Who Wants to be the Leader? Grill Gets Third Derby Mod Victory

For the third time in his career Augie Grill will be taking a Snowball Derby Modified victory back north to Hayden, Alabama. Grill, who is a two time Snowball Derby champion out dueled a handful of modified aces to snag his third Modified Derby win.

Grill took the lead from pole sitter Jim Walls around the 1/3 mark of the 75 lap Modifieds of Mayhem championship finale. Grill survived a handful of cautions before Kyle Purvis would battle the eventual winner and take the lead.

Purvis’ time at the front of the open-wheeled pack was short lived. Just a few laps after taking the lead Purvis had an engine failure resulting in a DNF.

Purvis’ misfortune slowed the field to a caution period. On the restart Augie Grill and Korey Ruble raced wheel to wheel while contact was made behind. That contact resulted in a multi car incident that took out a big portion of the field and stopped the race.

After a lengthy clean up it was Cody Stickler who was turning heads on the restart. Stickler quickly raced is way to second, then passed Grill on the way to lead a handful of laps. Just prior to “high five” from flagman Dan Spence, Grill was able to reel in and regain the top spot.

“On that last restart, I knew he (Stickler) was gonna be pretty fast,” said GARC owner, Grill. “He was on the pole by a long shot so I knew he was gonna be fast. He saved quite a bit, then got on my bumper and I just screwed up a couple of times and got in the throttle too hard and he got by me. I really thought that he just had us beat but I kind of changed my line a little bit instead of just laying the throttle on the floor. I got back to him and got by him. It just makes racing fun. It’s no fun leading by a straightaway and win. I wish the 13 could’ve finished, because Kyle had a really good car. He got by me there earlier when I was just trying to save and have something left for the end.”

The now three time Modfied Derby champ opened the gap to Stickler in the final laps and bagged his third victory in the prestigious event.

“Definitely a good weekend all together.” said the content Florida native, Stickler. “I tried to save as much as I could at the beginning, which I did, and just went a little to hard at the end. Augie Grill is hard to beat here, or anywhere, especially these Modifieds, so it’s a good run for us in second.”

Bruce Bennett worked his way up to round out the podium at the conclusion of the main event. Ruble and Johnny Walker rounded out the top five in the finale for the open-wheeled warriors.

Tomorrow’s local division main event will feature the Outlaw Stocks for 50 laps. The Outlaws will run after the Snowflake 100. On track action will begin at 10:00 AM with Snowflake practice. ‘Flake qualifying will get the green at 2:00 PM followed by the last chance races for the Snowflake and the Snowball Derby. Be sure to follow along with all the happenings at the Derby with PixelatedSPEED. Find us on all the social platforms with #PixelatedSPEED.

– Ben Kilcrease, Twitter: @TheBenKilcrease

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