Shelnut wins Marion Edwards Jr. Memorial at Hialeah Speedway
by Marty Little
HIALEAH, Fla. - Taking advantge of his front row starting position, Darryl Shelnut survived heavy pressure from Wayne Anderson to lead all 100 laps in winning the 34th running of the Marion Edwards, Jr Memorial super late model headliner Saturday night at Hialeah Speedway.
Shelnut and Anderson started the century run side by side on the front row with fast qualifier Shelnut gaining the advantatge on the initial start. Anderson tucked in behind and they ran the entire distance in bumper to bumper formation. Further back there was plenty of action with much shuffling in the 16 car field. One of the strongest drives of the night was turned in by Jonny Kay who started third, tangled with Anderson on lap four and spun. Kay then pitted without losing a lap and steadily worked his way back to third at the checkers. Two other contenders, Mike Franklin, Jr and Joe Winchell tangled with each other trying to avoid a lapped car on lap 40 and were never a factor after that.
The win was Shelnut's fourth win in this prestigeous event and came in Tommy Sytsma's No. 77 Chevrolet. Anderson, Kay, Steve Godlewski and Bobby Coyle rounded out the top five finishers.
In support events, Richie Henry ran to a wire to wire score in the 25 lap street stock feature, leading Chad Rutherford, Travis McCoy, T.C. McElyea and Kyle Wharff.
Fred Williams proved to be the best of the mini stock runner as he pushed his Ford pick up truck to his third victory of the season in the 25 lap run. David Russell gave chase but finished a distant second ahead of Kenny Strong, Bill Calder and Chase Goodson. The always competitive cyclone field fell to the pressure of point leader Mike Powers for his sixth score of the year. Powers patiently picked his way through the field in the 25 lapper and took the lead from Don Morey on the 23rd lap. John Pettit nabbed runner-up money in the closing lap while Morey hung on for third ahead of early Sean Ryan and Steve Khaleel.
The 2003 season will conclude this Saturday (12-13) at the historic Miami-area speedplant.
Compete finish of MARION EDWARDS, JR MEMORIAL 100 at Hialeah Speedway 12-6-03 showing finishing position, driver and laps completed: 1. Darryl Shelnut 100 laps 2. Wayne Anderson 100 3. Jonny Kay 100 4. Steve Godlewski 100 5. Bobby Coyle 100 . Joe Winchell 100 7. Danny Maddox 100 . Steve Weaver, Jr. 100 9. Bob Regula 99 10. Ray Derry 99 11. Steve Throop 98 12. Mike Franklin, Jr. 81 13. Sean Bulaskas 78 14. Craig Seewald 53 15. Thomas Gordon 38 16. Hermino Delgado 37
