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Chase For The DTRA Championship Heats Up At Cedar Lake Speedway
New Richmond, WI - 8/13/2006 - The Chase is on. That’s the chase to
win the first ever DTRA National Championships in each of the five respective
classes. Two races ago the top 10 point getters in each class were
qualified for and entered into the chase whereas the field point standings
among the ten were reset and separated by a five point margin. This
format was taken from the successful NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup
program. And from early indications it seems to be a popular format with
the DTRA teams as well as we are now entering the third night of “Chase”
competition and the pits are again packed full of 117 teams.
Many racers who normally don’t race at Cedar Lake on a regular basis have
begun making random visits to scope out the speedway in anticipation of the
upcoming DTRA 100 year-end event. “The 100” as it has appropriately
been dubbed is now four weeks away and has teams already trying to gain
valuable seat time at the track. The 100 is again expected to be the
premier race for DTRA cars with the best teams in the region all gearing up
for the four day show. But before The 100, Sept 13th-16th, the Chase for
the DTRA National Championship comes to a conclusion next weekend, August
19th, for Super Late Models and Modifieds.
After a full slate of great preliminary heat races, DTRA Street Stocks took to
the speedway for the first feature of the night with Kevin Schmidt and Mark
Froehlich redrawing the front row. Froehlich jumped out early but soon
gave up the point to third place starter and season track points leader Jason
Vandekamp. Vandekamp slowly pulled away from Froehlich who was holding
down second in front of a good third place battle between Keith Tourville and
Schmidt. Tourville soon won that battle and quickly got by Froehlich for
second as well. It didn’t take long to track down leader Vandekamp
either and soon Tourville found himself the lead dog with only a few circuits
remaining. That was all he needed as Tourville was easily the fastest
machine on the speedway this night as he picked up the feature win.
DTRA Midwest Mods marched out next with Shawn Phillips and Jim Schweitzer on
the front row. Phillips assumed the early lead with Schweitzer falling
to second and Justin Schill claiming the third spot. Schill quickly got
Schweitzer and set his sights on Phillips out front. Greg Chesley found
the third spot and by when the caution flew for the first time on lap 12, the
fifth spot was claimed by Dan Wheeler in the RED1 after starting from the 22nd
starting spot. A three lap dash to the checkers was led by Phillips and
company. On the 13th lap Schill tried the high line and it paid off as
he blew past Phillips for the lead. Phillips charged back but didn’t
have quite enough as Schill took the checkers a car length ahead of Phillips
to claim the feature victory.
DTRA Super Stocks took to the speedway next with Tim Borgeson and Jim
Gullikson handling front row duties. The front row starters went
side-by-side for the first few circuits before Borgeson claimed the
spot. But that was a short lived move as Dan Carlson found an extra gear
and drove right past both Gullikson and Borgeson to take the lead away.
Carlson quickly put distance between himself and now new second place runner
Larry Boumeester. Boumeester was flying around the speedway and tracking
down leader Carlson when the caution flew with only three laps remaining as
Brent Mueller’s machine lost the drive shaft on the racetrack. This
put Boumeester, Borgeson, Gullikson, and fifth place runner Mike Loomis right
up on the bumper of the 24 machine. On the restart Boumeester pulled
even with Carlson on the white flag lap and made one final attempt in the last
corner but couldn’t make it stick as Carlson took the checkers by half a car
length ahead of Boumeester and Borgeson in the third spot.
DTRA Modifieds hit the high banks next with Tyler Keyser and Joey Jenson
taking the green flag out front. Jensen fought off a fast jump from
Craig Thatcher in the second row to lead lap 1, but as Thatcher fought to the
inside on lap 2, the yellow flag flew due to a spin in turn two. On the
restart Jensen and Thatcher soon found themselves looking at the rear of the
2C machine of Dave Cain as Cain drove right past both cars on the first lap
back under green. The second yellow of the event flew a few circuits
later for a spin in turn three. Cain launched off the restart and put a
good sized gap between himself and the battle for second between Thatcher and
Jensen until the yellow flew for Ryan Olson’s driveshaft coming off in turn
one. Cain again led the field to the restart and again put some clay
between himself and Thatcher who had secured the second spot. Jensen
settled into third with Ron Schreiner in fourth and Darrell Nelson solidly
holding down the fifth spot. Jensen moved to the high side and pulled
even with Thatcher in a good battle for the second spot with five laps
remaining. Just as Jensen got by Thatcher the yellow flew yet again for
a tangle between Everett Rose and Chris Carlson. Cain dove low on the
restart and held off Thatcher who went high. That was all the security
Cain needed as he walked away from Thatcher and company to pick up his 15th
feature win of the season.
DTRA Super Late Models thundered out next for the final event of the evening
with Mike Hesselink and Joel Cryderman firing from the front row.
Cryderman took the point on the first lap but soon had company in the form of
Brent Larson and Pat Doar. Larson made the pass to the inside and took
the lead away on lap three with Doar settling into the third spot close
behind. Terry Casey quickly joined the lead pack as he was pushing Doar
by lap eight from the fourth spot. Cryderman found the top side of the
speedway and made a great pass on lap nine to reclaim the front spot from
Larson. At the halfway point it was still Cryderman looking strong out
front with Larson, Doar, Casey, and Steve Laursen leading the top five.
The leaders had to evade lapped machines while still battling each other for
position as the laps wound down. On lap 20 Larson dove low entering the
first turn and pulled even with Cryderman shooting down the backstretch.
The pair continued to go side-by-side for a number of laps until Larson
completed the pass on lap 24. Behind the front two, Doar, Casey and
Laursen were all trading paint and wheel doughnuts over the remaining
circuits. Larson held on out front despite almost wrecking several times
over the final three laps. Cryderman come home a close second after a
great race with Doar, Casey and Laursen rounding out the top five. A
great race to cap off the evening!
We will crown the DTRA Late Model and Modified Cedar Lake Speedway track
Champions next Saturday, August 19th, here at the Cedar Lake Speedway with
Streets, Supers, and Midwest Mods the following Saturday! Check out the
website www.cedarlakespeedway.com for track information, upcoming events, news
and results. Also call the toll free number 866-4CLSFUN for directions
or race information. We look forward to seeing you in the grandstand for
the next race at the legendary Cedar Lake Speedway.
Results:
DTRA Street Stocks
Heat 1 winner: 44 Mark Froehlich
Heat 2 winner: 99 Shawn Kammerud
Feature: Keith Tourville, Jason Vandekamp, Shawn Kammerud, Mark
Froehlich, Rod Brewe, Jeff Heintz, Ron Hanestad, Scott Splittstoesser, Brian
Loss, and Ryan Kostreba.
DTRA Midwest Mods
Heat 1 winner: 21B Brandon Lampert
Heat 2 winner: 97C Greg Chesley
Heat 3 winner: 55S Shawn Phillips
Feature: Justin Schill, Shawn Phillips, Dan Wheeler, Greg Chesley, Jim
Schweitzer, Alan Bohlman, Jason Gross, Clark Perry, Brandon Lampert, and
Lonnie Louschke.
DTRA Super Stocks
Heat 1 winner: 34 Dale Gangl
Heat 2 winner: 55 Greg Nippoldt
Heat 3 winner: 54 Brent Mueller
Feature: Dan Carlson, Larry Boumeester, Tim Borgeson, Jim Gullikson,
Mike Loomis, Mike Weber, Charlie Weber, Greg Nippoldt, Justin Dodge, and Dale
Gangl.
DTRA Modifieds
Heat 1 winner: 12M Jason Miller
Heat 2 winner: 17 Eric Bjorklund
Heat 3 winner: 2C Dave Cain
Feature: Dave Cain, Craig Thatcher, Ron Schreiner, Joey Jensen, Darrell
Nelson, Jason Miller, Shaun Kelley, Scott Splittstoesser, Jason Gross, and
Troy Girolamo.
DTRA Late Models
Heat 1 winner: 19 Steve Laursen
Heat 2 winner: 11 Pat Doar
Heat 3 winner: 66 Eric Breeschoten
Feature: Brent Larson, Joel Cryderman, Pat Doar, Terry Casey, Steve
Laursen, Eric Breeschoten, Rick Egersdorf, Ashley Anderson, Ron Schreiner, and
Tom Nesbitt.
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