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Point Leaders win Midseason Championship Night Features
By Mike Orness
6/22/07 Race Report
It was
midseason championship night at River Cities Speedway
sponsored by Big Jim’s Tire
Center
and Pepsi. The current point leaders would start their heat
races on the pole, and then officials would line up the rest
according to the rest of the points to fill out the heat
races. Current point leaders were Mark Dobmeier, Mike
Balcaen, Dustin Strand, and Steffen Snare.
The first
heat races were the Unicel MDRA/DTRA Streer Stocks. The
track was freshly watered and slick, so the first couple of
heat races left drivers trying to keep their cars on the
track and in a straight line. Aaron Olson grabbed the lead
from the outside pole spot and led every lap with Snare
chasing him. Jim Geringer tried to find some dry dirt on the
low side and was scored leading the second heat race with
leake in second. Geringer made a mistake which allowed Leake
to get past him with Arends in tow. Geringer ended up sixth
when leake took the checkered flag with Arends second. Dave
Wittner didn’t make the same mistake as Geringer as Wittner
led from the green flag to the checkered with Adam Thompson
capitalizing on
Anderson’s mistake to take over the
second spot.
Anderson
was running in the second spot much of the race.
The Dempsey
Truck Service DTRA/MDRA Midwest Modifieds ran three heat
races with Dave Riopelle grabbing the lead from Dustin
Strand at the drop of the green flag and leading every lap
thereafter to win the first heat race. Last week’s feature
winner Joe Freeman ran second most of the race, but fell
back in the pack to finish last. Jason Strand and Rod
Peterson raced for the third spot but it was Peterson at the
line. Jason Strand came from the seventh starting spot.
James SanGrait lead the second heat of
Midwest mods around to the green flag. SanGrait
led every lap to pick up his second RCS heat race win with
David Hultstrand second. RRVS regular, Ryan Restad raced
forward from the sixth spot to finish third. Bryan LePier
won his third heat race at RCS after starting on the pole
and leading from the green to checkered with Dustin Ness
second followed by Olafson.
There were
two Atek Parts DTRA Late Model heat races scheduled with
points leader Mike Balcaen starting on the pole of the first
heat race. He and Cody Skytland were side by side the first
lap, but it was Skytland that would grab the lead using the
high side of the track. Skytland went on to win his third
heat race at RCS with Balcaen second and Troy Schill third.
The second heat race was probably the best heat race so far
with Seng grabbing the lead from Pederson and Doyle Erickson
making a run past Pederson late in the race. Erickson
finished second behind Seng when the checkers were displayed
with Pederson third.
Twenty-three sprints were split into three Eide Motors NOSA
Sprint Car heats with Dobmeier on the pole of the first heat
and Bob Martin outside of him. Martin grabbed the lead
first, but not for long as Dobmeier soon found his way to
the front with Martin second and Mack third. Glennon was
about the only car that moved up three spots to finish
fourth behind Mack. Linnell started on the pole of the
second heat race and led every lap and hold off Nygaard for
the heat race win. Nygaard started fourth and passed Monson
for the second spot, as did Kennedy for the third spot.
Chris Shirek and Dave Sobczak started on the front row of
the third heat race. When the green was dropped, it was
Shirek that found the lead with Sobczak second. McDonald
started fifth and passed two cars for the third spot when
Shirek took the checkered flag.
The four
feature races were started after a brief intermission with
the Unicel Street Stocks first on the freshly prepared
track. Through a variety of cautions and restarts Steffen
Snare was able to get to the front the quickest and lead the
field throughout the race. Aaron Olson gave him a couple of
challenges for the lead, but Snare was able to hold him off
as the checkered flag was displayed. Wittner held on the
third position comfortably throughout the race after he
started in that same spot. Jim Geringer started way back in
the field and made a nice run forward to finish with a top
five finish. Dan Arends finished just ahead of Geringer in
the fourth spot after starting eighth.
The feature
race for the Dempsey Truck Service Midwest Modifieds was
next with eighteen laps that was cut short because of the
time limit for that class. There were many cautions
throughout the first six laps and the officials called the
time limit and ran a green, white, checkered to finish the
race. At that time Strand was leading the field after he passed Riopelle on a
restart. SanGrait, Restad, LePier, Peterson all were racing
for the third spot and when the green, white, checkered was
shown to the drivers, Restad was in the fourth spot behind
Peterson. SanGrait who also running in the top five had
problems and exited the track as did Wahl. On the last lap,
LePier was running fifth and ended up spinning in turn four
on his own or with a little help while the rest of the field
avoided him and he was scored in fourteenth spot.
Strand said that it was a good feeling being
back in Victory
Lane
after missing it for a couple of weeks at RCS. Riopelle
settled for second after holding his own throughout the
race.
The Atek
Parts DTRA Late Models almost went caution free for twenty
laps, but the first caution came out with six laps to go for
Tom Corcoran. At the time, Cody Skytland was leading the
race after he had exchanged the lead with Balcaen a couple
of times early in the race. Seng applied pressure throughout
the race also while he was running third and holding off
Erickson and Pederson. On the restart after the first
caution, Balcaen got past Skytland on the low groove, but
was voided because of another yellow flag for the restart
cone that was sitting in the middle of the track after being
hit by Weiss. Weiss was sent back two spots and the field
was restarted. This time Balcaen dove to the low side again,
with Skytland on top and completed the pass for the lead.
Behind them, there was a race at times three wide between
Erickson, Seng, Pederson, and Anderson. Seng was ablt to get
past Skytland for the second spot with Erickson also getting
past Skytland for the third spot on the last lap. Anderson rounded out the top five finishing
spots.
The Eide
Motors NOSA Sprints started their feature with some bad
weather moving in quickly as officials tried to hurry along
the program. Dobmeier and Linnell started on the front row
with Shirek and Martin in the second row. On the start
Dobmeier grabbed the lead with Sobczak moving into the top
three just a few laps into the feature. All drivers were
picking the top or bottom. Sobczak chose the bottom and made
up some ground to take over the second spot. Nygaard was
running third and swapping positions with Sobczak using the
high groove. After the first caution for Linnell, the field
was restarted with Dobmeier leading the pack around. Under
green again, the cars entered turn three and four either
high or low. Dobmeier and Nygaard chose the high side while
Sobczak was low. The other guys in fourth on back were
trying any groove to try and make up some ground. Kennedy,
Mack, and Shirek all were racing hard for the fourth and
fifth spot when the yellow was displayed again. There was
two more cautions, without a lap complete between the two so
the field was lined up accordingly and given the green again
with Dobmeier out front. All top ten positions were
basically decided on the last lap as drivers were racing
hard for each position. As Dobmeier took the checkered flag,
Nygaard had secured the second spot over Sobczak and Martin
moved up to claim the fourth spot over Kennedy. Mack, Nick
Shirek, Scott McDonld and Burke finished just outside the
top five with Chris Shirek slipping back late in the race to
finish tenth.
June 29th
the World of Outlaws Sprints will invade River Cities
Speedway. Tickets are on sale now. Visit
www.rivercitiesspeedway.com for more information.
North Dakota native Donny Schatz is currently
leading the points and will be here along with The King,
Steve Kinser. This is a show that you will not want to miss.
The DTRA Super Late Models will also be running a complete
show while the Streets and Midwest Mods will have the night
off.
DTRA –
www.dtraracing.com
NOSA –
www.nosasprints.com
RCS –
www.rivercitiesspeedway.com
MDRA –
www.midwestdirtracing.com
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