Krankel and Jacoby Win Missouri-Illinois
Dodge Dealers Racing Series Titles!
By Steve Birmingham
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September 18, 2004; Granite City, IL – Tom Krankel won his first career Ironman Late Model championship while Bert Jacoby ended a suspenseful Mountain Dew Sportsman battle by nailing down his first career championship Saturday at Tri-City Speedway.
Bobby Martintoni won the Budweiser Modified championship while career first championships were won by Mark Pflueger in the Domino's Street Stocks and Todd Erickson in the Auto Trader Factory Stocks.
Mark Voigt made his first Tri-City appearance in the Ironman Late Model division a memorable one, starting deep in the 18 car field and racing to sixth by lap four and the lead just six laps later. Trailing Voigt were Justin ANderson, Shannon Kuhn, Pat Ryan and Krankel. The qualifiers were won by Randy Rawlings and Anderson.
Steve Maisel and Jacoby started on the front row for their Mountain Dew Sportsman championship round and the two ran nose to tail the entire distance, with Maisel winning his eighth of the year and Jacoby a finishing a length behind to clinch the championship. Chasing the pair were Terry Chester, Marty Kopp and Sam Kizer. The heats went to Maisel and Rick Squires.
Pflueger's heat win and third place showing in the feature assured him his first Domino's Street Stock crown, but title challenger Andy Beavers made him work hard for it. Beavers, failing to transfer through his heat, came back and nabbed the Semi. Beavers then roared to the point and paced Josh Jackson and Pflueger the entire distance to the checkers. A post-race inspection turned up a rules misinterpretation for Jackson, leading to his disqualification and David Parker's elevation to the third place finish position. Rounding out the top five were Jason Stanton and Tommy Gegg. The remaining heats went to Gegg and Loren Shank.
Erickson, assured of the title, won his heat and led a portion of the main event only to be overtaken by Aaron Wood at the checkers. Chasing the two were Ken Bell, Lloyd Donnelson and David Pulley, Jr. The second heat went to Bell.