Timm Becomes First USRA Repeat Winner
By Bill Nelson
June 26, 2004
Spring Valley MN

A beautiful evening for racing action befell Deer Creek Speedway on the mid season Points night presented by J.B. Distributing Co. Inc. as 129 warriors checked in to do battle at the Southern Minnesota Speedplant.  With local community celebrations going on in the area a very nice crowd was on hand to see some great racing action.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks pulled onto the track for their racing action first and set the tone for some great feature action throughout the remainder of the night.  Jim Gustafson made an appearance tonight and used his front row starting spot to take the early lead.  Jim Phillips made the long tow over from South Dakota and jumped into the second position early on.  Behind the front two the field stacked up four wide in a battle coming out of turn four.  Shaun Wehlage moved out of the four wide battle and with thirteen to go took the lead.  Tom McEldowney was flying on the track and early on moved into the third position as Phillips started to slide back through the field and was racing with Travis Krause for the sixth position.  The first caution waved with ten to go.  Wehlage continued on with the lead as Krause ran side by side with Gustafson for the third spot.   Danny Hanson and Phillips were locked in a struggle for fifth.  McEldowney took over the second spot as Hanson started to move through the field following him into the third spot.  McEldowney and Hanson got their bumpers locked together in turn three and coming out of four the cars unhooked which sent McEldowney into a light roll over ending up on his roof.  On the restart Wehlage holds on strong up front while Gustafson and Phillips race for third.  With two to go Phillips got high out of two and dropped back through the field as he collected the car back up.  Wehlage pulled back out to a small lead to take home his second win of the season.

The Classic Dwarf car feature was their best race of the season.  Matt Aarsvold led early on. Eric Wiste slipped up out of four allowing Rick Utley to move by into the second position.  With thirteen to go the first caution flew and on the ensuing restart Utley and Tate Bestor battled for the second spot on the track.  Their battle continued as Brian Kiehne moved past them into second and was joined by Drew Jech in a three car race.  Another caution flew and Kiehne used the restart to his advantage and took over the top spot followed by Utley as the cars climbed up the hill and were running the high line around the track.   This continued for a couple laps and as the drivers were given the two to go Utley put on a challenge for the top spot.  Utley took the spot in two and then Kiehne retook the spot exiting turn four and held on for the win.  Drew Jech took advantage of the race up front and caught Utley off guard and moved into the second spot.

The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds took two restarts to get their feature event underway.  Tim Siercks and Greg Pfeifer Jr. battled hard for the top spot for the first two laps until Siercks took the point.  Albert Wytaske worked past Pfeifer a little later as most of the field ran two wide for the first five laps.  Wytaske and Pfeifer both kept working forward as Siercks had a tire starting to go low on him.  The three had a good battle for the next two laps with Wytaske eventually taking the lead.  Brian Hernandez and Jerry Young worked into the third and fourth spots as Siercks pulled off the track.  On the final restart with three to go Tyler Clark moved around Young to take the fourth spot as Wytaske came home with another win at the track.

The WISSOTA Super Stock battle had Nick Herrick and Adam Stockhausen locked in a battle for first early on with the rear half of the field running three wide with some strong runners trying to work forward.  Chris Klinger and Jeremy Reinke swapped the third spot multiple times early on.  The top ten cars all moved to the top side of the track as they found the high side to their liking.  George Batzel had his hands full with Mark Oeltjenbruns until he slipped up in slipped up in two stacking the field up behind him.  Everyone made it through as the green flag stayed out.  The second caution of the event flew with 5 to go.  Herrick held onto the point with twentieth starting Dustin Nelson cracking the top ten.  The run to the checkers saw a lot of position swapping as the slide jobs and diving back under each other were carried throughout the top ten of the field.  Stockhausen held off Matt Durnen for the second spot at the line.  Stockhausen and Durnen have both had some good runs and they are due for a win shortly but not tonight as Herrick held on for his first win of the season at the track.

The USRA Modifieds put on anther fierce battle with Hank Rollinger and Bob Timm slugging it out for the top spot.  Dean Mahlstedt and Jay Ihrke were side by side for the third spot.  Rollinger slipped up in two allowing Ihrke to move into second.  The first caution flew with fifteen to go.  Mike Sorensen, Ihrke and Mahlstedt ran three wide for the second spot on the restart with Mahlstedt taking the advantage.  On the next lap Mahlstedt slid under Timm for the top spot with Timm taking the lead back exiting two on the next circuit.  Brad Waits and Bruce Angst were hooked up in a race for seventh as the two of them three wheeled around the track.  Sorensen worked past Ihrke into the third position and put his sights on Mahlstedt for second.  Doug Hillson was having his best run of the season at the track and started to work Ihrke for the fourth spot as he was running the bottom of the track.  Sorensen moved into second with five to go as the leaders started to move into lapped traffic.  Taking the white flag Sorensen got a good run on the bottom of the track exiting turn two while Timm came off the high line to work under a three wide battle taking place at the rear of the field.  Sorensen and Timm got together with Timm spinning into the infield.  The Caution/Checker came out with Timm being credited with the win, Sorensen was sent to the rear for the contact giving Mahlstedt second and Ihrke third.

Ben Mattick paced the field to the green flag in the WISSOTA Late Model event with Troy Brand working low.  Most of the eyes went to the rear of the field as the fifteenth and sixteenth starting Bob Timm and Lance Matthees were making their way forward after disappointing heat races.  Jerry Bloom was running the high line and looked good running in third as Mark Teske and Jeff Matjeka battled for fourth.  Mattick was running the wall with Brand running low on the track as these two swapped the lead at the line many times during the first ten laps of the race.  Teske release Matejka and moved into battle with Bloom for fourth.  Brad Waits joined into the battle with Mattick and Brand for the top spot in a great three wide battle.  Timm and Matthees worked into sixth and seventh spot as they continued their charge forward.  With eleven to go Waits pulled into the infield as Mattick continued to lead.  A caution with seven to go found Mattick, Brand and Teske going into one three wide and carry that through corner two.  Another restart with five to go, found Teske diving to the bottom of the track to work past Brand and under Mattick.  Mattick held his ground on the high line battling with Teske for the top spot.  The last one and a half laps these two ran side by side with Teske finally taking the advantage coming out of four.  At the tech area Mattick was disqualified for having a short wheelbase negating his best run of the season.

Next weeks 3rd Annual Firecracker 40 Late Model and Modified race is being brought to you by Featherlite Inc. of Cresco Iowa.  All six classes of cars will be on hand to battle for the feature win.  A special thanks to track sponsors Pinecone Restaurant/Windmill Travel Center, Brad Skifter, Sorensen Restoration & Custom Woodworking, Culvers, D&C Racing Products, Glynn's Motor Mart, Grumpy's Restaurant, Hiawatha Valley Farm Store, Olstad Implement, Art Navarro, Steve's Pizza and Dairy Queen for their help with the racing activities.


WISSOTA Late Models
Feature-Mark Teske, Bob Timm, Troy Brand, Jerry Bloom, Lance Matthees, Nick Herrick, Steve Yaggy, Jeff Matjeka, Jon Chrest, Barry Underdahl

Heat 1-Bill Stettner, Matjeka, Underdahl, Brand, Josh Mattick
Heat 2-Bloom, Teske, Ben Mattick, Paul Novotny, Chrest

USRA Modifieds
Feature-Bob Timm, Dean Mahlstedt, Jay Ihrke, Doug Hillson, Mark Noble, Bruce Angst, Brad Waits, Nate Wasmund, Bobby Sorensen, Todd Klees

"B" Feature-Klees, Alan Mondus, Gary Schmidt, Russ Quinnell, Tim Siercks

Heat 1-Mahlstedt, Mike Sorensen, Angst, Waits, Wasmund
Heat 2-Hank Rollinger, Timm, Karl Fenske, Ihrke, Dean Hobbs
Heat 3-Sorensen, Hillson, Darin Toot, Matt Stark, Steve Wetzstein

Super Stocks
Feature-Nick Herrick, Adam Stockhausen, Matt Durnen, Chris Klinger, Jeremy Reinke, George Batzel, Dustin Nelson, Mark Oeltjenbruns, Troy Langowski, Dave Haberman

Heat 1-Haberman, Herrick, Batzel, Durnen, Klinger
Heat 2-Oeltjenbruns, Bobby Swanson, Reinke, Stockhausen, Langowski

Street Stocks
Feature-Shaun Wehlage, Jim Gustafson, Danny Hanson, Travis Krause, Steve Eischens, Chuck Nerland, Al Schmidt, Fred Prudoehl, Jim Phillips, Mike Sample

Heat 1-Hanson, Phillips, Jason Gabrielson, Ron Rucker, Gustafson
Heat 2-Krause, Wehlage, Eischens, Tony Horsman, Mark Hovland

Midwest Modifieds
Feature-Albert Wytaske, Greg Pfeifer Jr., Brian Hernandez, Tyler Clark, Ron Houdek, Jerry Young, Craig Bentzin, Nick Kramer, Bob Bunne, Ryan Weber

"B" Main-Weber, Tom Paulson, Dean Hoffman, Bentzin, Gregory Jensen

Heat 1-Tim Siercks, Young, Joe Bunne, Gary Nordine, Jacob Dahle
Heat 2-Wytaske, Hernandez, Vince Corbin, Pfeifer Jr., Bunne
Heat 3-Houdek, Joe Wernecke, Clark, Sam Siskow, Terry Timmerman

Classic Dwarf Cars
Feature-Brian Kiehne, Drew Jech, Rick Utley, Tate Bestor, Corey Whalen, Jim Dahle, David Anderson, Nick Norton, Joel Kath, Kevin Bigalk

Heat 1-Utley, Brian Kiehne, Todd Kiehne, Bigalk, Gavin Wangen
Heat 2-Bestor, D. Jech, Eric Wiste, Jeff Jech, Matt Aarsvold