Hastings wins wild sprint feature on opening night of Wayne Anderson Cup
May 22—GRAND FORKS — The opening leg of the Wayne Anderson Cup at River Cities Speedway on Thursday night had it all — a handful of yellow flags, lapped traffic, hard racing and a few wicked crashes. And, as the checkered flag came down, last year's champion again has a leg up on winning another title. Jade Hastings passed Mark Dobmeier with two laps to go to win the 30-lap event at The Bullring, giving him the early lead in the in-season, four-race event that honors the memory of Anderson — one of the founding members of RCS.
Hastings was last season's Cup champion. "We've been really fast so far," said Hastings. "We should be three-for-three this season but I'll take one-for-three.
It's still a good ratio. " Dobmeier grabbed the lead from Blake Egeland eight laps into the event. But Hastings steadily gained on Dobmeier in the closing laps.
With four laps to go, Dobmeier led Hastings by 0. 851 seconds. With two to go, Hastings caught Dobmeier in Turns 1 and 2.
He then cleared the career NOSA wins leader, setting up a wild white flag lap. In Turn 3, Dobmeier was running the high side, hoping to set up a last corner pass for the win. But he became tangled up with a lapped car and wildly flipped end-over-end.