EASTABOGA, Ala. (Jan. 8th) — Starting from the pole after winning a heat race in the Crate Racin’ USA Street Stock portion of the 31st edition of the Ice Bowl turned out to be the best place to be, mostly because it kept Booger Brooks ahead of the oodles of incidents that produced 13 caution flags during the 30-lap affair.
Staying away from all the troubles, Brooks wheeled his Kenny Morgan-fielded entry to a $2,500 victory Saturday night at Talladega Short Track, emerging from a 45-car gathering that turned out to attempt to make the field at the track’s giant annual winter weekend.
The Chattanooga, Tenn., driver led the 24-car field during every circuit at the third-mile oval and crossed the stripe ahead of fastest qualifier Gary Tucker, Josh Hartman and Wyatt Hill, who suffered a flat tire earlier in the race and rebounded to finish fourth ahead of Jeremy Isbell.
Brooks had to survive numerous restarts that paused the event. Various spins and accidents, many of which affected the race’s top contenders, led to a mini-marathon that took 39 minutes and 53 seconds to complete.
Interruptions reigned, with multi-car incidents and various spins and accidents depleting the cast of frontrunners. Ten caution flags waved in the first dozen laps, and the longest stretch of green-flag racing was completed between laps 16-26 before a final caution slowed the pace with four laps remaining.
That one appeared when 18-year-old Tyler Worley, who was driving a car normally piloted by Race McMahan, slowed and rolled to a stop in turn two due to a broken gear while running third, which dropped him to a disappointing 18th-place finish.
Tucker, running second on the restart after falling back as deep as seventh place during the race’s earlier stages, had a final shot at unseating Brooks. He was unable to deal a significant challenge, and settled for runnerup honors.
Brooks drove a brand new car, and arrived at the third-mile facility without knowing exactly what to expect from the recently-completed machine. Complicating matters, some electrical issues during practice sessions that were held two days before the feature limited his practice time.
“We had some problems with the MSD box,” Brooks said. “We got that cleared up, and then went out and won a heat race to put us on the pole. The car was great, and during the feature we were just out there making laps and taking care of the tires. There were a lot of cautions, but none of them really affected us. Fortunately we were out front, and missed everything.”
Brook’s Morgan Motorsports-fielded machine carried sponsorship from B&L Construction, Twisted Performance & Machine, Extreme Concepts, Maid to Clean and Duggar’s Painting.
Ice Bowl (Street Stocks): 1. Booger Brooks, 2. Gary Tucker, 3. Josh Hartman, 4. Wyatt Hill, 5. Jeremy Isbell, 6. Trevor Woodard, 7. Dillon Scott, 8. Bo Minor, 9. Patrick Lyon, 10. Keaton Downing, 11. Russ Gabbert, 12. Tony Stutts, 13. Jordan Phillips, 14. Landen Jackson, 15. Darryl Moran, 16. Tony Cruse, 17. Hunter Runions, 18. Tyler Worley, 19. Kaleb Vandygriff, 20. Oakley Johns, 21. Patrick Gray, 22. Charles Zimmerman, 23. Keenan Vandygriff, 24. Matt Brown.
Total entries: 45
Fast qualifier: Gary Tucker, 16.794 seconds
Lap leaders: Booger Brooks, 1-30.
Cautions: 13
Margin of victory: 0.861 seconds
Heat winners: Booger Brooks, Kaleb Vandygriff, Tyler Worley, Patrick Lyon.
B-main winners: Bo Minor, Jordan Phillips
Article Credit: Brian McLeod