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Strand
Picks Up Second Win as Corcoran Finds Victory Lane
Again
By
Mike Orness
5/18/07
Under a
threat of weather moving in at anytime, River Cities
Speedway was able to complete their whole program and wrap
things up shortly after 10:30 PM. Within another forty-five
minutes, the rain started to fall. Two repeat winners and
two new faces were seen in the
Rydell Victory Lane for the 2007
racing season. To get things started for the night, the
Premier Racing Series began with the three MDRA/DTRA Street
Stock heat races.
Steve Jose
led the field around to the checkered flag only to get
passed by last weeks feature winner Dave Wittner. Wittner
made his move around McNamee and Jose on the last lap to
pick up the heat race win from the sixth starting spot.
Aaron Olson use the front row starting spot to his advantage
and let the rest of the drivers battle for the second spot
during the second heat race. Olson led every lap while
Geringer weaved his way through the field from the last row.
Beier then held off Geringer to pick up the second spot when
the checkered flag was in the air for Olson. Greg Neumann
drove right to the front at the start of the third heat race
and led every lap to claim the heat race win. Steffen Snare
started outside second row, but couldn’t make his move to
the first position and settled for second. Arends was third
after starting sixth.
Six
DTRA/MDRA Midwest Modifieds started the three heat races
lined up for the evening, with the first heat race won by
Dustin Strand from outside the front row. Eckerdt & LePier
both advanced on spot to finish second and third, while
Nelson came from the back row to finish fourth in a race
with no cautions. John Halvorson was the fastest during the
second heat and picked up his first heat race win this year
at RCS. Jesse Olson was second after starting on the pole
with SanGrait third holding off Sobolik.
Gary Sonstelie also won from the outside front row
starting spot with Schroeder advancing two spots for second
while the pole starter Hultstrand slipped two spots to
finish third.
The DTRA
Super Late Models ran their three heat races next with
Dyrdahl and Pederson on the front row to lead the first six
cars to the green flag. Pederson took the lead and didn’t
look back till the checkered flag was in the air. The second
heat race was short two drivers that had 9 in their car
numbers. Fuller and Burke were not able to start. Erickson
started on the pole and led every lap with the same
finishing order as they started. Mike Balcaen grabbed the
lead in the final heat race from the pole and added another
win to his statistics. Ryan Corbett was running third with
Seng when his car wouldn’t turn and ended up in the water
barrels in turn four. Corcoran was third after starting
fifth.
The NOSA
Sprints also ran three heat races with eight cars in each
heat race. Vonasek and Roemeling led the first heat around
to the green flag with Vonasek getting the jump which
officials called back and sent him two spots back for a
restart. That put Chris Shirek on the pole with Roemeling
outside of him. Shirek led the first few laps but was
overtaken by McDonald and Linnell. McDonald went on to take
the checkered flag with Linnell in tow. Dobmeier came from
the back row to finish third. On the start of the second
heat race, Kennedy looked as if he could make an opening
where there wasn’t enough room and ended up sending outside
pole sitter, Nick Shirek into the front wall. The yellow
came out and Shirek was helped pitside. Kennedy was able to
find his way to the front during the first lap and continued
on to the checkered with Burke in tow from the sixth
starting spot. Mike Sitzmann Jr looked strong in the third
heat race, leading most of the laps from the outside pole
spot. Nygaard soon made his move to claim the lead with
about 4 laps to go. Sitzmann finished second with pole
sitter Fredrickson third.
With all
the heat races wrapped up in just over an hour, a short
intermission was taken for the drivers to redraw and the
fans to grab some grub. Officials also took a look at the
track and ran some packers over the loose mid to pack it
back in for the features.
The Unicel
Street Stock fifteen lap feature started twenty-two cars
with Blacklance not making the call. Leake and Jose led the
field to the green flag to start. Not far into the feature
the red flag was flying as Paul Heaton took a ride off the
track in his first visit to RCS. He was ok and after the
cleanup the field was restarted with Leake leading Geringer,
Snare, and Hulst. With ten laps to go, Snare had made his
move to claim the lead over Leake. Geringer couldn’t find
the line around Leake and Snare used the lower groove to his
advantage. The field ran the lap counter down to about five
laps to go and then the yellow came out for the third and
last time for Potter, who seemed to get turned and collected
Anderson and Mutcher. Mutcher changed a tire and started
tailend with Potter. With Snare leading the field, the race
was on for the third spot between Wittner who came from the
eighth spot and Beier. They raced hard for that spot and in
the closing laps Wittner was able claim the third spot with
Leake fourth and Beier fifth. Snare grabbed his first win of
the year at RCS just ahead of Geringer who had won the
season opener.
For the
third straight race night the DTRA/MDRA Dempsey Truck
Service Midwest Modifieds seemed to put on quite a show for
the fans as the race for the lead and top five spots was
exciting throughout the eighteen laps. Last weeks feature
winner and Sobolik composed the front row with Hultstrand
and Eckerdt in the second row. On the start, SanGrait held
the lead with Eckerdt slipping in behind him. Eckerdt found
his way to the front on the next lap. The first caution flag
flew for Sparby with four laps complete. At this point
Strand had made his way up to the fourth spot after starting
tenth. When the race resumed, Eckerdt still had the lead as
the top five all raced hard for the same spot.
Strand
had just taken the second spot from SanGrait when the next
caution flag flew for Jesse Olson. SanGrait held on to the
second spot for the restart with Eckerdt leading. With
eleven laps to go, Strand
had secured the second spot and was right behind Eckerdt
looking to take over the lead. LePier and SanGrait raced for
the third spot with LePier being scored in that spot for
that lap, then SanGrait passed him back shortly before the
next caution for Hultstrand. This would setup a shootout for
the last six laps for anyone in the top six. Eckerdt was
running the middle to top line, which is Strands favorite.
So Strand ended up trying
the lower groove and completed the pass on Eckerdt with just
two laps to go. While this unfolded, the race for a top five
spot also was close as Gary Nelson, LePier, SanGrait and
Halvorson all raced hard. Sobolik and Riopelle were also in
the mix, but fell back late in the race to finish outside
the top five. Strand
crossed under the checkered flag first for his second DTRA
win in three tries, with Bryan LePier sneaking past Eckerdt
out of turn four for the second spot. SanGrait scored fourth
just ahead of Nelson.
Eighteen
drivers were scheduled to start the twenty lap ATEK Parts
Feature race with Burke not able to start. Ryan Corbett took
the green flag for the points but then pulled off. Veteran,
Tom Corcoran drew the pole with Doug Amundson outside of him
to lead the field around to the green flag. Balcaen and
Erickson were in the second row to start as Corcoran grabbed
the lead on the start. Shortly after a brief caution for
Amundson, Corcoran led Balcaen, Pederson and the rest of the
field to the restart. After a few more laps, the yellow
waved again as Dyrdahl and SanGrait made contact coming out
of turn four. Officials charged the yellow to Dyrdahl and
realigned the field behind Corcoran for the restart. The
race then went caution free with Corcoran able to hold off
Balcaen and Pederson. Corcoran added to his 200+ feature
wins as the fans were treated to the third different driver
in victory lane this year for the late models. Pederson
passed Balcaen to secure the second spot, while Erickson
finished fourth ahead of
Anderson, both having a great run.
The NOSA
Outlaw Sprints are typically the last feature of the night
and with the threat of rain all night, the program was
moving along smoothly. Officials kept their eye on the sky
as the drivers were getting pushed off for the twenty five
lap Eide Motors Feature race. Lee Grosz and Mike Sitzmann Jr
led the field of twenty three sprints around for the green
flag. On the first lap, Graham got loose at the top of turns
one and two, but saved it without incident with the rest of
the drivers. But then in the middle of turns three and four
he rolled off the top of the track which brought out the red
flag. Graham was ok and was assisted back to the pits on the
hook. One lap had been completed, so the officials radioed
down on the Raceceivers to the drivers the lineup. Within a
couple of parade laps we were back under full race speed.
Nygaard was leading the race with Sitzmann second and
Linnell chasing them after starting seventh. With eighteen
to go, Sitzmann was scored the leader and continued to lead
until the next caution flag waived for Tom Egeland who got
upside down on the backstretch. Upon the restart with
Sitzmann leading, Linnell, Dobmeier, and Nygaard all had
their plans of getting to the front, but it was Sitzmann who
was able to lead more laps until Dobmeier slid past him
coming up on traffic. Nygaard slipped back a couple of
spots, but then found a new line and caught Dobmeier in the
closing laps. Sitzmann Linnell and Lee Grosz rounded out the
top five finishing spots as Dobmeier held off Nygaard for
his second win this season at RCS from the ninth starting
spot.
River
Cities Speedway would like to remind you of the June 12th
WoO Late Model show, June 29th WoO Sprints, and
as always the Premier Racing Series every Friday night
throughout the summer. Please visit
www.rivercitiesspeedway.com for details.
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