Swamp buggies: Eddie Chesser chases down Tyler Johns to win Spring Classic in Naples

Fans who stuck around all day at the swamp buggy Spring Classic were treated to a thrilling finish in the final race. The biggest prize at Florida Sports Park in East Naples on Saturday was decided by the smallest margin.

Eddie Chesser’s buggy Rapture charged from behind in the final seconds to edge past Tyler Johns in a Big Feature victory that couldn’t be decided by the naked eye. Spectators needed the public address announcer to relay the official times to find out Chesser nudged Johns by 0.22 seconds.

In his 25th year driving a swamp buggy, Chesser won his 21st Big Feature. Even though he drew the coveted inside lane in the final, he had to make up a buggy-length deficit down the back stretch to win by less than two feet.

“It was a good race,” Chesser, 52, said. “I kept seeing Tyler (next to me), then I’d pull away and he’d get back in front of me. Coming around that last corner I didn’t know if I had enough to get back by him, but I did.”

Chesser’s time of 52.72 seconds around the Mile-O-Mud was the fastest of the day. Johns’s time of 52.94 seconds was the next fastest during the one-day race weekend.

Related: Swamp buggies: Driver Tyler Johns will race eight months after losing his arm

Even though Johns started in the middle lane in the three-person Big Feature, he led the race longer than Chesser. Neither driver was ever more than 10 or 15 feet ahead.

“I knew I was going to have a hard run being outside,” Johns said. “Eddie had just enough to edge me out. Even when we finished we didn’t know who won. Eddie’s looking at me, I’m looking at Eddie. We had to wait on the judges.”

Chesser earned $3,209.25 in prize money for winning the final race. Bonnie Walsh, January’s Big Feature winner, lost her first race of the day when her Fatal Attraction buggy got stuck in the track’s first sippy hole and couldn’t finish.

Johns, 34, was denied his sixth Big Feature win, but he was all smiles after a strong effort all day. The final race was his only loss in his pro-modified Patriot buggy.

Last May, Johns’ arm was severed above the elbow in an airboat accident. He returned to the track for the first time in January for the Winter Classic, only to be disqualified after a judge said he cut off his opponent during a race.

To get back to the Big Feature and nearly win it after a year of disappointments was a boost to Johns, who is expecting his second child with wife, Samantha, on April 18.

“I feel great about this,” Johns sad. “This is part of our path back to the top. We got pretty close today. We’ll keep hammering and we’ll get back.”

After the Fall Classic was canceled in November due to flooding, Florida Sports Park moved the swamp buggy’s three-race season to a calendar year rather than the traditional November through March. That means the January and March races were the first two of the 2017 season. November’s Fall Classic will decide the Budweiser Cup season-long champion for 2017.

Related: Swamp buggies: Bonnie Walsh outlasts Dan Greenling to win Winter Classic

Joining Chesser’s and Johns’ pro-modified buggies in the Big Feature was Andy Foust’s Barefoot Florida Sunshine, the winner of the 6-cylinder class.

Foust, 38, earned his way into the Big Feature by beating V8 class winner Andy Sims in the Intermediate Feature. It was Foust’s first victory in a feature race.

The victory was even sweeter for Foust since Sims beat him in the Intermediate Feature in January.

“This was a good weekend,” Foust said. “It wasn’t just one race – we’re trying to come back and win the points championship. (Sims) and I are going back and forth. We both ran good (Saturday).”

Sims took home $1,947 for winning the V8 class, while Foust earned $1,030. Nikki Beres won the 4-cylinder class and the Little Feature against two Jeeps winners and won $708. Jeep winner Tommy Elmer, driving Son Ova Ditch, earned $1,369.

Drivers now have about an eight-month break to fix their buggies and shore up the finances needed to make a run at the Bud Cup in November’s Fall Classic.

“It gives me time to try to get some more sponsors and make some changes,” Chesser said. “It feels good to be back on the (winner’s) pad again.”