For the longest time in Friday night’s State Fair Speedway Spring Nationals preliminary event, it appeared that 22-year-old Natalie Sather would become the first female “A” Feature winner in American Sprint Car Series history.
But three-time and reigning O’Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National champion Gary Wright of Hooks, TX, had other ideas, sweeping past the spunky North Dakota lass on the 24th round of the 25-lap main event to capture his 109th career series victory and fourth of the year, padding his current series points lead in the process.
But it wasn’t easy for “The Texan”, as he had to race from the 14th starting position and spent several late laps struggling to get by South Dakota’s Chuck Swenson for second.
“I didn’t know if I was gonna get there or not, I knew we were running out of laps, ” Wright explained after the win aboard the Wesmar-powered Richwood Construction/Whiteco Commercial Funding/Southwest Express No. 9 Maxim. “We were really zipping around the top of turn two good, once I got around Chuck I thought we could get there. I kinda hated to take that away from her, she drove a really good race, probably the best race that she’s ever driven, at least feature-wise. “
Asked of any disappointment, Sather smiled and shrugged, “Well, sorta, ” as throngs of fans flocked to the attractive young driver of the Shaver-powered Gateway Chevrolet/Brookings Auto Mall No. 94s J&J seeking autographs after a career-best second place finish.
Sather had kicked off the evening by outgunning Danny Shouse for the point and leading all the way in the opening heat race. After drawing the front row outside for the Pole Dash, Sather got the jump on Swenson at the start and held off both Swenson and Danny Jennings to earn the pole position for the feature event.
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