ANDERSON, Ind. — Dakota Armstrong led the final 74 laps to write his name in the record books by capturing the inaugural Anderson Midget Classic 400 Saturday night at Anderson Speedway.
Armstrong took home $10,000 for the victory in the USAC-sanctioned race on the quarter-mile asphalt oval.
Armstrong battled with Ricky Ehrgott and Alison MacLeod for the lead from lap 130 to the finish with the three drivers swapping the lead eight times.
The final run to the checkered flag was set up by the second competition yellow at lap 300 with MacLeod in the lead. On the restart, both Armstrong and Ehrgott got inside of MacLeod and took the top-two spots exiting the first corner.
“My knees are tired,” Armstrong said after climbing out of his car. “The car was awesome.”
Armstrong said he lost power steering after 200 laps and gave up the lead and waited for the 300-lap break to add more power steering fluid into the car, which lasted until there were 20 laps to go.
“I knew he (Bobby East) was there,” he said of East attempting to get back on the lead lap with less than 60 laps remaining. “He kept bumping me, so I finally let him go.”
Armstrong said the team put new tires on his mount for the final 100 laps.
Ehrgott also went the final laps without power steering to record the second-place finish.
“Without those problems, I would have had a car good enough to win,” he said. “The race wasn’t as physically bad as I thought.”
MacLeod said after the final caution period, her car lost the brakes.
“This was a great experience,” she said. “Third is better than we expected to finish. The pace slowed quite a bit during the first 300 laps because it was going to be every man for himself over the final 100 laps.”
The driver to watch was East, who led early in the event, giving up the lead on lap 109 to Tracy Hines and having to pit three laps later with a blown right-front tire. That put East four laps down.
During a long green flag run from lap 151 to lap 300, East gained two laps on the leaders and in the final 100 circuits made up the gap to finish fourth. Rounding out the top five was Joe Liguori, two laps down.
Eight-time Little 500 winner Eric Gordon pitted early with mechanical problems and fell several laps down, completing only 172 laps and finishing 13th.
There were 11 lead changes among six drivers and the race was slowed a total of six times, not counting the two competition-yellow periods, for 49 laps. Eight of the 21 cars starting the event were still running at the finish.
The finish:
Dakota Armstrong, Ricky Ehrgott, Alison MacLeod, Bobby East, Joe Liguori, Mike Murgoitio, Chett Gehrke, Tracy Hines, Adam Schuyler, Jeremy Warren, Katie Hargitt, David Fuhrman, Eric Gordon, Rex Norris III, Palmer Eicher, Jon Laski, James Robertson, Jacob Thompson, Travis Young, Rob Wyman, Mike Schenker.