Brown Finds Victory Lane In Summer Shootout
by John Wiedemann, racingwisconsin.com

MILWAUKEE (June 9, 2007) – Sometimes Victory Lane is a hard place to get into. Always a fast car this year, Blake Brown’s ride seemed to want to deny him a win at the Milwaukee Mile. The first week a loose bolt was the culprit, then oil line issues ruined the second round. On Saturday, Brown looked like a man on a mission as he swept his heat races on the way to winning the feature. In the other divisions, Colin Laursen took home his first Allison Legacy feature win and Aaron Moyer returned to the Bandolero victory lane.

Twelve-year-old Bobby Yonkee returned to the Allison Legacy division after a year absence and seemed to remember his way around the track picking up a win in the first heat race. Collin Laursen took the win in the second heat race. Yonkee and Laursen battled early in the feature race. With a move down low in turns one and two, Laursen secured the lead midway through the race and went on to take the checkers. First time racer Bill Fox finished in second place.

Aaron Moyer led the first Bandolero heat race flag to flag. Jesse Bernhagen followed Moyer to the flag in the first heat race but, he had different plans for the second. Caylie Duncanson led the field to the green for heat race number two and as soon as the flag flew, the battle was on. While Moyer made a move to try to take the lead from Duncanson, Hope Bidlack drove under both of them for the top spot. Moyer then took the lead from Bidlack. In the meantime, Bernhagen had worked his way up from the back of the pack and picked off Bidlack and then Moyer for the lead. Caution was displayed when the cars of Duncanson and Brandon Heisler got together. When the green flag flew, the cars ran a lap before Duncanson and Heisler got together again, this time their cars would not be able to continue. Bernhagen ran the final four laps up front to take the heat race win followed by Moyer and Bidlack.

The exciting heat races set up a great battle between the Bandoleros of Moyer and Bernhagen. The two youngsters ran the first half of the race nose to tail followed by Heisler and Bidlack. With eight laps to go, Bernhagen decided to make his move driving to the inside on the frontstretch and running side by side with Moyer to turn three. When the two leaders went through the third turn, they ran out of room and Bernhagen spun, bringing out the caution. After restarting at the back Bernhagen passed at least one car on every lap but ran out of time finishing in the third position. Moyer took the win, his second of the season, followed by Heisler.

Michael Bilderback was wasting no time in his return to the Summer Shootout Legends division. After starting at the tail end of the field in the first heat race, Bilderback charged through and took the lead on the second lap of the race and held the position to win. Late in the race last weeks winner, Max McNamara, took second away from Dave Townsend who finished in third. Starting in the second position in the heat race number two, Bilderback grabbed the lead on the first lap and went on to win again. Arelano followed Bilderback to the line in second with McNamara in third.

The second group of Legends featured newcomer Ross Kenseth who used the heat races to figure out the difficult track. After using up every inch and more of the track, Kenseth finished fifth in the first heat and improved to third in the second heat. The star of this group was Blake Brown who started in fifth in the first heat, drove to the point on lap 4 and went on to win. Brown started at the front in the second heat an took the win virtually unchallenged, setting up the feature to be a battle between himself and last years champion, Bilderback.

The feature race of the Legends division had the top three of Bilderback, Brown and McNamara running in order until a caution flag flew for an incident in turn two. On the restart Brown grabbed the lead from Bilderback. Kenseth, who had moved steadily up from his seventh position starting spot also was able to move by Bilderback to take over the second position. Bilderback pulled off a few laps later with handling problems. Near the halfway point, McNamara moved into second, dropping Kenseth to third. Brown held on to the top spot and drove on to win his first race ever at the Milwaukee Mile. After having huge leads in last years Bandolero division and this year in the first Legends race evaporate due to mechanical issues, Brown finally found his way to victory lane and did it in a convincing fashion. The only disappointment, “I feel bad that Bilderback pulled off. I wish that I could have raced him for the win,” Brown said.

Kenseth completed a successful run in his first Summer Shootout by regaining the second spot while McNamara, Dave Townsend and Matt Booker rounded out the top five.

The Summer Shootout returns to Wednesday nights this week at the Milwaukee Mile on June 13th. Practice starts at 5:15pm, with racing at 6:00pm. The series features free admission, race fans are invited to come out and watch the races from bleachers in the infield of the Milwaukee Mile.
For full coverage of the Summer Shootout, visit www.racingwisconsin.com/summershootout

RESULTS
ALLISON LEGACY
Feature: Colin Laursen, Bill Fox, Bobby Yonkee
Heat 1: Bobby Yonkee, Bill Fox, Colin Laursen

Heat 1: Bobby Yonkee, Bill Fox, Colin Laursen

BANDOLEROS
Feature: Aaron Moyer, Brandon Heisler, Jesse Bernhagen, Hope Bidlack, Adam Rawski, Caylie Duncanson, Cory Cootware, Kyle Vergata

Heat 1: Aaron Moyer, Jesse Bernhagen, Brandon Heisler, Adam Rawski, Hope Bidlack, Kyle Vergata, Cory Cootware, Caylie Duncanson

Heat 2: Jesse Bernhagen, Aaron Moyer, Hope Bidlack, Cory Cootware, Kyle Vergata, Adam Rawski, Brandon Heisler, Caylie Duncanson

LEGENDS
Feature: Blake Brown, Ross Kenseth, Max McNamara, Dave Townsend, Matt Booker, Herman Greinig, Brad Plunkett, Alex Arelano, Steve Kimmell, Rich Miller, Cody Townsend, Michael Hoppe, Tim Narr. Michael Bilderback

Heat 1A: Michael Bilderback, Max McNamara, Dave Townsend, Cody Townsend, Steve Kimmell, Alex Arelano, Rich Miller, Herman Greinig
Heat 1B: Blake Brown, Tim Narr. Brad Plunkett, Matt Booker, Ross Kenseth, Michael Hoppe

Heat 2A: Michael Bilderback, Alex Arelano, Max McNamara, Herman Greinig, Steve Kimmell, Dave Townsend, Cody Townsend, Rich Miller
Heat 2B: Blake Brown, Matt Booker, Ross Kenseth, Tim Narr. Brad Plunkett, Michael Hoppe