Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

I messed up something and I can't paste into this program. I will keep working on it, but you can get the quick results on www.kkoj.com. Click on racing and there are there.

Stephanie

WooHoo got it fixed. Hope this helps fill in how some things went for the sprinters.

Jackson 5.12.07

360 Sprinters (16 cars)

Feature (20 laps)

1. 62 Jerry Richert Jr. (4)
2. 9N Wade Nygaard (8)
3. 20G Chris Graf (6)
4. 7m Chad Meyer (1)
5. 5t Mark Toews (3)
6. 05 Bill Boles (16)
7. 99v Gordy Vogelaar (13)
8. 99 Shawn VanWyhe (9)
9. 30 Joe Miller (14)
10. 75c Casey Heser (11)
11. DNF 92 Mike Sitzmann (5)
12. DNF 2 Neal Stevens (10)
13. DNF 22 Nick Lusk (7)
14. DNF 1hd Jake Leighty (12)
15. DNF 15 Joe Reidel (2)
16. DNS 2h Frank Phipps (15)

Although the car count was slim, the level of competition from the drivers was great. Luck was not on the side of Phipps and the Hess Motorsports 2H as they experienced mechanical woes early in the night and were unable to make a competitive lap. Heser also experienced early troubles and brought out a backup car before the heat races.

Boles took a "Need For Speed" challenge to start in the back and race for bonus money for a top three finish. I am sorry to say I don't remember which great business is sponsoring this challenge for the sprinters, but the extra bonus money should make some great racing from the back this season. Thanks for making it exciting by taking the challenge the first night out Bill!!

With 15 of the 16 cars taking the start, Reidel, who was very fast in his heat, experienced trouble going into turn two and went off the track, unable to restart. That moved Richert to the front row with Meyers on the restart. Meyers got the early lead, with Richert falling into second with Graf, Toews, and Nygaard running the top five positions.

The race was slowed on the second circuit for the Harley Davidson 1HD of Jake Leighty when he made contact with and infield tire and lost a wheel of his own while running in seventh. All drivers were able to avoid the tire and the spun machine of Leighty, who was retired from the event.

A long stretch of racing followed the restart with Meyers leading the pack. Nygaard who restarted in 5^th drove hard into the turns to move past Toews into 4^th behind Graf. The front handful of cars spaced out until lap seven when Richert closed in on Meyers and took the lead. Meyers car showed a slight puff of smoke as he went by the flag stand, but didn't miss a beat and was now in pursuit of Richert.

The caution flew for the VanWhye machine as he spun off turn two. No damage occurred, so he tagged the tail of the field for the restart. The running order on the restart was Richert leading Meyers, Graf, Nygaard, Toews, Sitzmann, Stevens, Vogelaar, Boles, Lusk, Heser, Miller, and VanWyhe.

On the restart Richert pulled away from Meyers and the rest of the field. Going into turn three, Meyers got high going into the turn and appeared to have to get out of the gas allowing Graf and Nygaard to move past. Graf and Nygaard raced hard with Nygaard making several attempts to get under the Graf machine without success. That is until the lucky 13^th lap of the scheduled twenty when Nygaard made the move into the runner up position.

Just as the leader came by to complete lap 15, Lusk brought out the caution and was retired from the race with minor damage to the car. On the restart, Richert now had to hold off the challenges of fourth row starter, Nygaard, Graf, Meyers, Sitzmann, Toews, Vogelaar, Boles, Stevenson, Miller, Heser, and VanWyhe.

Nygaard tried to get a good run off the bottom of turn four on the restart to get past Richert after the cone and going into the first turn, but Richert was too strong. Mid-pack racing was good as Sitzmann, Toews, Vogelaar, and Boles were running close as they competed the 16^th lap. Sitzmann got high as he came through the third turn, with the help of the strong easterly winds, and tagged the wall with his front wheel. He was able to save the car from going over, but continued to ride the wall into turn four. Meanwhile, Stevens also found the turn three wall behind Sitzmann and toppled his car over, bringing out the red.

Both cars were done for the evening, and a final three-lap dash was set to wrap up the night. The ten remaining cars were Richert still leading, Nygaard, Graf, Meyers, Toews, Boles, Vogelaar, Miller, VanWyhe, Heser. VanWyhe was able to move up behind his teammate in the waning laps. Nygaard made a few more attempts to get past Richert, but it was not to be as Richert cruised to the feature win.

Limited Sprints (12 cars

Feature (15 laps)

1. 5y Ryan Yeager (1)
2. 98 Steve Yarns (6)
3. 20 Casey Fredrickson (2)
4. 102 Curt Thurmer (4)
5. 22s Doug Bratrud (9)
6. 70 Mike Blomstrom (5)
7. 14k Scott Knudson (8)
8. 13 Jake Nicoson (12)
9. DNF 4E Jeff Edgington (10)
10. DNF 1N Nate Eakin (7)
11. DNF 11a Bruce Anderson (3)
12. DNF 3s Justin Swenson (11)

There were several new cars in this class to the Jackson Speedway. Unfortunately, some of the new drivers did not take to the turn three wall very well as the strong east winds caught the wings and pushed drivers up the track.

At the drop of the green, Yeager jumped into the lead and Anderson moved into second with Fredrickson falling into line in third. Thurmer had a strong start running fourth with Yarns rounding out the top five. On the fifth lap, the red came out for the retaining wall's first victim, the 3s machine of Swenson as he got up and over. As the red was coming out, Anderson was coming upon the scene and in an effort to stop, he tagged the wall with his big right read, resulting gin some rear end damage.

Once the scene was cleaned up Yeager set the slow pace for the restart leading Fredrickson, Blomstrom, Thurmer, Bratrud, Yarns, Knudson, Eakin, Nicoson, and Edgington who had gone to the work area. The wall was not done claiming cars as the next pass by, the 1N of Eakin got into the wall and suffered extensive damage to the car.

The next five laps ticked off with Yeager building a lead with each lap. Yarns was the car on the move as he restarted sixth and moved past Bratrud and took on a strong challenge from Thurmer. The duo raced side by side down the back stretch with Thurmer winning the battle into the turn for several laps. The race was slowed one final time for rookie driver Nicoson as he spun in turn two.

On the final restart, Yeager again set a crawling pace to the line and pulled away from the Fredrickson car. Yarns made a challenge for Third from Thurmer again and made the pass with four laps to go. With two laps to go, Yarns moved past Fredrickson and set his sights on Yeager who had a 10-car length lead. Yeager drove his line through the first pair of turns and Yarns found a good line and closed in quickly. Going into turn three, the lead had been cut by more than half. Yeager had enough though as he pulled off the first victory of the year and Yarns settled for second.

Stephanie

Thanks Steph, 

Wasn't able to make it last night.

I see Bakker got 5th last night at Kville. 

Is he going to keep going to Knoxville or planning on playing catch up at Jackson?

Enquiring minds want to know. 

I'm not sure of Bakker's plans. I heard that State Bank of Fairmont who has been one of his big sponsors the past several seasons would like him to run at least half of the shows in Jackson. I don't know how reliable this info is, but the sponsor pull does make sense. I think with the late announcement of promotor in Jackson, some guys, like Bakker, Winters, Dobesh, and others, made other plans for the season and are running Knoxville early in the year. If success continues for these guys, I would look for them to continue to tow to Knoxville.

Stephanie

I talked to Gregg Bakker Friday and he said his plans are to concentrate on the weekly Knoxville shows where he is a contender for Rookie of the Year...CZ

Thanks Chuck, we will miss him over in Jackson. He was always a guy to watch out for week in and week out. I wish him luck as he chases the rookie title in Knoxville.

Stephanie

Not much to get excited about...kinda hard to build your program around Sprint Cars, when only a few show up.