This message was edited on
August 31, 2009 at
06:50:04 PM by WFOB_0
DISCLAIMER: Read at the risk of falling out of your own chair while reading. For more information on The Report, please visit www.bigjreport.blogspot.com
410s (19 Cars)
Welcome Mat T-Mac is back in the usual 24 colors, Scott Winters & Robby Wolfgang after missing a week, Tony Bruce Jr., and the "First Lady" Erin Crocker-Evernham spends the honeymoon on the dirt.
MIA Lynton Jeffrey, Sam Hafertepe Jr.
VIP Ms. J gets back to the track after missing last week to join myself and LDA_24 and company with a few other stranglers latching on for the night.
Time Trials (1 lap each) Terry McCarl (5th car out) set a blazing fast time at 10.513 at an average speed of 128.419 MPH around the 1/3 mile track. Cool weather conditions along with a nice track aided in lowering the times a bit. The rest of the field hitting the 12 car heat race inversion: Crocker, Jake Peters, Bruce Jr., Clint Garner, Mark Dobmeier, Chad Meyer, Gregg Bakker, Marlon Jones, Troy Meyer, Joe Riedel, and Matt Wasmund. Dusty Ballenger scratched after hot laps while John Lambertz and Scott Winters both didn't get a lap in. Winters had brake issues in hot laps and ended up switching out the entire rear-end to fix the problem and tag the back of the 2nd heat.
Time Trials Grade: A-; McCarl blew 'em away with an ultra-smooth lap that was over 3 tenths faster than Crocker's lap.
Heats (Top 6 Inverted from TT, All Cars to the A, Top 5 Hit Feature Invert) Heat 1 Starting Order: 10 Laps
15
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Joe Riedel
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Row 1
|
9M
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Marlon Jones
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4
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Chad Meyer
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Row 2
|
40
|
Clint Garner
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16
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Jake Peters
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Row 3
|
24
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Terry McCarl
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6
|
Jody Rosenboom
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Row 4
|
1A
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Robby Wolfgang
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212
|
Brock Dump
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Row 5
|
|
|
Heat 1 Finish: 4 9M 24 40 16/ 6 15 212 1A
Heat 1 Notes: Jones shot out to the early lead as Riedel had the reverse button beeping as he fell back to 6th in a hurry. That gave the top guys and early spot for the feature invert. McCarl sticks the car to the bottom throughout the event and was working on Jones the entire way. C. Meyer snuck by Jones before that on lap five and checked out after that to grab his 4th heat win of the year as Jones barely held on to beat McCarl for 2nd in the heat in what looked like de-ja-vu from an earlier in the year heat race.
Heat 2 Starting Order: 10 Laps
4w
|
Matt Wasmund
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Row 1
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1
|
Troy Meyer
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11x
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Gregg Bakker
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Row 2
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13
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Mark Dobmeier
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18
|
Tony Bruce, Jr.
|
Row 3
|
59
|
Erin Crocker
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25
|
Dylan Peterson
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Row 4
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101
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Chuck McGillivray
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12L
|
John Lambertz
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Row 5
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23w
|
Scott Winters
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Heat 2 Finish: 13 4w 1 11x 18/ 59 25 101 12L (DNF) 23w
Heat 2 Notes: Wasmund had the early lead but that wouldn't last for long as Dobmeier charged to the lead on lap four and left everyone in his dust. Winters had a great start and was coming through the field in a hurry and looking to grab an invert spot for the feature before problems arise in the motor program this time. The top five left Crocker and the others a good distance behind. "The Show Stopper" collected his 3rd heat win of the year and went out back to change motors for the feature.
Heat Grades: B+; Pretty good heats with action all over the track in the front and in the back with Winters. If Winters would have snuck up into the top 5 of heat two he would have found himself on the pole thanks to C. Meyer drawing a 10 invert.
Baete Forseth Back Row Challenge The top two qualifers making it through the heat were McCarl and Peters. T-Mac did his best "TV Terry" impersonation and let Jake accept the challenge first, which pretty much was done to guarantee his shot at $7,500 to win in a couple week as he was not qualified, yet. Then McCarl gladly accepts after asking for no boos from the crowd during beer grading festivities.
B Feature (Top Tag the A, Laps)
B Feature Grade/Notes: All 19 cars would end up starting the A.
A Feature (25 Laps) Starting Order: C. Meyer drew a 10 invert.
4w
|
Matt Wasmund
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Row 1
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1
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Troy Meyer
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9M
|
Marlon Jones
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Row 2
|
11x
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Gregg Bakker
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4
|
Chad Meyer
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Row 3
|
13
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Mark Dobmeier
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40
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Clint Garner
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Row 4
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18
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Tony Bruce Jr.
|
6
|
Jody Rosenboom
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Row 5
|
59
|
Erin Crocker
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15
|
Joe Riedel
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Row 6
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25
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Dylan Peterson
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212
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Brock Dump
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Row 7
|
101
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Chuck McGillivray
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1A
|
Robby Wolfgang
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Row 8
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12L
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John Lambertz
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23w
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Scott Winters
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Row 9
|
16
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Jake Peters
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24
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Terry McCarl
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Row 10
|
|
|
Finish: 13 11x 40 23w 4 24 4w 59 1A 18/ 15 9M 6 101 1(DNF) 12L 16 25 212
A Feature Notes: The initial start wouldn't happen as Peterson drilled the turn 1 wall but kept it shiny-side up. As that happened, Bruce spun out at the bottom of turn 2 and Dump had nowhere to go but into the 18 machine. Bruce would be the only one to return to action after repairs and noticeable cosmetic damage to the top wing panel on the right side. The next start was good as Wasmund shot out to a quick lead, but that wouldn't last for long as the caution flew on lap two for Rosenboom who slowed down the frontstretch as McGillivray ran into him gently, but saw the two stuck together.
Wasmund continued to lead after the caution, but not for long as Bakker was coming in his State Bank of Fairmont 11x. He snatched the lead on lap three as Dobmeier followed him into 2nd past Wasmund. Meanwhile, McCarl was stuck back in the field, yet again, while Winters was not messing around and coming to the front in a hurry from his 17th starting position. He had gotten by Garner but bicycled in turn two giving the spot back to Garner. Dobmeier was all over Bakker when the red flew on lap eleven for Peters who got into the concrete in turn one.
This restart had Bakker ahead of Dobmeier, Wasmund, T. Meyer, and Garner when the green waved again. A lap after the restart saw Dobmeier take the lead from Bakker with a slider, but it wouldn't last for long as Bakker got it back coming off a turn four with a slider of his own. Winters was following Garner to the front as Garner took 3rd with Winters to 4th with a handful of laps to go when T. Meyer spun over in turn two setting up a showdown with four laps to go between the top four of Bakker, Dobmeier, Garner, and Winters.
Bakker did the right thing on the restart by going low to block Dobmeier, but he went to the cushion instead with a counter-move of his own. They went roaring down the backstretch and Dobmeier executed a perfect slider on the fast track to grab the lead coming off of four. He took off after that and grabbed his 5th win of the year for the "Show Stopper" and 35th of his career at the track which now tied him for 3rd all time on the Huset's list. The win paid $2,500 and saw Bakker hold on for 2nd ahead of Garner, Winters, C. Meyer, and McCarl in 6th. Lap leaders: Wasmund 1-2, Bakker 3-21, Dobmeier 22-25.
A Feature Grade: A; Great racing from both Bakker and Dobmeier at the front while Winters showed his hard charging ways we've grown accustomed to from the back. McCarl really wasn't much of a factor as he was stuck back in traffic, yet again, but the racing still was really good for another week at the best short track in America.
360s (15 Cars) Cody Hansen had the early lead until Rosenboom, who started 4th, snatched it from him on lap four coming off of turn two. He left the rest of the field to fight for 2nd which in the end went to Wolfgang ahead of Dusty Ballenger and Eric Lutz. The 27 was unofficially clocked on the stopwatch at around the 11.7-11.9 second range while in clean air, which is ridiculously fast for the 360 class. The win also gave Rosenboom the top spot in the 360 class in all time victories with 28, which broke the tie with Micah Schliemann. Lap leaders: Hansen 1-3, Rosenboom 4-18.
360 Finish: 27 1A 2D 5 4 3J 44w 12 5x 13JM/ 17v 1 42 24 51
FOAW: Dobmeier showed why he has a WoO victory under his belt as he waited for his chance to pounce on Bakker. He was damn fast the entire night, and executed a nice wheelie following the victory.
Crowd Pleasing Moment #1: Hot Rod was back for a second week in a row for infield reporting, and he learned from his rookie mistakes a week back and gave a major (and much needed) shout out to yours truly during intermission. Good to hear the kind words from Rod as he said this very Report, along with Bill W's, are the two best that recap the racing. As usual, Hot Rod did an outstanding job done on the infield giving us updates.
Crowd Pleasing Moment #2: Dobmeier's slider on Bakker and resulting wheelie down the backstretch after taking the checkered flag.
WTF: Got to see two of the ugliest firesuits in recent memory with Crocker and Bruce Jr. rocking what looked to be clownsuits
"Home of the Professionals" Moment of the Night: Since we're accustomed to the usual 'beer grader' break to help the track out, there were no other lengthy delays so Huset's gets kind words for their efforts.
Mulligan Moment: Bruce spinning out on the start and getting collected by Dump. Great to see drivers like him dropping in a few times during the year and supporting the show.
Head Scratcher: McCarl didn't do much from the back in his third chance at grabbing the $5,000 bonus from Baete Forseth. Terry has been known to be cautious on the starts and letting the track come to him after a few laps up here. But its hard to do that now with guys like Dobmeier and Bakker always starting in the top three rows every night. Just not his best night, but hopefully he gives it another shot next week if he's back because its always entertaining watching him come from the back.
Thumbs Up: One Ray Evernham gave a great interview over the microphone as he was there supporting his wife. Nothing like spending the honeymoon at Knoxville and Huset's on the dirt and not at the pavement facilities!
Thumbs Down: N/A. We're in a good mood being back in college!
Prime Mover: Winters (17th to 4th) and McCarl (19th to 6th) both advanced 13 positions.
YouTube Clip of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ulxQQO2WC4&feature=related Ran across that a couple days ago and had a good chuckle about it!
Trophy Queen Grade: No trophy girls, which could be a good thing…
Closing Stat of the Night: T-Mac has passed 66 cars in nine races this year up here, and that would be more if he didn't go out back on the night he was screwed over by an official.
Final Thought: Sorry for the lengthy delay on posting this, but I had to get moved down to college today so an early bed time was needed last night. We'll see ya next Sunday at Huset's with a Labor Day Report, with possibly a trip down to The Ville on Saturday for Season Championship Jager-Bombs.
BIG J
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
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