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Bernhagen Seizes First Summer Shootout Victory
by John Wiedemann, racingwisconsin.com MILWAUKEE (June 13, 2007) – Jesse Bernhagen has been improving each and every round of the Summer Shootout series at the Milwaukee Mile. Wednesday night, everything came together and Bernhagen drove his Bandolero into victory Lane. Colin Laursen and Blake Brown took the checkers in their divisions for the second time in four days. Dwight Dunlap returned to the Summer Shootout series but this time in an Allison Legacy car. Despite transmission problems, the crowd favorite put up a valiant fight all night. Colin Laursen proved to be too much for Dunlap and his ailing car to handle as Laursen swept the heat races on his way to the feature win. Aaron Moyer and Bernhagen have been in a constant battle going back to the 2006 Summer Shootout. The two have been inseparable all season, normally running first and second in every race. The first heat started with Bernhagen on the pole and Moyer in the third spot. At the drop of the green, the two took off leaving Adam Rawski to drop in behind Moyer for third. With Benhagen in the lead, Moyer and Rawski followed all the way to the checkers. The second heat race had Moyer on the pole with Bernhagen and Rawski in third and fourth respectively. On the second lap around, Bernhagen drove to the inside of Moyer in turn two and took the lead in the backstretch. Again the three ran nose to tail until the final turn when Moyer lost control. As Moyer tried to recover, Rawski had the pedal down and the two raced side by side to the finish line. At the line, Rawski prevailed, dropping Moyer to finish third. With two heat race wins on the night, all that was left for Bernhagen was to get his first feature win of the series. Starting on the pole, Bernhagen hit the gas at the drop of the green and left the rest of the field behind. Even with the caution flag flying twice to bunch up the field, this was Jesse’s night, no one could keep up with him, culminating with his first visit to victory lane. Moyer was able to take over second position from Rawski who finished in third. Kyle Vergata and Drew Karich took the checkers in fourth and fifth. Coming off his first victory last Saturday, Blake Brown kept his Legend up front taking the lead early in the first heat and holding on for the victory. A tight battle for second between four cars ended with a synchronized spin by Dave Townsend and Curt Gnatzig allowing Ross Kenseth to cross the finish line in second followed by Matt Booker. In the second heat race Gnatzig grabbed the early lead and Worked on holding off hard charging Max McNamara. McNamara made his move with a couple laps to go and went on to take the win. Gnatzig followed in second and Brown moved up from the back of the pack to finish in third. The feature action started early when an incident on the first lap sent the cars of Dave Townsend and Brad Plunkett back to the pits. On the restart, Brown resumed the lead followed by McNamara. In the meantime, Gnatzig was methodically picking up positions, working his way towards the front. The field caught back up to the leaders when the caution was displayed for a spin by Alex Arelano. McNamera and Gnatzig followed Brown on the restart but neither were able to make a move on the leader. Brown continued the rest of the race driving perfectly smooth laps and went on to his second feature win in a row. McNamara and Gnatzig held on to their spots and Ross Kenseth and Tim Narr rounded out the top five. Special Thanks goes to Roger Wolfe, who won the 50/50 raffle, and then donated his winnings back to help fund the trophies for the kids. For full coverage of the Summer Shootout, visit www.racingwisconsin.com/summershootout RESULTS Heat 1: Colin Laursen, Dwight Dunlap Heat 2: Colin Laursen, Dwight Dunlap BANDOLEROS Heat 1: Jesse Bernhagen, Aaron Moyer, Adam Rawski, Kyle Vergata, Drew Karich Heat 2: Jesse Bernhagen, Adam Rawski, Aaron Moyer, Kyle Vergata, Drew Karich LEGENDS Heat 1: Blake Brown, Ross Kenseth, Matt Booker, Max McNamara, Tim Narr, Curt Gnatzig, Dave Townsend, Brad Plunkett, Alex Arelano, Rich Miller, Cody Townsend Heat 2: Max McNamara, Curt Gnatzig, Blake Brown, Matt Booker, Tim Narr, Ross Kenseth, Dave Townsend, Cody Townsend, Rich Miller |
