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Mullen Picks Up Win 100 At Seymour
It couldn’t have been sweeter if it had been scripted. Brian Mullen
won his one hundredth IMCA Modified feature race Sunday night at his home
track, the Seymour Tri-Oval Raceway.
Mullen had the opportunity to get the centennial victory Friday at Luxumberg
but lost out to, of all people his brother Scott Mullen. Sunday, however, he
would not be denied.
The race began with Chad Wilcox leading and holding off a five wide charge
down the front stretch on lap one. Wilcox could only hold on until lap three
though as Mullen shot by on the outside of turn two and began his march to the
history books.
Mullen was never challenged for the lead although a yellow flag on lap sixteen
for a crash involving Eric Scribner and Don Padgett tightened up the field. On
the restart, Mullen just drove away from the field to take the checkered flag.
Fittingly, Scott Mullen finished second this time just ahead of Mike Mashl,
Jared Siefert and Danny Deau.
Mullen was greeted in victory lane by a standing ovation from the hometown
fans.
The WISSOTA Late Models were also on hand for the festivities with fourteen
cars starting the feature.
Luke Roffers of Oneida led the opening two laps but was than overtaken by
defending track champ Troy Springborn. Springborn faced almost no challenge
going on to the win.
Nick Aneverlink of Navarino drove to a strong second with Greg Dhien of
Waupaca coming home third.
Roffers would outduel M.J. Hintz of Green Bay for the fourth spot, winning by
half a car length.
The IMCA Stock Cars continued their trend of pushing the time limits. Tyler
Rassmussen of Gillett led the frist six laps of the race until he was
overtaken by John Mahlberg. Mahlberg held on for another six laps and then he
was passed by defending track champ Jeremy Christians of Horicon. Current
point leader Brandon Czarapata followed Christians to the second spot and
began what would become a two car dash to the checkered flag.
The race was punctuated by what seemed like endless cautions; the two most
time-consuming came on lap thirteen when Jerry Schaalma spun out in turn two
and the other on lap fifteen when a spin in the tri-oval collected Rod
Snellenberger, Troy DeGrave, Dave Bouche and Larry Karcz, Jr. All of the
cars were able to resume racing but all of the stops and starts brought the
race up against a time limit and forced the officials to resart the race as a
“green, white, checker”.
On the restart Brandon Czarapata took the lead for good forcing Christians to
settle for second. Jason Czarapata, Kyle Fredrick and Shawn Wagner rounded out
the top five.
The Street Stock feature began like most this season with point leader and
defending champion “Dancin” Lance Arneson in the back picking his way to
the front of the field. The difference on this night was that Arneson would
lose to the only opponent that seems to be able to beat him this season, fate.
On lap four while running seventh and passing for sixth, the motor in
Lance’s Chevy Monte Carlo let go leaving an oil slick all the way around the
track. Arneson was sent to the pits to try and effect repairs.
Meanwhile, Lance’s chief rival “Flyin Phil” Hiles now had a chance to
close the roughly twenty point gap between he and Arneson. Hiles managed to
work his way up to third at the halfway point but fell back in the late stages
of the race. At prees time the point standings were not available but it was
unlikely that Hiles could catch Arneson without a top five finish.
Someone who had better luck this night was Darren Otto who drove his Street
Stock from a ninth place starting spot to the front overtaking a very strong
Rick Napparella to get his first win of the year. Napparella was second, Shawn
VanOoyen, Jamie VanOoyen and Brian Koch were third through fifth respectively.
The Four cylinder cars closed out the evening with Jasper Drengler taking the
win over point leader Marty Van De Hei of Seymour. Although he didn’t win,
Van De Hei retained his lead for the season.
Next Sunday night is the final night of regular racing at Seymour with the
champions in each division being crowned. Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing at
6.
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