1971 - Sanger Finally Fails at Tunis

Stan Stover

Waterloo, Iowa (June 13, 1971) - Somebody finally beat Waterloo's Ed Sanger in a Tunis Speedway feature - but it took Stan Stover of Reinbeck almost an hour to do it. And, he didn't accomplish the feat because was Sanger wasn't trying either.

Twenty-four late model cars put in a bid for the $500 feature winner's pay-off, 23 of them also going for the extra $100 bounty put on Sanger's head by CarPac, Inc., the Tunis promoter.

The result was mass confusion, extreme congestion and six wreck-caused restarts, reducing the field to just 13 cars when the race finally got the checkered flag, 57 minutes after it took the first green flag.

The biggest surprise of the night was not that Stover beat Sanger however, but that Roger Kruse of Independence didn't. Kruse, who survived four wrecks and four restarts at the beginning and took the lead on the sixth lap, held off Sanger and the rest of the field until the sixth and final restart on the 22nd lap of the 25-lapper.

On that restart, necessitated when Red Dralle stalled one the back straight, Kruse started on the pole with Sanger just behind him and Stover to Sanger's outside.

When the green flag went down, Stover blew past into the lead and held off-both of the other front-runners, winning by less than a car-length to take the $500 and $100 bounty. Kruse fought off Sanger by half a length for second and Waterloo's Larry Wasserfort finished fourth behind Sanger.

Sanger took the lead twice in the race, but had his advance negated both times by mishaps on the lap which he gained the lead.

Sanger got by Kruse on the inside in the 15th circuit, but a bumper fell off one of the trailing cars and blocked the track and the race had to be restarted before Sanger was officially listed in the lead.

The same thing happened on the final restart as Kruse spun in turn two, but was put back into first when Dralle forced the restart.

Despite Sanger's loss, CarPac has announced that the $100 bounty on the Waterloo driver will still be in effect next Sunday on a "Bet you can't beat him again" basis.

In the other late model action, Dan Nesteby of Waterloo ran away with the first heat, Dralle edged Sanger in the second heat, Karl Sanger nipped Ron Schafenbaul in the Semi and Curt Hansen of Dike won the trophy dash.

Results –

First Heat: Dan Nesteby, Waterloo Second Heat: Red Dralle, Evansdale
Semi: Karl Sanger, Waterloo
Trophy Dash: Curt Hansen, Dike
Feature:
1. Stan Stover, Reinbeck
2. Roger Kruse, Independence
3. Ed Sanger, Waterloo
4. Larry Wasserfort, Waterloo
5. Glen Martin, Independence
6. Phil Reece, Des Moines
7. Arlo Dorenbush, Boone
8. Bob Hesse, Waterloo
9. Dan Nesteby, Waterloo
10. Larry Schulte, Cedar Rapids
11. Willy Klingfus, Cedar Falls
12. A.E. Mayner, Winthrop