Springfield, Mo. (July 14, 1984) – Dick Trickle outlasted the heat, humidity, and Alan Kulwicki to win the ASA-sanctioned Silver Creek 250 stock car race at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds on Saturday night.
It was Trickle’s first ASA victory of the season.
Kulwicki, who led 201 of the 250-lap contest recovered from a spin that allowed Trickle to take the lead for good, finished second, 2.5-seconds back. Bobby Dotter was third and Harold Fair fourth to round out the lead lap finishers. Mike Eddy came in fifth, one circuit in arrears.
Though Trickle played the role of the opportunist to pick up the $6,820 win, he never ranked worse than fourth at any point in the race.
Trickle credited a mid-race pit stop with giving him the winning edge.
“My guys got me ahead of everyone else,” Trickle said of the lap 106 caution which sent all of the contenders to the pits except Kulwicki. “And with everyone battling the heat, it made my job that much easier.”
Kulwicki blazed to a one-lap track record in qualifications, touring the flat, .525-mile oval in 20.100 seconds to put his Firebird on the pole for the start of the 28-car feature.
Rocketing away at the start, Kulwicki enjoyed as much as a straightaway lead over second place in the early going as his closest pursuer, Bob Senneker, was forced to make a green flag pit stop with a flat tire on lap 60….
Despite a quick stop, Senneker went a lap down, but returned to the track in form, eventually running down Kulwicki and engaging the pacesetter in a battle that lasted 100 circuits.
Although all the other contenders pitted during the mid-race caution necessitated by a Dave Jensen spin, Kulwicki elected to stay out and remain the lead.
“I just figured there would be another caution and I’d have an excellent set of tires,” Kulwicki explained. “It didn’t work out that way.”
Almost 100 rounds elapsed before Kulwicki finally saw the much-needed caution, ironically for his own spin on lap 201.
While Trickle inherited the lead when Kulwicki spun and pitted during the subsequent caution, it was Senneker who appeared to be in the catbird’s seat. Senneker, who had returned to the lead lap and was in third at the time of the yellow, appeared to have the fastest car on the track.
But Senneker’s race-long pursuit of Kulwicki had taken it’s toll on tires and the Dorr, Mich., ace was forced to make a second pit stop during the caution for Kulwicki. Senneker got trapped in the pits when all-out action resumed, putting him one circuit down for the second time. A tire problem late in the race necessitated a third stop, which resulted in a sixth-place finish.
Kulwicki closed in on Trickle during the waning laps but the undisputed leader of the “Wisconsin Gang”
would have none of that, maintaining a comfortable lead at the finish.
Results –
1. Dick Trickle
2. Alan Kulwicki
3. Bobby Dotter
4. Harold Fair
5. Mike Eddy
6. Bob Senneker
7. Ken Lund
8. Tom Harrington
9. Muttly Kurkowski
10.Ken Christenson
11.Dave Simko
12.Don Collins
13.Don Ely
14.Dennis Vogel
15.Jim Sauter
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