(Racing Every Saturday Night)
Race Results
September 8, 2002
Ballenger Takes NMRA Nationals
By Shawn Neisteadt
(Madison, SD-September 8, 2002) Chase Wilson and Kim Muntefering sat on the front row of the NMRA 360 Sprint Car "A" feature. At the drop of the green on the 20 lap event, Muntefering used the high groove to build his momentum and pull out front. On the third lap of the event, Chuck McGillivray passed Shawn Van Wyhe for fifth. On the next lap, Randy Droescher, who won the preliminary feature the night before, lost third place to Mike McMahan in turn one. Five laps were in the books when McGillivray took fourth from Droescher.
Muntefering was still leading the field as he ran into lap traffic on lap eight. The race was at its halfway point, lap 10, when Wilson relinquished second place when he spun the #3c in turn two. The car with the right moves on the restart was Dusty Ballenger. Ballenger rocketed from fourth to second as the green flag came out over the speedway once again. The yellow waved again one lap later when Rob Danielson spun out in turn two.
The race to watch on the restart was for the third position. McGillivray and Tom Platt swapped countless slide jobs on both ends of the speedway.
With the white flag out, Ballenger dove to the bottom of turn one, slid up in front of Muntefering exiting two and the race had a new leader with less than one circuit remaining. Muntefering retaliated and tried the same move in turn four, but would have no success in retaking the lead. Ballenger came from ninth to take the win just ahead of Muntefering. McGillivray raced from tenth to third and Platt finished fourth. Wilson came back to round out the top five.
Gary Brown Jr led all 18 laps of the Short Track Stock car feature to take the win. Perry Tschetter took fifth on lap five and held the spot until he blew the right rear tire on the white flag lap. JJ Zebell took advantage of Tschetter's misfortune and snagged second of turn four. Tschetter limped across the line for third with Don Bickett fourth and Rick Goth fifth. The preliminary feature was won Saturday by Brown.
Kevin Spurgin came from the outside pole to dominate the Sportsmen 14 lap feature. Scott Overgaard, the national point leader, finished second. Chuck Harming took the preliminary feature win and finished third. Anthony Mann came from twelfth to take fourth and Rick Vander Weide was fifth.
Nick Bahr dominated Saturday's event and came back Sunday and did the same as he led all 12 laps of the Hobby Stock feature to take the victory. Mike McGillivray came from tenth to take second and Steve Eliason raced from seventh to third. Fourth place went to Justin Lebahn and Jeff Beck finished fifth.
Brandon Kampa and Craig Delfs battled door to door in the street stock feature until a caution four laps into the race. From that point on, Delfs dominated as he picked up the championship feature. Jeremy Fedeler took second and Brian Heiman took third. Barney Fuller and Brett Lease rounded out the top five. Delfs also won on Saturday.
Chad Larson took the lead of the Deuces Wild feature one lap into the race and led the final seven to take the win. Preliminary winner, Shawn Ryan was second just ahead of Jeremiah Bethke. Erik Kludt took fourth and Jason Schwader took fifth.
NMRA 360 Sprints
A Feature: 1. 3 Dusty Ballenger; 2. 31M Kim Muntefering; 3. 101 Chuck McGillivray; 4. 25x Tom Platt; 5. 3c Chase Wilson; 6. 99 Shawn Van Wyhe; 7. 24 Randy Droescher; 8. 1X Ryan Deighton; 9. 11 Joe Riedel; 10. 5L Eric Lutz; 11. 46 Robert Danielson; 12. R19 Mike Mc Mahan; 13. 35 Eric McGillivray
NMRA Short Track Stock Cars
A Feature: 1. 22 Gary Brown Jr; 2. 29Z JJ Zebell; 3. 20 Perry Tschetter; 4. 17 Don Bickett; 5. 90 Rick Goth; 6. 69 Scott Freet; 7. 98 Dan Jensen; 8. 2E Rob Anderson; 9. 97 David Kruger; 10. 11 Jeff Machovsky; 11. 2 Chris Ellingson
NMRA Sportsmen
A Feature: 1. 7x Kevin Spurgin; 2. 40 Scott Overgaard; 3. 13 Chuck Harming; 4. 20 Anthony Mann; 5. 6 Rick Vander Weide; 6. 1R Richard Holbrook; 7. 34 Josh Schmidt; 8. 00 Ryan Mulder; 9. 2 Joseph Hofer; 10. 51 Billy Prouty; 11. 76 Dustin Evink; 12. 6X Matt Ayres; 13. 01 Ryan Van Emmerick
NMRA Hobby Stocks
A Feature: 1. 33 Nick Bahr; 2. 15 Mike McGillivray; 3. 42 Steve Eliason; 4. F2 Justin Lebahn; 5. 72 Jeff Beck; 6. 17K Dean Dunkelberger; 7. 2K Mike Kiggins; 8. 10 Darren Duffy; 9. 65 Josh Lamer; 10. 4 Justin Olson; 11. 88 Sam Johnson; 12. 15X Matt Parish; 13. 1X Aaron Penning; 14. 28 Andy Hansen; 15. 1 Scott Borkowski; 16. 20 Adam Thielbar; 17. 5 Colter Deutsch
Street Stocks (FWD)
A Feature: 1. 6 Craig Delfs; 2. 1 Jeremy Fedeler; 3. 38 Brian Heiman; 4. 15 Barney Fuller; 5. 7 Brett Lease; 6. 17 Greg Jung; 7. 2 Joe Tieszen; 8. 11 Brandon Kampa
Dueces Wild (FWD)
(Primary Driver Listed)
A Feature: 1. 8 Chad Larson; 2. 8X Shaun Ryan; 3. 33 Jeremiah Bethke; 4. 88 Erik Kludt; 5. 27 Jason Schwader; 6. 6 Chris Bunkers; 7. 21 Josh Bethke; 8. 29 Matt Scholl; 9. 22 Jeff Claussen; 10. 2X Art Cagney