Sawalich steals Winchester win
Oct. 15—WINCHESTER — William Sawalich led the final four laps to win the JEGS All-Stars 100 lap event Friday at Winchester Speedway.
Chase Burda led from Lap 3 through Lap 95 when he was pushed up the track in Turn 1 by Giovanni Ruggerio, allowing Sawalich to take the lead and win by 1.285 seconds.
The Champion Racing Association JEGS All-Stars closed out their season with Dakota Stroup claiming his first championship.
Burda turned back challenges from Stephen Nasse, fast-qualifier Ruggerio and Sawalich.
Early in the race Sawalich dropped back to eighth and made a late charge to capture the victory.
"I was just watching the two cars in front of me," Sawalich said in victory lane. "When the bottom line opened, I was able to make the move."
Sawlaich led the first lap, but Burda took control on Lap 3. The driver on the move early was Nasse, who climbed from the seventh starting spot to fourth after 16 circuits but pitted on Lap 26.
The race was red-flagged on Lap 26 when there was contact in the fourth corner which caused Michael Simko and Jordan Miller to spin and collected the car of Jimmy Tucker.
A second red-flag incident happened on Lap 35 collecting Nasse, Albert Francis, points leader Nick Egan and Evan Varney.
The third red flag waved on Lap 64 when the third-place car of Kevin Cremonesi and Ryan Luza got together entering Turn 3, eliminating both drivers from competition.
The race was quickly turning into one of attrition with 13 of the 24 starters still running.
Michael Hinde had his night end on Lap 66 when he made contact with the Turn 2 wall.
Ruggerio captured his first career pole position with a lap at 114.8 mph in a tight field of 31 qualifiers with the top 25 drivers separated by a half-second.
Championship contender Egan had to take a provisional starting spot and started 22nd in the feature. The other championship contender, Stroup, started 11th.
Four drivers advanced to the feature from the last-chance race — Francis, Nicholas Naugle, Jonathan Martin and Ryan Fleming.
Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.
