Korte, Hoffman, Lyons, Lee, Hoffman, and Suhre Take Top Honors At Highland
(May 7, 2011) HIGHLAND IL – You can always expect the unexpected when it’s the Grapperhaus Metals Night of Destruction at the Highland Speedway. In past years local drivers would make attempts to roll over cars or vans, some rolling the cars over and starting them back up and going again and some ending badly with not making a “rollover” and just destroying the car beyond use. This year Promoter Scott Kuhn went out and sought a “Professional” Stunt driver, Johnny Crash from Yazoo City, Mississippi and his side kick Sneaky Pete. The two world renowned drivers took late model sedans and rolled them numerous times. The highlight of the intermission show was when Johnny Crash attempted to jump a 12 passenger van over his motor home using the Casey’s Victory Lane as his launching pad. Things didn’t go quite as planned as the big van landed in the middle of the motor home destroying it and leaving the greatest stunt man ever to perform at the Highland Speedway homeless and looking for a ride back to Mississippi.
Changes were made this week to the Highland Speedway racing lineup. The Dash’s in the Becker Jewelers Late Models and The Steve Schmitt Modifieds were added after a several year absence. The changes proved worthy of the addition as the fans were on their feet cheering on the six fastest drivers in each of the two divisions. The line up for the dash is determined by heat race finishes. The top two drivers from each heat pulled pills for their starting position in the Dash and their finish in the Dash set the first three rows of the night cap.
In the Becker Jewelers Late Models heat winners Chad Zobrist, Randy “King Kong” Korte, and Fast Frankie along with runners up Nick “At Night” Lyons, Brian Wolfmeier and Kerry Gaultney. The Highland Bull Dog Chad Zobrist pulled the number one pill and sat on the pole. Zobrist last years points Champion looked like the “Bulldog” of old and took the checker flag guaranteeing him a pole start in the Becker Jewelers Late Models Feature, Wolfmeier finished second and Korte third.
The start of the feature had Zobrist and Wolfmeier side by side. After only two laps in the feature unfortunately a yellow flag came out for the 23 of Mark Bohnenstiehl, aligning the field into single file on the restart. By lap 4 the 00 of Korte starting from the third spot on the restart made the pass for the lead, looking to avenge his second and third place finishes of the first three weeks of the season. The Highland veteran was on a mission. By lap six the leaders were catching the back of the field. Korte put on a driving show as he was slicing and dicing around the back markers. On lap 12 all alone running in second, something went wrong with the 78 of Zobrist, resulting in a single car spin in turn two. The restart had the 00 of Korte in the lead with several lap cars between him and the second place car of Wolfmeier and the balance of the field. “King Kong” immediately jumped out to a sizable lead and lasted several late lap cautions and restarts to bring the Double 0 into the Casey’s General Stores Victory Lane for the first time in 2011. “Fast” Frankie Martin, Matt Weidner, Wolfmeier, and Gaultney finished second through fifth respectfully.
The line up for the Steve Schmitt Modified dash pitted heat winners Mike Harrison, Dean Hoffman, and Brian Bielong with heat runner ups, Marty Smith Jr, Steve Ellison, and last week’s feature winner Steve 
Latch. On the redraw Smith Jr and Ellison sat side by side on the front row. Smith Jr held off a hard charging Dean Hoffman for the win, setting up the lineup for the Steve Schmitt Modified feature.
The top four rows featured the finest Modified drivers in the Midwest, Smith Jr and Hoffman in row one and Bielong and Harrison in row two. By lap 5 Hoffman grabbed the lead; Harrison in the 24 was next and the 70 of Bielong putting pressure on the front runners ran in the third position.. The top three drivers put on a show positioning themselves against each other while dealing with lap traffic. The scariest moment for the leader’s occurred on lap 17 just as Harrison made his move into the lead. A three car pileup in front of the leaders brought out the yellow. Harrison and the 1D of Hoffman slid into the pile up with Harrison sustaining the most damage. Not being the cause of the yellow, the 1D and 24 were put back into position from the previous completed lap in which Hoffman was still the leader.
In a three lap three car shoot out Dean Hoffman lasted a hard charging Mike Harrison and Brian Bielong to put the 1D into the Casey’s General Stores Victory Lane for the first time in 2011.
In the Pro Late Model Division Nick Lyons in the Kehrer Bros Roofing number 8 held off last week’s winner Mark Oller.
Rob Lee found the Casey’s Victory Lane again in the Sportsmen,
Justin Suhre was the best of the field in the Sport Compacts
and Zach Hoffman was victorious in the Factory Stocks.
Next week at the Highland Speedway is the Scott Wernle Memorial for the Sportsmen racers. Don’t forget to “Like” the Highland Speedway on Face Book. Information about the Speedway is on the tracks website Highlandspeedway.com. Instant track information can be found by using the tracks text messaging service; text Highland to 91011.
(Photo Credit; Photo Billy)
TOP TEN
UMP Becker Jewelers Late Models – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 00K Randy Korte
2 25 Frankie Martin
3 R1 Matt Weidner
4 37 Brian Wolfmeier
5 21 Kerry Gaultney
6 51 Mark Faust
7 78 Chad Zobrist
8 81 Paul Bailey
9 27S Mike Schulte
10 51R Danny Ripperda
UMP Steve Schmitt Modified – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 1D Dean Hoffman
2 24H Mike Harrison
3 70 Brian Bielong
4 14 Jeremy Thoele
5 42 Steve Lach
6 55 Marty Smith, Jr
7 19 Jimmy Cummins
8 84 Tyler Deibert
9 55V Brad Venhaus
10 75 Darrell Hewlett
UMP Pro Late Model – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 8BALL Nick Lyons
2 67 Mark Oller
3 48 Bobby Martintoni
4 20 John Cory
5 55 Daniel Heck
6 59R Aaron Heck
7 52 Billy Knebel, Jr
8 17X Matt Santel
9 9STAR Jordan Bauer
10 87 Jason Zobrist
UMP Sportsman – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 88 Rob Lee
2 8E Russell Eilers
3 92J Rick Johnson
4 19S Nathan Schmitt
5 115 Aaron Melton
6 6 Justin Ketrow
7 X Dennis Wernle
8 18 Jimmy Miller
9 23 Kyle Roberts
10 1G Len Garson
Factory Stock – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 1Z Zach Hoffman
2 8T T J Eilers
3 101 Jeff Buss
4 29 Stephen Fohne
5 29H Ron Hartnagel
6 6I Austin Isaak
7 6 Jake Hewitt
8 15 Michael Ripperda, Jr
9 52 Tim Koch
10 64 Brian Crawford
UMP Sport Compact – Feature
Finish Car No Driver
1 24 Justin Suhre
2 97 Bobby Funderburk
3 14 Eldon Hemken
4 9X Trevor Isaak
5 21M Willy Myers
6 11 Kyle Swip
7 47 Christian Lee
8 121V Rick Viviano
9 33L Caleb Lintezenich
10 81LE Lacey Egbert
