East: Evan Hunter's early wreck at DuQuoin makes second race in a row a driver doesn't complete a lap; fourth time overall

Evan Hunter picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL CatDog Pro Series East career in Thursday's Southern Illinois 200 at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds when his #7 Woods Towing & Transportation Toyota was involved in a single-car crash without completing any of the 12 laps.

The finish came in Hunter's 12th career series start. Coming into the East Series, Hunter had some previous success in the SCRL by scoring his first career win in the SCRL V8 Supercar Series, a series that races on road coures, at the Lakeside International Raceway in which he lead every single lap and would go on to finish 8th in points. Making his debut in the series at Daytona, Hunter led one lap before coming home in 6th, one round later he would better that by surviving the wreckfest at Bristol and finished an impressive 3rd, however since then lackluster finishes had knocked Hunter down to 22nd in points as drivers prepared to race on dirt for the first time in series history.

On race day, Evan Hunter would start 28th while starting last on the field was the #0 Viva La Raza Racing Toyota of Alexander Rowe. As the cars were rolling off pit road, all thirty six cars pulled out onto the track and it seemed there would be no one who would fail to complete a lap. Pole sitter Sebastian Torres would lead the field to the green and as the field entered Turn 1, Hunter's car slid off into the turn and smacked the wall with such force his car flipped over ten times before landing on all four wheels. The driver would climb out uninjured, but his car would be destoryed, having no completed a lap in the final rundown and was the first car retired from the race by the time the green would come back out.

Rounding out the bottom five were drivers who were all involved in wrecks by the time the sixth lap was completed; 35th was the #08 Mountain Dew Chevrolet of Hanz DeVice taken out in a wreck in Turn 3 just one turn after Hunter's wreck, but DeVice was able to cross the line to complete one lap, 34th through 32nd respectively was the #18 Coca-Cola / Toyota driven by Marcus Saatchi, the #73 Celtic Waste Dodge of James Stabilito and the #0 Viva La Raza Racing Toyota of Alexander Rowe, all taken out on a Lap 5 crash.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #7 has finished last in a East Series race as well as at DuQuoin.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #7-Evan Hunter / 0 laps / crash
35) #08-Hanz DeVice / 1 lap / crash
34) #18-Marcus Saatchi / 5 laps / crash
33) #73-James Stabilito / 5 laps / crash
32) #0-Alexander Rowe / 5 laps / crash