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Novotny And Brand First Time Winners At The Creek
By Bill Nelson
June 11 - Spring Valley MN - With a couple inches of rain during the week and
a slight rainfall the night before the track was in amazing shape for John
Hardys Bar B Que and Expert Insulation night at the speedway. With
weather threatening all over the Midwest again Deer Creek saw overcast skies
during the day making way to blue skies during the racing action. 129
checked into the pit gate for racing action with a very good crowd on hand to
take in the racing action.
The heat racing action was clicked off in good fashion and with a quick
intermission to do some track re-work before the feature action the WISSOTA
Street Stocks pulled onto the speedway to do battle. With heat race
winners Shaun Wehlage and Tyler Rubin and Danny Hanson starting further back
in the field Ron Rucker and Mark Hovland paced the field to the
green. These two went three wide with Jim Gullikson during
the first lap with Gullikson leading at the completion of lap 1. Wehlage
was moving forward and within 2 laps was battling with Hovland for the second
spot. With eleven laps left Gullikson had pulled out to a half straight
lead while Hovland and Rucker continued to battle for third. With eight to go
Gullikson stretched out his lead to almost a full straight. Mark Zvorak
moved up to battle with Hovland with six to go while Rucker followed those two
around the speedway. Zvorak gained the advantage with Rucker following
him past Hovland for the fourth spot. Gullikson dominated on his way to his
third feature win of the season at the speedway.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds had a great race up front that kept getting
halted for yellow flags throughout their main event. Tom Paulson and
Greg Pfiefer Jr. battled early with most of the field running three and four
wide behind them. Pfiefer gained control of the spot with Craig Benztin
charging up past Paulson for the second position. Dan Wheeler and Kenny
Wytaske were locked in a great race for position inside the top five, as the
top eight cars ran close around the speedway. The first caution flew and
immediately on the restart the top group of cars again diced for
position. Wheeler got sideways in two and Travis Krause went low to move
past him but ran out of track and got stuck on the mud along the inside of the
speedway. Pfeifer still controlled the field on the restart with Bryan
Hernandez and Bentzin battling for second and Jason Cummins patiently watching
the battle in fourth. First Cummins picked off Hernandez for third with
four to go and then Benztin for second with two to go. Coming to the
white Cummins pulled alongside of the leader and exited turn two with the lead
taking the checkers and another feature win.
Troy Brand and Jason Gabrielson paced the field in the WISSOTA Super Stock
division. Brand took command of the race early with Gabrielson, Ferlin
Miller and Dennis Earney right behind him. Further back through the
field there was some great three wide battles for the position. A
caution with 15 to go bunched up the field. On the restart Earney looked
strong on the lowside of the speedway pressuring Brand up high against the
wall. Schatney Sanders and Miller were locked up in a fourth place
battle with Cole Queensland and Ryan Siegle right behind them in their own
battle. Miller started to work on Gabrielson in third while Queensland
moved alongside of Sanders for sixth. The caution flew and the field was
bunched back up and a couple quick cautions flew with the final one waving as
the right rear spring of Gabrielson launched out from under the car and struck
the flagstand and catch fence. A two lap dash was in store with Brand
holding on for his first win of the season, Earney in second and Queensland
moving into third.
To sum up the USRA modifieds in one word WOW. The modifieds were
just plain getting at it tonight with Steve Wetzstein leading early on running
high on the track. Jay Ihrke lost control of his car and spun while
running second and stacking up five cars for the first caution of the
event. Wetzstein continued to lead on the restart with all of the
modifieds hopping around and dicing for position with many three and four wide
battles out of the corners. Bruce Angst worked past Wetzstein with
eighteen to go to take over the lead. Jesse Frericks was rolling early
and moved into second running the bottom of the speedway with Mike Sorensen
also working low moving into third. With thirteen to go Sorensen had
cleared Frericks and was alongside of Angst as another caution flew for Tim
Donlinger up against the wall in turn two. On the restart Sorensen moved
into the lead with Wetzstein quickly into second. Angst and Karl Fenske had a
heated battle for third and then I noticed Bob Timm charging up between the
two. A quick review found Timm starting nineteenth on the field and was
into third now. With nine to go Wetzstein broke bringing out the final
caution. You could hear the rumble through the crowd as they all
realized what kind of a charge Timm had put on already. On the restart
Sorensen led running low on the speedway with Timm up high flirting with the
wall. Frericks Angst and Fenske were having a great race for
third. Sorensen slowly pulled away from the field with seven to
go. Then as the tires started to heat up on Timms car he started to
come alive and you could see him starting to make up ground on Sorensen.
With three to go the motors up front were screaming just about as loud as the
crowd as Timm pulled alongside for the lead. The two battled for the
next two laps with Sorensen gaining ground in the corners but the momentum up
high was working for Timm. At the white flag Timm had half a car length
lead and gained another half car length by the time the checkers flew. A
very ecstatic Timm jumped on the roof of his car in victory lane as the crowd
went nuts about this race.
Jeff and Drew Jech raced for the top spot early on in the Classic Dwarf car
feature with Drew gaining the advantage. Tate Bestor and Mike Gaines
were working hard in third with Brian Kiehne behind them. Drew slowly
built up a slight lead while Kiehne worked into the third spot with ten to
go. Kiehne set his sights on Jeff for the second spot and cleared him
with seven to go while Bestor and Gaines continued to battle behind the front
two. Drew built up about a half straight lead at this point.
Gaines followed Kiehne as they set sail after Drew up front. Roger Torgerson
worked into fourth and followed the duo to the front. A caution with two
to go bunched up the field. Drew drove the wheels off the car around the
bottom of the track holding of Kiehne for the win. In the tech area Drews
car was found to have an illegal wheelbase handing the win to Kiehne.
Paul Novotny led from the green flag in the WISSOTA Late Model division with
Brad Waits close behind in second. Andrew McKay had a good run going
early on in third as the field ran the bottom of the speedway. The first
caution came out with fourteen to go as Doug Herrick found the wall in
two. Lance Matthees battled with McKay for third on the restart and
after one lap another caution flew. This pretty much summed up the rest
of the race. A lap or two and then a caution flag. Another lap or
two and the caution flag. Eventually the feature was finished
green/white/checker after the sixth caution and with only 14 of the scheduled
laps completed. Novotny held on through the caution marathon for the win
with Waits second and Matthees third.
WISSOTA Late Models
Feature - Paul Novotny, Brad Waits, Lance Matthees, Nick Herrick, Barry
Underdahl, Jim Carlson, Chris Adams, Jerry Bloom, Ben Mattick, Andrew McKay
Heat 1 McKay, Novotny, Waits, Bloom, Madsen
Heat 2 - N. Herrick, Matthees, Carlson, Hillson, Mattick
USRA Modifieds
Feature - Bob Timm, Mike Sorensen, Karl Fenske, Jesse Frericks, Jay Ihrke,
Neil Eckhart, Nate Wasmund, Bobby Sorensen, Jay Poidinger, Albert Wytaske
Heat 1 Fenske, Wasmund, Eckhart, Frericks, Aarsvold
Heat 2 Angst, Wetzstein, M. Sorensen, Ihrke, Donlinger
WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature - Troy Brand, Dennis Earney, Cole Queensland, Schatney Sanders, Ryan
Siegle, Dustin Nelson, Kevin Hager, Jermy Snow, Dave Haberman, Chris Klinger
B feature Haberman, Peterson, E. Sanders, Quast, Bartel
Heat 1 Snow, Siegle, Hauer, Miller, L. Peterson
Heat 2 - S. Sanders, Queensland, Brand, Klinger, Vejtruba
Heat 3 Earney, Gabrielson, Sass, Hager, Fetting
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature - Jason Cummins, Greg Pfeifer Jr., Craig Bentzin, Bryan Hernandez, Dan
Svee, Travis Krause, Ben Anderson, Jeff Brauer, Kenny Wytaske, Dan Wheeler
B main Corbin, Magnum, Morehart, Podein, Heather Rayman
Heat 1 Wheeler, Anderson, Weber, Jonsgaard, Rippentrop
Heat 2 Wytaske, Bentzin, Paulson, Dengler, Bunne
Heat 3 Brauer, Cummins, Brengel, Bridley, Krause
Heat 4 Hernandez, Timmerman, Pfeifer, Wernecke, Svee
WISSOTA Street Stocks
Feature - Jim Gullikson, Shaun Wehlage, Mark Zvorak, Ron Rucker, Mark Hovland,
Chuck Nerland, Jim Gustafson, Danny Hanson, Kevin Hager, Fred Prudoehl
Heat 1 Wehlage, Prudoehl, Rucker, J.Gustafson, Goergen
Heat 2 Hanson, Gullikson, Hager, Hovland, Goodenough
Heat 3 Rubin, Nerland, Zvorak, Eischens, Gessell Jr.
Classic Dwarf Cars
Feature - Brian Kiehne, Mike Gaines, Roger Torgerson, Tate Bestor, Corey
Whalen, Rick Utley, Jeremy Wangen, Todd Kiehne, Jeff Jech, Joel Kath
Heat 1 Torgerson, Utley, J. jech, Gaines, Luhmann
Heat 2 - B. Kiehne, Bestor, D. Jech, Whalen, Wangen
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