Cedar Rapids, Iowa (May 24, 2003) – Veteran Mike Garvey
scored his fifteenth
career
victory and at
fourth at Hawkeye
Downs Speedway leading
the final 92
laps and holding off Robbie Pyle to win the Iowa 300 on
Saturday.
In 14 starts at the Iowa oval, Garvey has scored eight
podiums. He is the all-time
ASA winner at the half-mile oval. He celebrated the win
with an impressive series
of “donuts” with the billowing smoke obscuring his
Chevrolet for several seconds.
Garvey driving the No. 17 WJ Plemons Investments
Chevrolet battled with Rich
Bickle in the Marines.com Chevrolet from lap 202 to the
time he made the pass
on lap 208 on the inside entering Turn two.
The two veterans
raced side by
side for several
laps before Garvey
took
command of the race. Pyle in the Citgo Chevrolet moved
into second place on
lap 215 and
chased Garvey to
the checkers. A
handful of late
race cautions
slowed Pyle in his pursuit of Garvey.
Garvey won by
0.376 seconds over
Pyle with rookie
Reed Sorenson in
the
ACDelco Chevrolet, Kevin Cywinski in the Great Clips
Chevrolet and Toby Porter
in the Meijer Chevrolet rounding out the top five.
“We have had good cars the last five races,” said Garvey
following his second
win in 2003. “We knew we had a good race car 50 laps into
the race.
“At the end I had to protect the bottom groove,” he said.
“Robbie raced me clean,
which I knew he would do. I wish we had another race here
(Hawkeye Downs).”
Pyle said he was pleased to come out of the Iowa 300 with
a podium finish after
the team struggled during qualifications.
“The pit crew got me up front,” he said. “I think on the
longer runs we were able
to close on
Mike (Garvey) and
may have made the pass, but then
the caution
would wave. He had a better car on the restarts.”
Sorenson
said he was
pleased with the
third place finish,
which equaled his
career best.
“Racing with these guys side by side is a lot of fun,” he
said.
With his fourth
place finish, Cywinski
took over the
season points lead
from
Butch Miller in the Timber Wolf Chevrolet, who faded at
the end of the Iowa 300
to finish 19th. Cywinski leads Miller by 47 markers after
six of 17 events. With his
third place finish
Sorenson regained the
rookie points lead
by 86 points over
Travis Kittleson.
A near capacity crowd at Hawkeye Downs was treated to
side by side racing at
the front of the field, with many times the drivers
entering the sweeping corners
two and three wide.
Two-time ASA champion Gary St. Amant, having a difficult
year, led from lap 83
to 111 when he was passed by Paul Paine and Sorenson
coming off the turn two
with an inside move. St. Amant was running fifth when he
was bumped by Scott
Lagasse Jr. in turn three and made heavy contact with the
outside retaining wall
on lap 142.
The race featured nine lead changes among seven drivers
and was slowed 14
times for 96 laps. A total of 20 of the 33 cars that
started the race finished on the
lead lap.
The ASA Racing
Series returns to
action on Saturday,
June 14 at
the high-
banked I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo., for the Missouri 250
presented by Jani-
King. The event will take the green flag at 9 p.m.
(Central) and will be telecast
live on Speed Channel.
For additional information on the ASA Racing Series visit
asaracing.com.
ASA Box
American Speed Association
Iowa 300
Hawkeye Downs Speedway
Track length: .50 mile
Race Saturday
1)(7) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 300
2)(6) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 300
3)(2) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 300
4)(1) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 300
5)(17) Toby Porter, Chevrolet, 300
6)(3) Peter Cozzolino, Chevrolet, 300
7)(13) Rich Bickle, Chevrolet, 300
8)(27) Brett Sontag, Chevrolet, 300
9)(15) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 300
10)(11) Todd Kluever, Chevrolet, 300
11)(26) Greg Stewart, Chevrolet, 300
12)(16) Chad Wood, Chevrolet, 300
13)(8) Rick Beebe, Ford, 300
14)(12) Bryan Reffner, Chevrolet, 300
15)(30) Paul Paine, Chevrolet, 300
16)(24) Davin Scites, Chevrolet, 300
17)(25) Ed Brown, Chevrolet, 300
18)(33) Troy Wangerin, Chevrolet, 300
19)(5) Butch Miller, Chevrolet, 300
20)(20) Dudley Fleck, Chevrolet, 299
21)(21) Boris Jurkovic, Chevrolet, 299
22)(18) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, 299
23)(19) Donny Reuvers, Chevrolet, 299
24)(32) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 297
25)(29) Jesse Klug, Chevrolet, 295
26)(22) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 291
27)(10) Travis Kittleson, Chevrolet, 285
28)(4) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 274, rear end
29)(9) Scott Lagasse Jr., Chevrolet, 231, rear end
30)(31) John Dalziel, Chevrolet, 230, handling
31)(28) Kris Stump, Ford, 176, accident
32)(14) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 143, accident
33)(23) J.C. Beattie Jr., Chevrolet, 56, accident
Race Statistics:
Time of Race: 2 hours, 15 minutes, 4.378 seconds
Average speed: 66.631 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.376 seconds
Lead Changes: 9 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Sorenson,
1-11; Cywinski, 12-78;
Garvey, 79-82; St. Amant,
83-
111; Paine, 112-119; Garvey, 120-142; B. Miller, 143-157;
Paine, 158-168; Bickle,
169-207; Garvey, 208-300
Cautions: 14 for 96 laps
ASA Racing Series point standings after 6 of 17 races: 1)
Cywinski, 1,092; 2) B.
Miller, 1,045; 3) Pyle, 955; 4) Garvey, 940; 5) Sorenson,
938; 6) Kittleson, 852; 7)
Cozzolino, 796; 8) Kluever, 795; 9) Wood, 763; 10) Allen,
761