ASA: Sauter Makes History with Win at Hawkeye Downs Speedway
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 29, 2001
Rookie becomes fourth member of Sauter family to win in ASA
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – 2001 Rookie of the Year candidate Johnny Sauter made ASA history as the 22-year-old captured his first career win in the Iowa 300 at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Johnny becomes the fourth member of the Sauter family to win an ASA event following the likes of his father Jim (seven wins) and brothers Jay (one win) and Tim (six wins).
Sauter’s win came with a lot of help from his pit crew, who got him out in front the lead lap cars who pitted at lap 124. Sauter, who came in running second, left the pits first and passed Greg Williams for the lead on 130, never looking back, holding off charges from Gary St. Amant late in the event.
“Awesome, this is awesome,” said Sauter, who led 231 of the 300 laps. “It is intimidating having Gary (St. Amant) running behind you. The late cautions in the end helped, as the car really came around. My hats off to Gary though, who raced me clean all d ay long.”
Sauter capped off what was to be a career weekend for the Wisconsin-native. In addition to his victory and leading the most laps, which came from the pole, he set the fastest time of the weekend in practice.
The race, which featured a near record of 15 cautions, was hotly contested at or near the front all day long. In addition to St. Amant’s second-place finish, LaFavre Racing teammates Mike Garvey and Kevin Cywinski traded paint throughout much of the event ’s second half. Unfortunately for Cywinski, his day ended with a 15th place finish after contact late in the race with the fifth place car of Mike Cope.
Garvey went on to collect his fourth podium finish of the season, followed by Cope in fourth and David Stremme in fifth. Sauter earned $17,630 for the win. The event saw four lead changes among four drivers with Sauter taking the win by only 0.297 over St. Amant. Close racing was the order of the day in front of a full house at the Eastern Iowa facility.
The ASA ACDelco Series returns to action on Sunday, May 6, for the second-annual ACTIONLINE 300 at Montgomery Motor Speedway. The event, which is set to begin at noon (local time), will be telecast live on TNN Sports.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The unofficial finish from Saturday’s $187,860 American Speed Association ACDelco Series Iowa 300 at Hawkeye Downs Speedway. Listed is finishing and starting position (in parenthesis) driver, make of car, laps completed and reason out, i f any.
1)(1) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 300
2)(2) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 300
3)(4) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 300
4)(17) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 300
5)(20) David Stremme, Chevrolet, 300
6)(31) Mike Miller, Pontiac, 300
7)(7) Butch Miller, Pontiac, 300
8)(23) Todd Rosebrugh, Pontiac, 299
9)(9) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 299
10)(24) Dennis Lampman, Chevrolet, 299
11)(11) Jason Schneider, Chevrolet, 299
12)(6) Joey Clanton, Chevrolet, 298
13)(12) Ricky Bryant, Pontiac, 298
14)(26) Paul Paine, Pontiac, 298
15)(3) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 298
16)(25) Tim Jedrzejek, Pontiac, 298
17)(8) Tim Taylor, Chevrolet, 297
18)(32) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 297
19)(29) Chad Wood, Ford, 297
20)(19) Scott Hansen, Ford, 289
21)(30) Tim Schmitt, Chevrolet, 283
22)(22) Mike Eddy, Chevrolet, 283
23)(15) Matt Sielsky, Chevrolet, 276, hub
24)(5) Greg Stewart, Pontiac, 257
25)(16) Brad Lemley, Ford, 247
26)(10) Pat Kelly, Chevrolet, 243, wheel bearing
27)(28) Rick Nelson, Chevrolet, 232, handling
28)(18) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 228
29)(21) Scott Fraser, Chevrolet, 220
30)(13) Johnny Spaw, Chevrolet, 193, overheating
31)(27) Mike White, Chevrolet, 91, suspension
31)(14) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 90, accident
Text provided by Jeremy Troiano
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