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Sprints: Wing or No Wing, Elliott Still Wins

11 July 1998

By LES MESZAROS

KOKOMO, IN - Thursday night the 410 sprinters put wings on the cars but the results were the same as Tony Elliott of Kokomo, IN again took the win in the 25-lap Kokomo Khallenge feature at the Wolverine Nationals. Unlike Wednesday's feature this race saw Elliott lead every lap. At the drop of the green Elliott jumped into the lead and it was Tony Jarrett right behind. Two laps later Dave Darland took over third and it was the same cast of characters fighting for the lead as the night before. On lap 14 Darland wrestled second away from Jarrett and started to cut into Elliott's lead. Darland kept closing on Elliott and pulled up on Elliott's rear bumper on the last lap but Darland ran out of laps as it was Elliott the winner over Darland, Jarrett, Mike Mann and Ray Shank. Heat race winners for the 13 sprints in the pits were Tony Elliott and Ray Shank. Fortunately, there were no flips in the heats or feature race.


July 8, 1998
ELLIOTT CAPTURES NON-WING SPRINT FEATURE

By LES MESZAROS

KOKOMO, IN - In one of the most entertaining sprint features Tony Elliott of Kokomo, IN took the 25-lap Kokomo Klassic at the Wolverine Nationals. John Stanbrough led the first lap but the next time around it was Tony Pletch sweeping past on the front stretch. Peltch led the next 3 laps with lots of company from Dave Darland and Tony Jarrett. Unbelievably Pletch caught a rut, slammed the wall between turns 3 and 4, and was done for the night. This accident handed the lead to Darland on the restart. Darland and Jarrett raced side by side with the lead changing hands 5 times over the next 7 laps.

Tony Elliott joined the fun on lap 9 and took over second from Darland on lap 13. Elliott moved in on Jarrett and things started to heat up. Jarrett and Elliott really entertained the crowd as the lead-changed hands 3 times in the last ten laps. With two laps to go, Jarrett got stuck in traffic on the backstretch giving Elliott the lead. Jarrett recovered but it was too late as Elliott got to the start finish line first for the win. Finishing third was Kent Christen, fourth was Derek Davidson and limping in fifth with a tire going down was Dave Darland.

In the disastrous heat races, the winners were Dave Darland, Kent Christensen and Derek Davidson. Seven cars flipped in the three heat races. Landing on their heads were Dustin Smith, Greg Stephens, Mike Mann and in a spectacular double flip it was Jack Hewitt and Brian Hayden. Twenty-three 410 sprinters were pitside.