SMITH FINDS OPEN TRACK, WINS MIR DEBUT

BENTON -- When your car owner wants to race, what do you do when the weather is bad?

If you are Danny Smith and you are the owner/driver, you find a track to race. With the Frigidaire All-Star tour race at Eldora Speedway postponed, Smith went looking for a place to race. Even if the track is some 500 miles away in Benton, Mo.

"We were supposed to race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio and they had rain all night and most of the day and called off early," said Smith, of Danville, Ind. "This is the only place running within about a 500-mile radius, so we just wanted to win a race and came down."

That's what brought Smith to Saturday's opening night of action at the Missouri International Racepark.

Jimmy Brewer of Sikeston, making his return to sprint car racing, led the early part of the 25-lap sprint feature before a mishap in lap traffic enabled Jerrod Hull and Smith to move past the leader.

Hull led the race until eventual winner Smith capitalized on lap traffic during the final laps to take the top spot.

"He just came up on lap cars and it slowed him down a little bit and there was just barely enough room to get between him and lapped cars," said Smith. "Somehow we snuck through the middle of them.

"Jerrod was actually faster or as fast in the open and the only chance that I was going to win that race was through lap traffic. The main thing tonight was to survive and we got lucky to win the race."

Todd Rowland, Jan Howard and Lee Dunn rounded out the top five.

Fast qualifier Mike Ward suffered a flat tire in heat one and had to qualify through the B-main. Ward started in the back of the A-main after finishing second in the B-main and fell victim to a one-car accident which saw his Sam Town's sprinter roll several times down the back straightaway.

Steve Zelch Jr., 17, from Perryville won his first Limited Late Model feature at MIR. Kent Bailey was second, followed by Earl Moore, Johnny Wyatt and David Channel.

Robert Smith scored his first Super Street feature win. Allen Below finished second, with Billy James, Greg King and Greg Gross rounding out the top five.

Eric Harris of Burfordville pulled away from Keith Brugger and Robert Cooksey to take the opening night Pure Street win. Danny Little and Chalk McClain rounded out the top five.