|
|
Rains stay away, ABC Raceway gets 2008 underway
By Jerry O'Brien
© 2008 All The Dirt! Racing News, Inc.
ASHLAND, WI (May 10) - On a cool night with the possibility of rain in the forecast, ABC Raceway kicked off the 2008 season with a full six class program of AMSOIL Dirt Track Series racing. A hundred fifteen competitors came to do battle on the smooth track that held up beautifully over the course of the night.
The first feature of the night belonged to the Pure Stocks and the two Carlson brothers, Tim and Chad, held down the front row for the 10 lap event. At the green flag Tim Carlson took the lead with Chad Carlson trailing. Tim Carbon joined the fray at the front and the three went wheel to wheel for the lead. The battle broke down to a pair of Tims as Carlson and Carbon dueled for the win.
Carbon then wrestled the lead away from Tim Carlson and drove to his first win of the season. Chad Carlson, Zene Anderson and Paul Malinowski rounded out the top five.
Ten cars took the green flag for the 12 lap WISSOTA Street Stock feature paced by Larry Haderly and Tim Baum. Haderly shot into the lead from the pole and was never seriously challenged; he led every lap for the victory and the sweep of the division. Greg Kuklinski, who missed the heat, was forced to start 10th in the 10 car field, put on one of his patented charges and finished fourth. Haderly was followed across the stripe by Baum, Steve Anderson, Kuklinski and Casari.
It was a difficult Six Cylinder feature. The 15 lap event started out with a caution flag on the first lap, then three more yellows slowed down the action and kept the field close to early leader Greg Jaeger, who had started in the second row. Jeager maintained the lead and at the midpoint led Pat Beeksma, Dale Coddington, Shawn McFadden and 2007 champion Travis Swanson.
Just past the halfway mark, Beeksma and Scott Ovaska got together and Ovaska spun in turn two. Beeksma was charged with the caution and Ovaska resumed his spot in the running order.
Jaeger outran Ovaska to the finish line for the apparent win, but was stripped of the accolades when it was discovered in the tech area that his tires were grooved and siped, which is a rules violation. Jaeger was disqualified, which handed the win to Ovaska. Swanson, James Pelto, Coddington and Don Muzzy rounded out the top five.
Greg Chesley had little trouble winning the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature, the first regular season contest for the newest division at the raceway. Rick Przybylski and Shane Halopka battled for second but the first of two caution flags flew immediately when Mike Truscott got turned around in turn one. At the green flag, Chesley maintained the point over Przybylski, Halopka, Joe Olson, Micky Nosser and Duane Dunbar. Chesley extended his lead as the top three pulled away from Olson, who had his hands full with Nosser and Dunbar.
The runaway was halted when Pete Paulus dropped a driveshaft, which brought out the caution flag.
Chesley kept his stranglehold on the lead as Halopka took over the second spot. Chesley and Halopka pulled away from Przybylski in the late going and Chesley took the win. Halopka remained second and Przybylski was third while Nosser and Dunbar got by Olson for fourth and fifth. It was also a sweep for Chesley, who had won the second heat.
Next up was the WISSOTA Super Stock division’s 20 lap feature with Curt Myers on the pole flanked by Randy Spacek. The event got off to a bad start with a four car wreck in the second turn; that brought about a complete restart for the 17 car field. There was more wrecking on the second try and Kevin Eder, who started fifth, got the ticket.
Spacek and Myers battled for the lead when the event finally got underway and Myers squeezed into a lead he would never relinquish. Dave Flynn charged from ninth to third in the first five circuits.
With 15 laps remaining, the caution again flew for Chuck Hawkinson in turn three.
On the restart Myers scooted away from Spacek and at the halfway mark the two led Flynn, Ken Truscott and Brian Mikkonen in the front five. Joe Oliver was chewing on Mikkonen's bumper for fifth and took over the spot when Mikkonen slowed and dropped out. Truscott slipped by Flynn into third as the checkered flag flew for Myers, who completed the sweep. Spacek, Truscott, Flynn and Oliver rounded out the top five.
The finale of the night was the 20 lap WISSOTA Modified feature, in which Robbie Bunkelman and Shawn Kreyer shared the front row. At the green flag Bunkelman grabbed the lead and Kelly Checkalski followed him through to run second in the early going. The first caution flew on lap three when Kreyer spun in turn two.
Bunkelman held on to the lead on the restart and with 13 to go had a straightaway lead on second running Paul Knauf. Jerry Hartman had moved to third and was pressured by Jeff Spacek and Checkalski. Bunkelman's huge lead evaporated on lap eight when Kreyer and Duane Dale tangled while battling near the back of the pack.
At the halfway point, Bunkelman led Knauf, Hartman, Checkalski, Spacek, Rick Rivord, Eric Pember in Knauf's second car, Al Uotinen, Wayne Stricker and Bill Byholm.
With five laps remaining Hartman grabbed second away from Knauf. Spacek dropped out and left fourth to Checkalski as Rivord moved up to finish fifth.
Bunkelman took his ride to victory lane for the first time in 2008.
WISSOTA Modifieds:
Feature - Bunkelman, Hartman, Knauf, Checkalski, Rivord, Pember, Uotinen, Byholm, Hudack, Stricker, Carlson, Lavasseur, Lightner, Sellung, Spacek, Dale, Kreyer
Heat 1 - Robbie Bunkelman, Kelly Checkalski, Paul Knauf, Jeff Spacek, Eric Pember, Scott Hudack, Bill Byholm, Ross Lightner, Duane Dale
Heat 2 - Shawn Kreyer, Jerry Hartman, Wayne Stricker, Rick Rivord, Steve Lavasseur, Al Uotinen, Dan Sellung, Jad Carlson, Dean Yrjanainen
WISSOTA Super Stocks:
Feature - Myers, Spacek, Truscott, Flynn, Oliver, Eder, Oreskovich, Lawrence, Kisling, Hmielewski, Rust, Koivisto, Hoaglan, Mikkonen, Hawkinson, Lorimor
Heat 1 - Curt Myers, Shane Kisling, Kevin Eder, Brian Rust, Dave Flynn, Brian Mikkonen, Destin Lorimor, Cy Hoagland, Don Koivisto
Heat 2 - Randy Spacek, Ken Truscott, Joe Oliver, Nick Oreskovich, Scott Lawrence, Ron Hmielewski, Chuck Hawkinson, Roy Pumala
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:
Feature - Chesley, Halopka, Przybylski, Nosser, Dunbar, Olson, Stuart, Truscott, Vezina, Cook, Thompson, Neitzel, Nye, Brennan, Dalbeck, Vernon, Dammer, Paulus
Heat 1 - Rick Przybylski, Shane Halopka, Duane Dunbar, George Dalbeck, Mike Brennan, Glen Dammer, Travis Nye, Randy Vezina, Mike Truscott, Jesse Aho
Heat 2 - Greg Chesley, Joe Olson, Mickey Nosser, Pete Paulus, Cole Neitzel, Willie Thompson, Pat Cook, Todd Vernon, Steve Stuart
WISSOTA Street Stocks:
Feature - Haderly, Baum, Anderson, Kuklinski, Casari, Kallas, Weber, Fankhauser, Kurtti, Malinowski
Heat - Larry Haderly, Tim Baum, Rob Weber, Steve Anderson, Cory Casari, Jordan Kurtti, Paul Malinowski, John Kalaus, Sam Fankhauser, Greg Kuklinski
Six Cylinders:
Feature - Ovaska, Swanson, Pelto, Coddington, Muzzy, Anderson, Mihalek, Beeksma, Polacek, Moncher, Livingston, Lucer, Popp, Roettinger, Melin, McFadden, Pagels, Tyykila, Traaholt, Marincel, Schultz, Mashlan
Heat 1 - Travis Swanson, Scott Ovaska, Ken Tyykila, Neil Adamzak, Dan Moncher, Adam Traaholt, Don Livingston, Tyler Lucer
Heat 2 - Pat Beeksma, Shawn McFadden, Don Muzzy, Dale Coddington, Colin Polacek, DeJay Mihalek, Jacob Melin, Roy Roettger
Heat 3 - Greg Jaeger, James Pelto, Jim Anderson, Zach Pagels, Forrest Schultz, Cory Marincel, Aaron Mashlan, Jonathon Popp
Pure Stocks:
Feature - Carbon, T. Carlson, C. Carlson, Anderson, Bretting, Dees, Gordon
Heat - Tim Carlson, Chad Carlson, Tammie Bretting, Tim Carbon, Zene Anderson, Roland Gordon, Nathan Dees
|
|
