(Racing Every Friday Night)
Race Results
June 8, 2001
Brinkhous claims first trophy of season
By Shawn Neisteadt
Rock Rapids, IA--Doug Brinkhous took the early lead of the NMRA Street Stock feature and never looked back to claim the first win of 2001 for the Rock Rapids driver. When the green flag dropped on the street stock 15-lap main event, Brinkhous took the lead from pole sitter, John Degroot. The first caution of the event waved for Dale Furby's stalled car on the backstretch. The crew worked the bugs out of the car, allowing Furby to continue in the event. On the ensuing lap four restart, Chad Overgaard tried to overtake the lead from Brinkhous, but was unsuccessful and allowed Randy Brands to climb into the second position. Brands pulled to the inside of Brinkhous on lap nine and the two ran door to door until the yellow flag flew two laps later. Again, Furby had stopped, but this time he would retire after the car leaked fluid onto the speedway's surface. The field restarted with four laps remaining, as the leaders entered turn one, Brands and Overgaard would both make charges for the lead resulting in a three wide drag race down the backstretch and into turn three. Brinkhous held the lead position while Brands and Overgaard fell back to their second and third place spots. Brinkhous held off all remaining charges to put the Hair Pin #17 into the winner's circle for the first time this year. Following the 2000 Rookie of the Year to the finish were Overgaard, Darrin Korthals, point leader Mark DeBoer, and Brands. "This is better than driving off the track," commented Brinkhous after the win. "It took me a while to get over the hump."
In 360 sprint competition, Buck Wilson duct taped an eight over his usual #3b to fill in for the absent Jeremy Fey, and scored the #8 car's first Rapid Speedway victory of the season. Wilson piloted the Precision Drywall sprinter into the lead at the drop of the green flag and ran flawlessly through the flag to flag event. Bill Fredin claimed a top five position by passing Brian Baker at the halfway point. Baker fought hard for the position, but mechanical problems would force him to end the battle and his evening of racing. National NMRA point leader, Randy Droescher finished second behind Wilson. Shawn Van Whye finished third followed by Tom Platt and Fredin.
Scott Overgaard took early lead of the Sportsmen "A" feature, but the race would be slowed with one lap in the books when Evan DeHaan caused a six-car pileup. Overgaard slipped high after the restart and allowed several cars to go by. The lead went to Brad Klaassen and he held off all attempts to be passed by Rick Vander Weide to take the win. Following Klaassen, the 2000 race team of the year recipient, and Vander Weide to the line were Mel Elsberry and Overgaard. Rick Goth came back from the lap one incident to salvage a top five finish, but Goth lost the point lead to Vander Weide, who now has a single point advantage over Goth.
Jeff Hoogendoorn took the lead form James Brower on lap three and held onto the top spot until the checkered flags waved to give the Loosbrock #91 team their first victory of the season in the Hobby Stock class. "It feels pretty good. We've had a bad year; we broke a couple of transmissions and the motor wasn't running right," said Hoogendoorn with a smile on his face. "We finally got it figured out so it would work." Brower finished second. Mark Van Den Top, Darwin Klaassen and Mike Deutsch rounded out the top five.
NMRA 360 Sprints
A Feature: 1. 8 Buck Wilson; 2. 24 Randy Droescher; 3. 99 Shawn Van Whye; 4. 25 Tom Platt; 5. 14 Bill Fredin
NMRA Late Model Street Stocks
A Feature: 1. Doug Brinkhous; 2. Chad Overgaard; 3. Darrin Korthals; 4. Mark DeBoer; 5. Randy Brands
NMRA Sportsmen
A Feature: 1. Brad Klaassen; 2. Rick Vander Weide; 3. Mel Elsberry; 4. Scott Overgaard
NMRA Hobby Stocks
A Feature: 1. Jeff Hoogendoorn; 2. James Brower; 3. Mark Van Den Top; 4. Darwin Klaassen; 5. Mike Deutsch