HIGHLAND SPEEDWAY, A NIGHT OF DIGGING FOR GOLD
(July 17, 2010) HIGHLAND IL -It was a night of digging for gold and wheel to wheel racing action at the Highland Speedway. Lee’s Loan and Jewelry sponsored the second annual Lee’s Dig for the Gold as 10 ladies dug through a pile of sand in front of Highland’s Victory Lane at intermission. While the hunt for gold, gift certificates, and a ride in Highland Speedway’s “two seater” Late Model was at stake, the Highland track crew spent the time grooming the speedway for the night’s feature events. The result was like adding horse power to all the contestants from the Super Late Models down to the Factory Stocks.
Super Late Models
At the drop of the green flag of the UMP Super Late Model Feature, Michal Kloos, The Trenton Tornado jumped out to an early lead, a caution at lap two set the lineup to a single file restart. With Kloos, DuQuoin Illinois “Fast” Frankie Martin next, Mark Faust in the 51 third, “The Milk Man” Clay Bauman fourth and Justin Ketrow in the 85 rounding out the restart in fifth.
By lap 8 the leaders caught the back of the field, it gave Martin a chance to get around the 6 K of Kloos. The passing leaders tangled with the lap car of Nathan Lynch sending Lynch into the front straightaway fence. The restart had had Martin on point followed by Faust, Kloos, the 78, of current Highland point’s leader Chad Zobrist, moving into the top five in the fourth position and Ketrow hanging onto the 5th spot.
With two laps under green Kloos had moved around the 51 of Faust but a caution flag referred the lineup back a lap and Kloos restarted behind the driver from Breese IL.
On the restart it was anyone’s guess who would come out on top of this one but Mark Faust made his move and took over the lead spot, Fast Frankie slid to second and the 78 of Zobrist moved around the fading 6K of Kloos. When the double checkers waved, it was the 51 of Mark Faust taking his 4th win of the season and his third win in a row. Martin was second, Zobrist third, Kloos hung on to fourth and Ketrow had a great showing in the 85 rounding out the top 5.
Steve Schmitt Modifieds
If you were driving a car with the number 24 on it this past Saturday night in the UMP Steve Schmitt Modifieds you had a real good chance of wining the race. It was the 24H of Mike Harrison on the pole with the 24-1D of Dean Hoffmann sitting on the outside front row; the second row had the 24L of Steve Lach from Brownstown IL on the pole and the “Racing Realtor” Chad Sellers sitting out side.
A caution at lap two put the field in single file restart. The 24-1D of Hofmann on point with Harrison, Sellers, Lach and the 73 of Brian Bielong sitting in 5th.
By lap 8 Harrison and Sellers moved around Hoffman with Sellers beginning to make his move to catch the high flying Harrison. A caution at lap 15 for debris on the track slowed what momentum Sellers was building. Harrison showed his strength and led the field to the finish line for the 7th time this season, Sellers stayed in second, Bielong moved to third, and Hoffmann and Lach finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Sportsmen
The Sportsmen Challenge has brought new light to the class. Sportsmen racers have a chance to pick up a cool $1250 plus contingency prizes for earning the most points between this past weeks race and the end of the 2010 Season. The added prize increased the intensity of racing from the heat races to the feature.
Dennis Wernle in the 23 sat on the pole and was leading the way until something let go and the driver from New Douglas Il spun into the infield in turn two. This gave the lead to Rob Lee driving the 88 Wonder Acre’s machine. Lee and Robbie Eilers driving the 6 car of MPR racing ran side by side for nearly the remaining 10 laps, Steve Stevenson in the 1, Jon Ripperda from Bartelso in the 196 and Russell Eilers in the 8E made up the top five, all running side by side and keeping pressure on the leaders.
It all came down to the final turn out of four as Robbie Eilers tried to squeeze by on the outside of the 88 of Lee racing towards the double checkers, Eilers could not find the room as Lee shut the door and picked up his first win of the 2010 season, Eilers in the 6 came up short for the win finished second, Stevenson stayed third, Ripperda fourth and the 8E of current points leader Russell Eilers finished fifth.
Street Stocks
The Street Stock division was a battle of endurance as cautions dominated the feature event in a race shortened by the time limit, 15 year old Jacob Steinkoenig came away with his first feature win in very young career, Dustin Clary, T J Eilers, Michael Ripperda, Jr, and Brad Venhaus completed the top 5.
Factory Stocks
Racing more against the clock more than each other the Factory Stock shortened event found Bob Zbinden winning his second feature in a row and pocketing the extra $100.00 Helvetia Sharpshooters bonus.
Highland Notes:
Racing Saturday July 24th is sponsored by the Madison County Fair Association.
Tuesday July 27th – It’s the Annual Madison County Fair Race Sponsored by Budweiser
With $3000. 00 to win for the Super Late Models, $750. For the Steve Schmitt Modifieds and a special race for the Sportsmen Division as it will be the Inaugural Scott Wernle Memorial race with $1000.00 for first place.
Saturday July 31 – No races
Tuesday August 3rd – Racin for a Cause! – Fight Against Breast Cancer
For Complete Information about the Highland Speedway visit Highland Speedway .com or join the Speedway on Facebook at Facebook.com/HighlandSpeedway
Race Results for 7/17/2010
UMP Late Model – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 51 Mark Faust
2 25 Frankie Martin
3 78 Chad Zobrist
4 6K Michael Kloos
5 85 Justin Ketrow
6 1S Rick Salter
7 77 Clay Baumann
8 27 Mike Schulte
9 5 Michael Jacober
10 77H Brandon Hogenson
11 87 Jason Zobrist
12 31 Brent Helmkamp
13 20 John Cory
14 18 Bobby Dauderman
15 4 Jason Suhre
16 13 Brent Kreke
17 9 Aaron Kleine
18 33 Shannon Kuhn
19 14 Nathan Lynch
20 V50 Justin Vosholler
UMP Steve Schmitt Modified – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 24H Mike Harrison
2 E55 Chad Sellers
3 73 Brian Bielong
4 241D Dean Hoffman
5 24L Steve Lach
6 00 Steven Ellison
7 25 Brett Korves
8 84 Tyler Deibert
9 155 Chris Smith
10 11 Adam Pate
11 56 Ron Hartnagel
12 3R Jeremy Thoele
13 75 Eric Faust
14 71 Todd Frolik
15 316 Stephen Plog
UMP Sportsman – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 88 Rob Lee
2 6 Robbie Eilers
3 1 Steve Stevenson
4 196 Jon Ripperda
5 8E Russell Eilers
6 19P Mark Pflueger
7 3 Ryan Eilers
8 23B Mark Bohnenstiehl
9 441 Brian Bielong
10 92J Rick Johnson
11 9 Nathan Schmitt
12 96 Matt Koch
13 1G Len Garson
14 11L Curt Loddeke
15 24 David Pulley, Jr
16 23 Dennis Wernle
17 C16 Cory Brown
18 07 Andy Casper DNS
UMP Street Stock – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 224 Jacob Steinkoenig
2 94 Dustin Clary
3 8T T J Eilers
4 15 Michael Ripperda, Jr
5 55V Brad Venhaus
6 29 Stephen Fohne
7 53 Justin Leichsenring
8 88 Kenny Landolt
9 54 Shaun Hortsmann
10 52 Tim Koch
11 12 Brian Crawford
12 1Z Zach Hoffman
13 4 Larry Smith, Jr
14 6 Jake Hewitt
15 00R James Rhoades, Jr
16 84 Michael Leichsenring
17 101 Jeff Buss
18 7 Dennis Ponder DNS
UMP Factory Stock – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 99 Bob Zbinden
2 26 Jordan Suhre
3 4 Justin Suhre
4 17R Jacob Rexing
5 21M Willy Myers
6 6 Austin Isaak
7 9X Trevor Isaak
8 6S Shea Gagne
9 29H Cale Hartnagel
10 17W Brent Weaver
11 9T Travis Horner
12 441 Cody Ventimiglia
13 81LE Lacey Egbert
14 28 Brian Fennewald
15 121V Rick Viviano
