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Townsend And Cootware Kick Off 2008 With First Wins
by John Wiedemann, racingwisconsin.com MILWAUKEE (4/19/2008) - The 2008 Summer Shootout took to the track at the Milwaukee Mile for the season opener. Following up his season championship of last year, Dave Townsend kicked off the new season by winning his first ever Legend feature at the Milwaukee Mile. Nine year old Cory Cootware visited victory lane in the Bandolero division making the most of his trip down from Upper Michigan. Even though he is the defending champion, one can tell when talking with Dave Townsend that he really wants to win races. Winning the race is exactly what Townsend did, in dominating fashion. Starting on the pole after a win in the second heat race, Townsend survived restarts after two caution periods to lead every lap of the feature race on way to winning his first ever Legends feature race in the Summer Shootout. Steve Kimmell stayed in contact with Townsend but could not mount a challenge to the race leader. Kimmell crossed the line for a Summer Shootout career best second place. The one car that seemed to have something for Townsend was the winner of the first heat race. Narr had handling issues with his ride and spun twice, negating his chances to race with Townsend. Rich Miller crossed the finish line in third followed by Aaron Moyer and Narr. Max McNamara, Matt Booker and Cody Townsend had mechanical issues in practice that did not allow them to compete in the feature. With last year’s season champion, Aaron Moyer, now running in the Legends division, the Bandolero division is wide open. Adam Rawski, Kyle Vergata and Cory Cootware could not keep their cars away from each other from practice all the way to the feature race. Rawski took the first heat race win with Cootware winning the second. In the feature, Rawski led early with Cootware and Vergatta battling right behind. When steering issues forced Rawski to the pits, the race would be left up to Kyle and Cory. On the final turn, both drivers tried to pass a lapped car and got together causing both cars to spin. The first one to get his car going and cross the finish line was Cootware with Vergatta on his bumper. Both drivers explained the incident as “just racing” and were happy to have a great race with each other. Next up is the high banks of Rockford on Sunday, April 20 th. Please visit http://www.racingwisconsin.com/summershootout for announcements, news results and more Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee WI – April 19, 2008 Feature - Dave Townsend (53), Steve Kimmel (11), Rich Miller (50), Tim Narr (49), Adam Rawski (14x), Aaron Moyer (140) Bandolero Feature - Cory Cootware (13), Kyle Vergata (55v), Adam Rawski (14x), TJ Graczkowski (2) Super Cup Allison Legacy – John Beinlich (93) |
