(Racing Every Saturday Night)
Race Results
April 28, 2001
Second generation driver claims second career victory
By Shawn Neisteadt
Justin Saathoff laid claim to his second career Lake County Speedway win as he would be unstoppable in Saturday's NMRA 360 sprint main event.
When the green flag dropped for the first 360 feature of the season, Saathoff shot into the top position. Kevin Droll would make a challenge for the lead, but would be unsuccessful and he would fall into the second spot. Dusty Ballenger took a position in the top five as he passed Steve Haman on lap four.
Saathoff continued to lead as the frontrunners entered traffic on the fifth revolution of the feature. Just past the halfway mark, Kory Rawstern would ride the rim of the speedway and use his momentum to take the second position from Droll. Rawstern would start to reel in Saathoff as he would bobble in traffic and touch the wall. Saathoff would also bump into a lap car as he tried to squeeze between the slower machine and the wall.
"It's tough trying to be patient," said Saathoff. "Bumping the car rattled me. It took me a couple of laps to get back into rhythm."
A late charge from Rawstern wouldn't be enough to beat the Saathoff Enterprises 85. Rawstern, the defending champion, would have to settle for second place. Droll held onto third followed by Randy Droescher and Ballenger.
Sprint heats went to Haman and Droescher.
Luck was on the side of Perry Tschetter as he snatched the street stock victory.
Lee Schlumbohm jumped into the early lead of the main event and was starting to pull away, but the yellow flag would soon come out for Don Bickett who had stalled due to electrical problems. When the field restarted, Bruce Bortnem would pull door to door with Schlumbohm and eventually claim the top spot after their two cars bumped coming down the front stretch. All cars were again bunched up when Rob Anderson would loop his car around to bring out the caution.
Bortnem and Schlumbohm would again run side by side for several laps until they would bump again on the front straight with the white flag in the air. The contact allowed Tschetter to move from third to first and come around to take the victory. Schlumbohm would collect himself and come to the line second followed by Anderson, Curt Bauman and Bortnem.
Anderson and Bickett claimed the street stock heats.
An eventful sportsmen main event would eventually see Matt Ayres take home the trophy.
Jeff Wittrock had the lead for the opening two laps, but a flat left rear tire would force him to go to the back. Rick Goth was the beneficiary and moved into the lead. Ayres would pull into second position by passing the 57 of Mark Janke as the third lap went into the books.
The red flag would wave over the speedway on lap four as Janke would climb the front stretch wall and flip violently. Fortunately, Janke was uninjured.
Goth had the restart lead, but his car pushed high coming off turn two and Ayres would shoot to the inside and pull into the lead. The next caution came out when four cars tangled coming through turns three and four. During the caution, Goth took his car to the pit area to replace a flat right rear tire, the reason his car pushed on the previous restart.
Ayres would hold on to take the victory, making it two LCS opening night victories in a row. Goth would come back to take second. Russ Peterson, the winner of the "B" feature, would finish third followed by Darren Duffy.
Sportsmen heat victors were Goth, Wittrock and Josh Schmidt.
Hometown favorite, Andy Ullom, would start the 2001 campaign with a victory as well. Ullom would lead all 12 laps of the NMRA hobby stock main event. His only trouble came as he passed under the waving double checkereds and tangled with a lap car.
Mike Kiggins would take second place. Dale Tomes would come from the ninth starting position to take home third place honors. Rounding out the top five were Jeff Beck and Dean Dunkelberger.
Rick Wibeto, Walter Kiggins and Ullom took the heat race wins. Johnny Monsees won the "B" feature.
The team of Harmon and Klarenbeek won the always-exciting Deuces Wild main event that went flag to flag. Lunders/Claussen went home with a second place check in their pockets and Tilden/Tieszen would have a podium finish with third place.
Heats went to the teams of Tilden/Tieszen, Lunders/Claussen and Ryan/Larson.
NMRA 360 Sprints
FEATURE: 1. 85- Justin Saathoff; 2. 4K- Kory Rawstern; 3. 22X- Kevin Droll; 4. 24- Randy Droescher; 5. 2D- Dusty Ballenger; 6. 31M- Kim Muntefering; 7. 23- Steve Haman
NMRA Late Model Street Stocks
FEATURE: 1. 20- Perry Tschetter; 2. 00- Lee Schlumbohm; 3. 85- Rob Anderson; 4. 42B- Curt Bauman; 5. 2- Bruce Bortman
NMRA Sportsmen
FEATURE: 1. 6x- Matt Ayres; 2. 90- Rick Goth; 3. 31- Russ Peterson; 4. 10- Darrin Duffy
NMRA Hobby Stocks
A FEATURE: 1. 18- Andy Ullom; 2. 2k- Mike Kiggins; 3. 21T- Dale Tomes; 4. 72 - Jeff Beck; 5. 17 - Dean Dunkelberger; 6. 111- Justin Selken; 7. 24- Jeremy Fedeler
FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE
A FEATURE: 1. 13-Harmon/ Klarenbeek; 2. 22-Lunders/Claussen; 3. 60- Tilden/Tieszen; 4. 69- Jensen/Jensen; 5. 8- Ryan/Larson; 6. 4- Olson/ Gluhm; 7. 88- Ellingson/Davenport