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Austin McCarl – Top Three!
(Bill W) August 19, 2008 – School has started for Southeast Polk High School Sophomore, Austin McCarl. By day he hits the books and by evening he is a defensive end for the football team. For race fans, the 15 year old Altoona, Iowa sprint car driver is one of the rising stars of their sport. Last Saturday night, he continued his steady improvement with his first top three finish at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa.
Austin drew outside row two for the heat race, and used a good start to follow Nick Eastin to the checkers. "The heat race went well," says Austin of the second place finish that qualified him for the dash. "It was good. We cruised into second and we were able to finish there."
Austin didn't rest there, as he finished fifth in the dash. That set him up inside row three for the first of Twin Feature events. He rolled around Korey Weyant into fourth, and ran well there until leader, Nick Eastin, left the track with a flat on lap ten. Austin finished a career best third, holding onto his spot the last five laps. "We held our own," he says. "Grandpa Lenard, (Uncle) Kenny and Jimmy really had the car running good. I was pumped to get my first top three finish! It did help that (Nick) Eastin left with a flat tire though."
With the second feature inverted, confidence was high for the driver of Janet Holbrook's #17 machine. He quickly surged into the top ten. "Things were cruising along," he remembers. "I was really excited until that yellow came out in the second feature (lap 3). I made a rookie mistake. I should have run the bottom there, but I went to the top and a bunch of guys got by. I stayed up there and tried to make it work. It didn't."
Austin would fall to 17th at the finish. Was Grandpa Lenard jumping up and down about Austin's first top three finish? "He was happy," says Austin. "He's not a real emotional guy to say the least." Indeed.
When Austin makes a feature, we'll do a release for him. Call it some motivation of sorts. If you'd like to be included via e-mail, shoot one to [email protected] with "Austin" in the subject line.
Austin would like to thank Janet Holbrook, Lenard, Kenny, Jimmy, Big Game Treestands, DeBerg Concrete, AmericashAdvance.com, Jack L. Anderson Auto Body and Goodyear Tires for all their help!
Austin races to a 3rd place finish at 34 Raceway (Dennis Krieger Imagery)
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