Jordan Gatton Wins New Shoe Shootout, Earns Starting Spot in Hot Shoe 100

Jordan Gatton locked started off Hot Shoe 100 weekend at Owosso with a big victory, winning the New Shoe Shootout to guarantee his starting spot in Saturday's main event.

The New Shoe Shootout puts the spotlight on newcomers to the Hot Shoe 100 and Owosso Speedway to kick off the two-day weekend of racing at the Michigan facility. However, the event is far from a meaningless exhibition, with a guaranteed starting spot in the Hot Shoe 100 on the line.

Gatton held off Ron Hart after a restart with six laps to go, taking the $2,500 victory and the starting spot in Saturday's race.

Hart and Gatton made contact through turns three and four in the closing laps, but Hart backed off to allow Gatton to regain control of his No. 88. That show of respect allowed the two drivers to battle to the finish, with Gatton holding on to the top spot.

"I can't thank him enough for racing me with all that respect," said Gatton. "I met him earlier this year here and we talked about our motors and staging line.

"He's my other fellow Stroker engine guy here, so it's fun racing with him. This is not the first time we've raced side-by-side like that. It's so much fun."

Gatton believes the guaranteed starting spot will be incredibly valuable to him. Lacking confidence in his qualifying speed, Gatton approached the New Shoe Shootout as a must-win scenario for his hopes to make Saturday's race.

"We don't have any speed qualifying-wise," said Gatton. "I'm, like, in the 50s here. It was either win this or go home, I felt like. I tried everything I could to hold him off. I don't know how these guys get so quick around here, but I don't have that, so this is a big deal for me. A lot less stress tomorrow. We'll just see how it goes tomorrow."

Hart acknowledged he didn't want to win Friday's race by roughing up Gatton, and certainly preferred a second-place finish to the potential of a crashed race car or a penalty.

"I don't know. I probably wasn't in there far enough," said Hart. "I don't know if he had a spotter or not, but it was good racing, man. I don't want to win it that way. I didn't want us both to go to the back, either, it pays a lot better for second than it does for last.

"We had some overheating in the middle of the race again. We've got to figure that out. I couldn't really go hard. I think I could have got him then, but I had to just play it easy and try to do it on the late-race restarts, and just ran out of laps."

Now, Hart turns his focus towards qualifying at 4 p.m. on Saturday in hopes of making the Hot Shoe 100. Teams had the chance to practice for those qualifying efforts on Friday, and knows what he needs to work on ahead of the big race.

"Going out on stickers in qualifying is just something we don't really do," said Hart. "We did get a chance to try it today, and it was okay so we learned something for that.

"I'm not the best qualifier. I think if we get 100 laps, I think we can be okay. If we can get the thing to stay cool and handle as good as it does late in a run. If we can make the race, I think we've got a shot at running top 10."

Nolan Cooper finished third in the New Shoe Shootout, followed by Jake Smith and Chris Johnson.

Feature racing begins at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday at Owosso Speedway. Along with Hot Shoe 100 XI, there are feature races for Template Late Models and Pure Stocks.

New Shoe Shootout Unofficial Results