AUSSIE TOPS
SUPERIOR
SPEEDWAY
IRA SHOW
Laursen Sweeps Late Model Show
By
Jerry O'Brien
6-1-04
Superior
,
WI
.
Australian native Brooke Tatnall
was the class of the field Friday night June 4th at the Superior
Speedway taking the lead on lap eight of 30 scheduled. Tatnall
ran away and hid in traffic after moving up from the inside of row
three to slip past early leader and pole sitter Joe Roe.
At the green flag Roe shot out to
the lead and quickly put a straight away bulge on second place man
and outside pole starter Randy Anderson who was trailed by Mark
Toews, Travis Whitney, Ricky Logan and Tatnall. Roe
had such a huge lead that five laps into the event he was beginning
to lap the field which proved to be his downfall. Tatnall
was on a roll, soon worked his way into the second spot and took the
measure of Roe for the lead. With
13 laps down, the red flag flew stopping action immediately as Scott
Biertzer and local driver Leigh Thomas tangled when the differential
gears broke in Biertzer's car causing both to flip down the front
stretch. Neither driver
was injured but both cars appeared to be extensively mangled.
When the event resumed Tatnall
quickly moved away from the pack with Roe,
Anderson
,
Logan
and Toews still in the top five. Tatnall
scooted out to a big lead and was soon lapping once again. The event
would go to the finish with no more problems as Tatnall's lead
expanded in traffic. Roe was unchallenged with ten laps remaining
but
Anderson
's third place would fall to a
charging
Logan
.
Toews was trying to hold off
Whitney for fifth in a good battle. Tatnall won going away over Roe
and
Logan
while
Anderson
maintained fourth. Toews was able
to fight off Whitney to finish fifth.
Team mates Kim mock and
Mike
Kertscher were able to advance from
the B Main where they had finished first and second, to top ten
finishes with Mock in 8th and Kertscher 10th. Tenth-starting
Jim
Melis was 7th and Steve Meyer was
9th.
It looked as though the track
record might be in danger as fifteen of thirty-four scheduled to
take time trials timed in the thirteen second range. The
track record was set in 2000 by Donny Goeden at 12.958 seconds
around the four tenths mile high banked oval.
The closest to the record was Kim Mock who turned the fastest
time to the night at 13.338 seconds.
Also on the program were the
WISSOTA late models who ran a 20 lap feature. On hand were 22 cars
to run for the weekly payoff. In a departure from normal procedure
the late Models also timed in with Todd Gehl of
Solon Springs
,
WI
turning the quick lap at 16.26
seconds.
Cumberland
,
Wisconsin
’s Steve Laursen started from the
pole with Darin Meierotto to his outside. At
the green Laursen shot into the lead but Meierotto came back and,
for the first two or three laps the two hot shoes traded slide jobs
with each taking a brief lead over the other. Laursen
was able to break away from Meierotto while Nick Nelson was third,
Jeff Broking fourth and Tim McMann fifth. A quarter of the way into
the event Laursen had pulled away and was dominating while ninth
starting Joel Cryderman was on the move and worked his way into
fifth.
Jeff Provinzino was also moving
forward ahead of Cryderman and, as Laursen began to lap the field,
the half way point was quickly reached. Laursen led Meierotto,
Nelson, Provinzino and Cryderman with Broking and Tom Nesbitt
trailing the front five. Just when it appeared that the 20 laps
would go by with no caution periods a large piece of debris was
spotted on the track and the caution flag appeared.
When racing resumed Provinzino
and Cryderman overwhelmed Nelson to take third and fourth
respectively. With two
laps remaining the caution flag again appeared setting up a shootout
when Trent Follmer backed into the second turn wall. Laursen
went on to take the win over Provinzino and Cryderman who had both
gotten by Meierotto. Broking slipped by Nelson to take fifth.
Results:
IRA Sprints (34 cars) (Fast
Time Kim Mock 13.338 seconds)
Heat 1: Scott Uttech, Travis Whitney, Joe Roe, John sernett,
Kurt Davis, Kim Mock, John Haeni, Johnny Bridges.
Heat 2: Ricky logan,
Mike
Stefka,
Jim
Melis, Mark Toews, Leigh Thomas, Ty
Bartz, Dave Uttech, Andy Hunt.
Heat 3: Scott Biertzer, Brooke Tatnall, Bill Warren, Wayne Mojeski,
Scott Neitzel, Matt Folstad, Joe Kouba, Matt Wasmund
Heat 4: Shayne Dayney, Steve Meyer, Randy Anderson, Ryan Irvin,
Rusty Egan,
Mike
Kertscher, Dan Owings, Fred Ebler.
B
Main
: Mock, Kertscher, Haeni, Thomas,
Davis, Wasmund, D Uttech, Neitzel.
Feature: (1-10) Tatnall, Roe,
Logan
,
Anderson
, Towes, Whitney, Melis, Mock,
Meyer, Kertscher.
(11-22) Neitzel, Haeni, Sernett, Modjeski, Jason Johnson, Davis,
Scott Uttech, Stefka, D Uttech,Warren, Biertzer, Thomas.
WISSOTA Late Model (22 cars)
(Fast Time Todd Gehl 16.26 sec) Heat 1: Gehl, Darrell
Nelson, Nick Nelson, Tyler Keyser, Bill Byholm, Rick Hanestad, Bob
Slater, Kevin Mudrak
Heat 2: Steve Laursen, Joel cryderman, Jef Broking, Tim McMann,
Mike
Nutzmann, Andrew McKay, Bob
Broking
Heat 3: Jeff Provinzino, Darin Meierotto, Trent Follmer, Tom
Nesbitt, Steve Roseen, Kevin Carlson, Ken Kincaid
Feature: (20 laps) (1-10) Laursen, Provinzino, Cryderman, Meierotto,
J Broking, N Nelson, Hanestad, Nesbitt, D Nelson, Keyser
(11-22) McMann, Nutzmann, Roseen, Byholm, Slater, McKay, Carlson,
Gehl, B Broking, Kincaid, Follmer, Mudrak.
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