Some driver-track combinations in Sprint Car racing seem to go together like bread and butter. Donny Schatz at Knoxville. David Gravel at Williams Grove. And of course, Derek Hagar at Riverside International Speedway.
The Marion, AR driver took the checkered flag at “The Ditch” for the fourth time in eight days and the second time in as many outings with the American Sprint Car Series National Tour. But this time, it came with a $10,000 check and the title of World Short Track Challenge champion.
“It’s $10,000 man, you’ve got to put it all on the line,” Hagar said. “I knew I wasn’t going to pass them following them. I had some good runs and the cautions kept coming out. I was like ‘man, screw it, I’m pulling the wing back and see if it works.”
Thanks to his Friday night victory, Hagar was one of two drivers locked into Saturday’s Feature before the program began, the other being Friday runner-up Dale Howard. Hagar finished fifth in the Dash to claim the inside of the third row in the Feature lineup, with Jordon Mallett and Cody Gardner sharing the front row.
A rash of early spins meant the field needed three attempts to complete the opening lap, but once the race got going, Mallett drove away to the early lead while Gardner came under fire from the No. 2C of Hank Davis.
Davis moved up to second on Lap 5 and immediately went to work on running down Mallett. He caught the Rains Motorsports No. 3 car and was briefly side-by-side for the top spot before Ayden Gatewood spun in Turn 2 to pause the action on Lap 12.
Hagar had climbed to third by the time the caution was thrown, putting him within striking distance of the lead for the first time when the race resumed. He made the most of the opportunity, getting around Davis on the high side in Turns 3 and 4 before setting his sights on Mallett.
With seven laps to go, Hagar found a run off of Turn 2, slipped to Mallett’s inside and never looked back, leading the rest of the way to win for the 10th time on the National Tour.
The 40-lap distance meant track evolution was a much bigger factor than in the 25-lap contest one night prior, which made Hagar’s local knowledge of the facility even more crucial.
“Knew that I was going to be tight early and it was,” Hagar said. “I think I knocked the wall down two or three times down the back straightaway. Really surprised the Jacob’s ladder’s still on it. I knew that with 40 laps, a lot of these cars running, it was probably going to start polishing off on the bottom and throwing that crum up in the middle.”
With fellow Arkansas driver Mallett finishing second, it marked the second night in a row in which the top two spots were claimed by Riverside regulars, solidifying their spot as one of the top local contingents in 360 Sprint Car racing.
“A lot of guys that grew up racing here are in the Hall of Fame,” Hagar said. “My granddad fielded cars for Sammy Swindell, Hooker Hood and Rickey Hood. He actually crew chiefed on the car when Sammy won both Short Track Challenges back in the 1970s. So to keep the win in the family, it feels pretty special.”
While Mallett looked to be in position to take his second National Tour win of the season up until the final 10 laps of the Feature, he was ultimately unable to stand in the way of Hagar’s reign of terror over the West Memphis bullring.
“Hindsight’s always 20/20,” Mallett said. “Sometimes it’s better to be second than the leader on this deal, but I mean, this is [Hagar’s] deal, this is where he made a name. Hats off to Derek, he got it done again. We ran second to him last week, we ran second to him this week.”
Sam Hafertepe Jr. rebounded from his crash on Friday night with a third-place finish on Saturday night, giving the Sunnyvale, TX driver some positive momentum entering his home race at RPM Speedway next weekend.
“We stayed a little free, freer than we were last night,” Hafertepe said. “We probably should have gotten where we were last night, and we probably could have competed with Derek as far as speed. At the end, I just kind of put it on the fence, just rubbing the right-rear on the wall and honestly, we started catching them guys in front of us.”
Davis held on to the fourth spot while Blake Hahn finished fifth for his fourth top five in 10 National Tour appearances this season.
The Hard Charger Award went to Jason Martin, who advanced to the Feature through a B-Main before driving from 16th up to seventh by the checkered flag.
UP NEXT: The final stop before championship weekend in November will take the ASCS National Tour to RPM Speedway in Crandall, TX on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26. Tickets will be available at the track on race day, but if you can’t make it, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature: 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[5]; 2. 3-Jordon Mallett[1]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[6]; 4. 2C-Hank Davis[4]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[13]; 6. 47-Dale Howard[3]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[16]; 8. 10M-Morgan Turpen Havener[8]; 9. 6J-Kyle Jones[9]; 10. 26-Marshall Skinner[12]; 11. 40-Howard Moore[20]; 12. 31-Casey Wills[19]; 13. 37-Ayden Gatewood[11]; 14. 10L-Landon Britt[17]; 15. 71T-Christopher Townsend[15]; 16. 16G-Austyn Gossel[14]; 17. 121-Jan Howard[10]; 18. 6-Cody Gardner[2]; 19. 55Z-Zach Pringle[18]; 20. 2J-Zach Blurton[21]; 21. 88M-Trent Moss[7]
