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Former Derby Pole Sitter Gale, Veteran Rogers Highlight Final Four that Earn Snowball Spot

By Chuck Corder

Going home from the Snowball Derby empty-handed is always the greatest fear for the first weekend in December.

Going home after initially believing you had punched your ticket to the most prestigious race in the short-track world could scar you for life.

At first blush, it appeared as though it would be Mason Mingus, Brady Boswell, David Rogers and Chris Wimmer would be the four lucky drivers advancing from Saturday afternoon’s last-chance Derby race into today’s main event at Five Flags Speedway.

Track technical inspector Ricky Brooks would have the final say. His notorious strict “Room of Doom� was the undoing of Boswell and Wimmer.

Both drivers were disqualified for carburetor issues, vaulting 2010 Derby pole sitter Cale Gale and Josh Hamner into the final two spots of today’s 46th running of the Snowball Derby.

“We’ve been working really hard all weekend,� said Gale, who won a NASCAR Trucks Series race in Miami last year when he walled Kyle Busch. “Scott Carlson gives me an opportunity. We got a little racing in there. We’ll see (today) what we can do. We’ll just keep plugging away at it.�

Some notable absences: local beloved driver Junior Niedecken failed to make it magic number 29 Derby starts by being on the outside looking in. Jeff Fultz, a notable late model champion driver, won’t be part of today’s show. And Jerry Artuso, who travels all the way from Canada each year for every Snowball and some Blizzard Series races, had to pack up for the long, cold drink.

Gale hoped to get in on his own and with 35 of 50 laps complete it seemed a no brainer. He pulled up several times to Wimmer’s bumper, but each time Wimmer distant himself.

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