CLEVELAND, Texas (March 2) – Shock and setup changes made in the off-season paid off in Saturday’s Southern United Sprints season opener for Jacob Harris.
Harris roared back into the lead coming out of the final turn to beat younger brother Tyler to the checkers in Saturday’s series lidlifter for IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars at 105 Speedway.
A light rain had started midway through the main event at Cleveland and Jacob Harris found his preferred line on the high side after the precipitation stopped and the track was rolled back in.
He was running behind a lapped car with two circuits to go; Tyler went to a lower line on the white flag lap and was briefly in front, before Jacob rode the top back to the front and won by two car lengths.
“It felt good to get the win. We made changes with our shock package and setup during the off-season. We’re going with setups similar to what dad (Mark) had during his 305 career,” said Harris, a three-time feature winner each of the past two years. “We’ve been trying to get better at the start of the season instead of halfway through the year. I don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch but I think we’ve been able to do that.”
Tyler Harris was second across the stripe and first to congratulate the winner. He’d battled former national champion Marcus Thomas for the lead early on.
Rod Craddock, Dustyn Welch and Thomas rounded out the top five.
Feature results – 1. Jacob Harris; 2. Tyler Harris; 3. Rod Craddock; 4. Dustyn Welch; 5. Marcus Thomas; 6. Kent Lewis; 7. Daniel King; 8. Robert Vetter; 9. Caleb Padgett; 10. Michael Oliver; 11. Blake Cunningham; 12. Danny Burke; 13. Chris Hinson; 14. Weldon Buford; 15. Randall Noble; 16. Tommy Hall; 17. Theresa Waller; 18. Steve Holland.