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Gee wins AST/BSST Can-Am finale in Great Falls
Andrew Kunas
GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Tim Gee isn't letting his age, or traffic for that matter, slow him down.
The LeDuc, Alberta driver, now 50-years-old, won Sunday's Can-Am showdown between the Scott Safety Alberta Sprint Tour and Big Sky Sprint Tour at Electric City Speedway, his fourth main event triumph of the year.
It wasn't exactly easy for the former World of Outlaws driver, who had to contend with heavy traffic on a very fast race track at times. Gee also had Brent Kronfuss of Bozeman, Mont. on his tail. Somehow, Gee weaved his way through traffic and kept Kronfuss, a six-time winner on the BSST trail this season, at bay.
Gee, driving his own No. 41 Shark-powered Triple X entry, started on the pole after winning the NorWest Cooling Systems Cash Dash. Starting alongside Boise, Idaho's Joe Ramaker, Gee traded passes with Ramaker on the opening lap before establishing himself as the leader. Ramaker slid back to third when he was passed by Kronfuss on a lap two restart.
A few laps later, Kronfuss caught Gee and passed him for the lead as they entered slower traffic. By lap ten, traffic had thickened considerably for Kronfuss, but Gee couldn't take advantage for time. It was just past the mid-way point of the 25-lap feature when Gee made the pass to retake the lead in traffic. Gee, however, still had to deal with cars racing in front of him.
"It was alright," Gee said about the slower cars he had to deal with. "I caught up to (Trevor Kirkland) and the team car, the 4q (Rocky Borys), and they were racing hard ahead of me. "
Kronfuss, who won the May 19 AST/BSST event at Electric City, was unable to get around Gee, settling for his second runner-up finish in as many nights aboard the Attack Motorsports No. 9x USA-Triple X. Kronfuss had to withstand challenges for second by both Ramaker and Travis Rutz of British Columbia over the remaining laps.
"The exact same thing as (Saturday) night," said Kronfuss about his night. "At least we to got to run up front today until we got held up by some slower cars. Tim got by us and we just got beat by the better driver tonight.
Krounfuss, as it turned out, was racing with with a right rear tire going down and the stearing gear broken.
Rutz, who won Saturday's race in just his second appearance at Electric City Speedway, was slated to start 14th. Rutz moved up two rows to 10th following an accident on the initial start and after just one completed lap he was up to fifth. Rutz soon found himself in third midway through the race and immediately went after Kronfuss. Kronfuss, however, was loose in turn two. Rutz was unable to cleanly avoid Kronfuss and ended up spinning around to bring out the yellow flag. A dejected Rutz tagged the back of the field and came back to finish ninth in the Winterhawk Racing No. 39c Shark-powered Triple X.
With Rutz's misfortune, Ramaker inherited third place back and finished there aboard his own No. 98 Ostrich-powered J&J. Ramaker finished third the night before at Electric City Speedway.
"I thought we might get second, but it was so hard to pass. That top of the track was so fast," said Ramaker, who entered the weekend leading the Alberta Sprint Tour point standings.
Edmonton's Geoff Beck made a late race pass on fellow Canadian Dennis MacEachern to finish fourth in the Pat Beck No. 22 Assault-Triple X. The 13th-starting Borys would finish a solid fifth aboard boss Tim Gee's No. 4q Shark-powered Maxim. Trevor Kirkland of Helena, Mont. finished sixth in his own No. 37 Triple X entry and Trevor Turnbill of Camrose, Alberta finished eighth in his family's No. 138 Triple X. BSST point leader Phil Dietz of Billings rounded out the top ten in his own No. 72 RFast-powered Rocket.
Lethbridge, Alberta's Kyle Bates, who made the A-Main with a sportsman sprint motor for the second straight night, rode around to a 12th place finish. A night after earning a top ten finish in her first race in Montana, 17-year-old Danielle Huson of Sedro-Woolley, Wash. finished 14th.
Bill Boyce won the 12-lap B-Main event, taking David Hoiness, Bates and Bill Carey with him to the A-Main. Hoiness and Bates both transferred out of the B-Main for the second straight night as well.
Points for finishing and passing cars in the four heat races were accumulated and 16 cars, regardless of how many were in whichever heat race, were locked into the A-Main. The top eight were locked into the dash. Gee's win came over Ramaker, Beck, Kronfuss, MacEachern, Casey Adams, Huson and Michelle Dodge. Huson, who is a rookie in full-sized sprint cars, started on the front row alongside Gee, but spun out on lap five of the eight-lap race while racing with Ramaker for second.
Huson, who claimed her first heat race victory in July with the AST, got her second on Saturday in the third heat race. Outside of Huson, who spends a lot of time racing at Skagit Speedway and with the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series, it was almost a clean sweep of heat races for the AST. Ramaker won the first heat race (his second heat victory in as many nights) followed by Gee's triumph in the second heat and Beck's victory in the fourth and final heat race.
Gee's victory gave the visiting AST a 3-1 advantage over the BSST in head-to-head Can-Am encounters this season at Great Falls. The one win by a BSST driver was by Kronfuss on May 19. Ramaker won on May 18 for the AST aboard the Winterhawk Motorsports car and Rutz's victory on Saturday also came aboard the Winterhawk car.
The Big Sky Sprint Tour closes its season this Saturday with the Big Sky Super Nationals at Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Mont. The Scott Safety Alberta Sprint Tour closes September 22 at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton.
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Scott Safety Alberta Sprint Tour / Big Sky Sprint Tour
Can-Am Border Battle
Electric City Speedway
Great Falls, MT
September 2, 2007
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
28 cars
Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 98 Joe Ramaker, 2. 9x Brent Kronfuss, 3. 72 Phil Dietz, 4. 39c Travis Rutz, 5. 27DD David Hoiness, 6. 7x Paxton Lambrect, 7. 38 Jerry Brown Jr.
Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. 41 Tim Gee, 2. 36 Michelle Dodge, 3. 99 Tyler Pinceman, 4. 4q Rocky Borys, 5. 1 Bill Boyce, 6. 69r Dave Wise, 7. 35 Chip Roe.
Heat 3 (8 laps): 1. 73 Danielle Huson, 2. 138 Trevor Turnbill, 3. 12 Casey Adams, 4. 37 Trevor Kirkland, 5. 4 Bill Carey, 6. 397 Kyle Bates, 7. 32 Tyler Gable.
Heat 4 (8 laps): 1. 22 Geoff Beck, 2. 19 Dennis MacEachern, 3. 0J Jeremy McCune, 4. 57 Kolter Kosten, 5. 88 Calvin Stumpf, 6. 240 Teri Omoth, 7. 2D Brian McCaughan.
Heat race points and passing points determine starting positions of Cash Dash, B-Main, and part of A-Main. Top 16 in points locked into A-Main. Top eight finshers locked into Cash Dash.
NorWest Cooling Systems of Vancouver Cash Dash (6 laps): 1. 41 Tim Gee, 2. 98 Joe Ramaker, 3. 22 Geoff Beck, 4. 9k Brent Kronfuss, 5. 19 Dennis MacEachern, 6. 12 Casey Adams, 7. 73 Danielle Huson, 8. 36 Michelle Dodge. Finish determines first eight starting positions of A-Main.
B-Main (12 laps): 1. 1 Bill Boyce, 2. 27DD David Hoiness, 3. 397 Kyle Bates, 4. 4 Bill Carey, 5. 35 Chip Roe, 6. 38 Jerry Brown Jr., 7. 69r Dave Wise, 8. 240 Teri Omoth, 9. 7x Paxton Lambrect, 10. 32 Tyler Gable, 11. 2D Brian MaCaughan, 12. 88 Calvin Stumpf. First four finishers transfer to A-Main.
A-Main (25 laps): 1. 41 Tim Gee, 2. 9k Brent Kronfuss, 3. 98 Joe Ramaker, 4. 22 Goeff Beck, 5. 4q Rocky Borys, 6. 37 Trevor Kirkland, 7. 19 Dennis MacEachern, 8. 138 Trevor Turnbill, 9. 39c Travis Rutz, 10. 72 Phil Dietz, 11. 0J Jeremy McCune, 12. 397 Kyle Bates, 13. 99 Tyler Pinceman, 14. 73 Danielle Huson, 15. 4 Bill Carey, 16. 36 Michelle Dodge, 17. 57 Kolter Kosten, 18. 27DD David Hoiness, 19. 1 Bill Boyce. Disqualified: 12 Casey Adams.
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AST: Alberta Sprint Tour
http://www.albertasprinttour.com
BSST: Big Sky Sprint Tour
http://www.bsstracing.com
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