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Photo courtesy of Stan Meissner at Minnesota Dirt Track Racing

As part of the weekly divisions racing during the Davey Tabor Memorial at the St. Croix Valley Raceway on Friday night May 25, the UMSS Traditional Sprint Car Series (TSCS) feature event was won by Owatonna driver Johnny Parsons III. Parsons led the entire distance, but it was local driver Rick Kobs from Deer Park making an impressive debut in a non-winged sprint car who challenged Parsons for the lead in the closing laps. Parsons was able to hold off Kobs to record his first TSCS win of the season and sixth career TSCS victory.

Following heat race wins by Kevin Bradwell and Parsons, a straight-up start was in order for the 20 lap Sterling Bank feature event. Parsons and Bradwell raced side-by-side during the opening couple of laps before Parsons settled into the top spot. Jeff Pellersels, Rick Kobs, Jack Clark and Ryan Olson had a good battle going on for several laps just behind the leaders. A couple of cautions slowed the pace, but the racing for positions two through six behind Parsons remained entertaining. Kobs worked his way to second on lap 14 after the second caution for the stalled car of rookie driver Katrina Sautbine. Kobs steadily began closing on Parsons. Kobs was running the cushion while Parsons was on the bottom.

As the laps rolled by under green, Kobs pulled alongside Parsons on a couple of occasions, but was not able to make the winning pass. Kobs finished an impressive second. Pellersels made a last lap pass of Bradwell to grab third at the checkers. Rookie sprint car racer Ryan Olson completed the top five. The remainder of the field saw Jack Clark, Adam Taubert and Kevin Nickel complete the race while Sautbine dropped out on lap 13. Tom Porter was unable to start the feature due to engine problems.

Commenting after his win Parsons stated, "I heard the second place car on several occasions and knew I needed to not mess up on the bottom. This division continues to grow and I look forward to many good close races throughout the season both here and at Dodge County Speedway." Kobs was driving Robbie Caho's non-winged sprinter for the first time in competition, having practiced it one night at CLS and then hotlapping the car last Saturday before being rained out at CLS. Kobs has been successful in several types of race cars including winged mods, WISSOTA mods, super stocks and late models. Kobs is scheduled to make a few more appearances in the car during the remainder of the TSCS season.

Next up for the TSCS sprints is a raindate makeup down at the Dodge County Speedway on Sunday night May 27 as part of the popular USMTS modified show. Racing is slated to get underway at 6:00pm.

Photo courtesy of Stan Meissner at Minnesota Dirt Track Racing

George Knudsen from Hayward made his first appearance at the St. Croix Valley Raceway a successful one by capturing the UMSS Micro Sprint win during their portion of the Friday night May 25 program. Knudsen started fourth and had the lead by lap two over opening night winner Tony Duran. Following a caution on the opening lap, the race then ran green to checker for the four cars on hand during the inaugural building season for the micro sprints.

Tony Duran from South St. Paul finished second ahead of Ty Sampair from Somerset and Allison Berger from Robbinsdale. Knudsen was aboard a Factor 1 chassis with Honda power. Duran has a Hyper chassis with Yamaha power by NPS. Sampair was also running a Honda powered 600cc micro while Berger had a Factor 1 with Honda power.

The UMSS micro sprints return to the St. Croix Valley Raceway next Friday June 1 for a regular program. The micros will be at SCVR on June 8, 15 and 22 for the remainder of the month. They will have the night off during the Open Wheel Nationals on June 29.