rear and go for a wild ride in turn three with just four laps remaining.
“I struggled to get past lapped cars,” Goodno explained in victory lane. “I could never get to them at the right time and just drive by them.”
Goodno made his way to second by the firth round when previous second-runner Kaley Gharst pihroutted getting into turn one and flipped, collecting Cam Martin in the process.
Goodno made quick work of Tripplett on the restart and then survived traffic long enough before Tripplett tripped over a right rear to end his night.
Paul Nienhiser moved into second on the final restart, but Goodno was having none of it as he raced on to victory lane with Nienhiser settling for runner-up honors.
“It’s nothing to hang your head about, so we’ll take it,” Nienhiser said of the runner-up finish.
Cody Wehrle worked his way from 13th to round out the podium in third with Ryan Jamison and Devin Wignall rounding out the top five. Jamie Ball was sixth with Tanner Gebhardt, Austin Miller, Dugan Thye and Chase Richards completing the top ten.
Terry McCarl, Martin, Gharst and Nienhiser topped heat race action before McCarl and Chris Martin tangled in the Dash. Chris Martin was done for the night while McCarl took the green flag in the feature event and pulled pitside.
In addition to Gharst and Tripplett getting upside down in the main event, Colton Fisher also flipped in turn two just two laps into the affair.
Sprint Invaders
Eldon Raceway – Eldon, Iowa
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Sprint Invaders:
Howard Law A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 22X-Riley Goodno[5]; 2. 50-Paul Nienhiser[6]; 3. 40C-Cody Wehrle[13]; 4. 51J-Ryan Jamison[4]; 5. 21-Devin Wignall[10]; 6. 35-Jamie Ball[11]; 7. 81-Tanner Gebhardt[12]; 8. 83A-Austin Miller[8]; 9. 11T-Dugan Thye[16]; 10. 4X-Chase Richards[7]; 11. 14-Aidan Zoutte[9]; 12. 16-Dustin Clark[15]; 13. 99-Bret Tripplett[1]; 14. 17-Steve Pumphrey[19]; 15. 7-Tyler Lee[17]; 16. 75-Glen Saville[18]; 17. 78-Kaley Gharst[3]; 18. 4-Cameron Martin[2]; 19. 11-Colton Fisher[14]; 20. 24-Terry McCarl[20]
B Feature 1: 1. 16-Dustin Clark[2]; 2. 11T-Dugan Thye[4]; 3. 7-Tyler Lee[3]; 4. 75-Glen Saville[7]; 5. 17-Steve Pumphrey[6]; 6. 31-McCain Richards[1]; 7. 25-Kelly Graham[5]; 8. 7J-Nathan James[8]; 9. 71A-Jayson Alexander[9]
Shottenkirk Automotive Group Dash 1 (6 Laps): 1. 22X-Riley Goodno[3]; 2. 50-Paul Nienhiser[4]; 3. 99-Bret Tripplett[5]; 4. 4-Cameron Martin[6]; 5. 78-Kaley Gharst[7]; 6. 51J-Ryan Jamison[8]; 7. 24-Terry McCarl[2]; 8. 44-Chris Martin[1]
Randalls Performance Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Terry McCarl[2]; 2. 99-Bret Tripplett[4]; 3. 21-Devin Wignall[3]; 4. 16-Dustin Clark[1]; 5. 40C-Cody Wehrle[6]; 6. 75-Glen Saville[5]
Josh Denning Associates Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Cameron Martin[1]; 2. 44-Chris Martin[5]; 3. 35-Jamie Ball[2]; 4. 81-Tanner Gebhardt[4]; 5. 11T-Dugan Thye[3]; 6. 31-McCain Richards[7]; 7. 71A-Jayson Alexander[6]
Mohrfeld Solar Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22X-Riley Goodno[2]; 2. 78-Kaley Gharst[1]; 3. 83A-Austin Miller[4]; 4. 11-Colton Fisher[3]; 5. 7-Tyler Lee[5]; 6. 17-Steve Pumphrey[6]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Paul Nienhiser[2]; 2. 51J-Ryan Jamison[1]; 3. 14-Aidan Zoutte[4]; 4. 4X-Chase Richards[6]; 5. 25-Kelly Graham[3]; 6. 7J-Nathan James[5]