1984 - Senneker Edges Martin in ASA Winchester 400

 

Bob Senneker rolled up another Winchester 400 victory at Winchester Speedway. Involved in the post-race ceremony is, from left to right, Bobby Batson of Silver Creek, the series’ sponsor, Senneker’s wife Patty, and Miss Winchester 400 Jody O’Brien. – Don This Photo

Winchester, Ind. (September 30, 1984) – Bob Senneker edged Mark Martin by .65 of a second to capture the 15th annual Winchester 400 for American Speed Association stock cars for the sixth time on Sunday afternoon at Winchester Speedway.

An overflow crowd of 10,197 seldom used their seats during the last 35 circuits as Martin took advantage of the final caution period of the race to set up a late race charge to the wire.

“Fortunately, my last set of tires were the best ones I had all day,” Senneker said after his ninth ASA win of the season. “But Mark really had me worried when he got his new tires.”

Dick Trickle from the beginning that the race would be a flat out dash rather than a pacing game as he exploded from his pole position to easily lead the first 128 laps of the race.

Choosing to make a pit stop during a caution at that time, Trickle surrendered the lead to Senneker. Martin, who stopped earlier, pressured Senneker to continue the relentless pace.

Running consistently in the top-five early on in the race, Jim Sauter suffered steering problems which caused him to spin on lap 222 that saw all the leaders come into the pit area for service.

Back to all-clear conditions, Senneker again resumed the lead following a superb pit stop but went back to the pits during a lap 242 caution to select a set of tires with “stagger” more to his liking.

Martin then took the lead and demonstrated the considerable power of the lone Ford in the field, staying out front until pitting during a caution on lap 305.

At that point, Bobby Dotter, driving a perfect race, took the lead but relented to Senneker on lap 317 as thee “Bluebird” began his patented late race move exactly on schedule.

Going a lap down midway in the race when a tire went down, Mike Eddy, the defending champion of the event fought back to the leader’s lap, but a broken shock absorber caused him to spin on lap 341 and necessitated the caution that Martin utilized for his bold four tire pit stop.

On several occasions during the final 30 rounds, Martin was able to draw even with Senneker and race side-by-side but couldn’t generate the extra steam required to complete the pass.

With Senneker and Martin only four-car-lengths apart under the checkered flag, Trickle was 12 seconds back in third and Butch Miller also was on the lead lap to take fourth.

Dotter was finally lapped in the final 15 circuits but registered a strong fifth-place effort.

Senneker’s 56th career ASA win earned him $11,710 for the weekend out of a total of $67,100 in posted awards.


Results –


1. Bob Senneker
2. Mark Martin
3. Dick Trickle
4. Butch Miller
5. Bobby Dotter
6. Harold Fair
7. Doug Klein
8. Kent Stauffer
9. Muttly Kurkowski
10.Dave Jensen
11.Steve Christman
12.Alan Kulwicki
13.Tom Jones
14.John Wilson
15.Tom Harrington