Burlington, IA (Saturday, April 23, 2011) - Despite mother natures attempts on Friday and several times during the night on Saturday, 34 Raceway was able to get there program in. The Monster Energy Midwest Open Wheel Association 410 Sprint Cars inaugural season kicked off, along with the IMCA Late Models and IMCA Stock Cars in action on the night.
Thirty-nine 410 Sprint Cars signed, with Danny Lasoski getting the events started by setting fast time, with a lap of 12.5428. Then 4 heats, with the top 4 going into the feature, and 2 B Mains, with the top 2 going into the feature, were ran to help set the 21 car feature.
The first feature of the night was the 20 lap IMCA Stock Cars, with Jim Redmann and John Oliver Jr drawing the front row. Oliver Jr would take advantage of his front row start to grab the lead on the drop of the green flag. Redmann and Jeff Mueller, who started 5th, would make it a three car battle for the lead until the first caution came out on lap 5. Gabe Harrison would come to a stop on the front stretch to slow the great battle of front. On the restart Oliver Jr would moved back out into the lead over Mueller by inches. But Mueller would slip under him on lap 7 to take over the top spot. Mueller then pulled away over the final 13 laps of caution free racing to claim his first win of 2011. Oliver Jr settled for 2nd, Corey Strothman started 9th and came home in 3rd, Matt Greiner passed 11 cars from his 15th place starting spot to finish in 4th, with Derek St. Clair coming from 13th to round out the top five.
Jerrod Hull and Danny Lasoski led the field to the green flag in the 30 lap 410 Sprint car feature, with Lasoski leading lap 1 over Hull and Craig Dollansky, who started 6th. Lasoski started to pull away from the battle for second when he entered lapped traffic on lap 4, to allow Dollansky and Kerry Madsen to close in on him. But the battle for second and third would change on lap 6 when Madsen came off of turn four on the high side of Dollansky, who was running the middle. Dollansky would try to move up to the top to clear a lapped car and made contact with Madsen. Robbie Standridge had not where to go and was collected in the wreck, causing his machine to get upside down. He climbed out ok, with Dollansky having to be towed off with right front damage. Madsen would continue on from the wreck without stopping and would restart in 2nd.
Lasoski jumped back out into the lead on the restart, with Madsen following behind. On lap 10 Lasoski caught back up to the back of the field to allow Madsen to close in on him for the lead. Madsen would take advantage of a lapped car on lap 11 to grab the top spot away from Lasoski. But disaster strike Madsen 1 lap later as he slowed to a stop in turn 1 with a right rear flat, a result of the contact with Dollansky back on lap 6. Once again Lasoski moved back into the lead on the restart and was pulling away, when he entered lapped traffic on lap 17. This allowed Joey Moughan, who started 8th, and Kaley Gharst, who had charged up from his 18th place starting spot, to close in. Gharst would over take Moughan on lap 27 for second and then went to work on Lasoski for the lead. Coming out of turn 4 for the white Gharst tried to get under Lasoski in turn 1, but bobbled to allow Lasoski to pull away enough to claim the win and the $2,500 top prize. Gharst settled for 2nd, Moughan was 3rd, Brandon Wimmer was 4th, with Hull holding on for 5th.
The final feature of the night was the 25 lap IMCA Late Models, with Matt Bailey and Keith Pratt drawing the front row for the event. A caution before the first lap was complete, for Darin Weisinger who slowed to a stop in turn 2 with a left front flat, set up a complete restart. On the restart Pratt jumped into the lead over Matt Bailey and Colby Springsteen. Pratt would work to hold off Matt Bailey, Tom Darbyshire and Rob Toland until lap 7. Toland went into turn 1 on the top of Matt Bailey and would come out of turn 2 on the bottom of Pratt to set up a challenge going into turn 3 for the lead. Toland came out of turn four with the lead on lap 8 and then held it until lap 10. Darbyshire would jump under Toland going into turn 1 when Toland moved down to get around a lapped car. The two made contact with Darbyshire coming out of turn 2 with the lead. But Toland would shove Darbyshire down the backstretch, getting Darbyshire sideways and spinning himself out to bring out the caution. Darbyshire would continue on before the caution appeared to get the lead back for the restart, while Toland went to the pits. On the restart Darbyshire moved out into the lead, with Denny Woodworth, who started 7th, close behind in 2nd. Darbyshire would hold off several challenges from Woodworth over the final 15 laps to claim the win. Woodworth settled for 2nd, Tom Goble came from 9th to finish in 3rd, Jason Frankel passed 9 cars from his 13th place starting spot to finish in 4th, with Jason Perry coming home in fifth.
Notes from 34: The crew from 34 Raceway has to be thanked for there hard work all night Friday and all day Saturday to get the show in. Jeff Laue said they worked Friday night after the rains until 4am Saturday, then went home to get a break before returning Saturday morning to stay with it. The hard work paid off with 39 410 Sprints, 26 IMCA Late Models and 26 IMCA Stock Cars signing in to do battle in front of a great crowd......Ron Henry in his first year in an IMCA Stock Car legal car, after several years in a Street Stock, made the trip to 34 pay off with a nice 6th place finish....Tim Breuer passed 9 cars from his 16th place starting spot to finish in 7th....Brain Holmes started 21st and passed 13 cars to take home 8th....Rookie IMCA Stock Car driver Jeremy Pundt, who moved up from the Hobby Stock ranks for 2011, managed to come home in 9th....Another rookie IMCA Stock Car driver Gabe Harrison, who moved up from the 4 Cylinders, came from 14th to finish in 10th....Brett Timmerman, who started 7th, had worked his way into 3rd but pulled off on lap 18 with troubles to end his night in 11th....Kirk Kinsley was running in 5th when he pulled off on lap 18 with troubles to end his run in 12th....Jim Redmann who was battling for the lead early and fell back to 6th, before troubles sent him pitside on lap 17 to finish in 13th....Bo Hunter came from 23rd and passed 9 cars to finish in 14th....Abe Huls was running 4th when he pulled off on lap 16 with troubles to end his run in 15th....Chris Wibbell was running in 10th when he left the track on lap 11 with troubles to end his night in 17th....Shane Watts ended his night in 18th, after running 12th, when he pulled off on lap 11 with troubles....It was nice to see Ryan Cook back in action in the area. Ryan moved back from the state of Washington this winter after serving our country in the military. (Thank you Ryan for your service!) He would start the feature in 10th, but had troubles early to end his run in 19th....David Brandies, Chris Webb, Mark Massey and Troy Greiner all had troubles in there heat race or hot laps to end there nights before the feature......Korey Weyant would start the 410 Sprint feature in 15th and passed 6 cars to take home 9th....Matt Sutton, who won heat 2 in a 360 powered Sprinter, started the feature in 14th and came home in 11th....Ben Wagoner, who made a last lap pass coming off 4 in the first B Main to get into the feature, came from 19th to finish in 15th....Davey Heskin was leading the first B Main when he slowed in turn 4 with 2 laps to go with a broken driveshaft....Jordan Goldsberry lost a tire in the first B Main to get upside down in turn 3, but he climbed from his machine ok....Brian Rieck, who moved up from the Modified ranks, took a few rolls in turn 3 in the second B Main. He also climbed from his machine ok....Cory Bruns had troubles in hot laps and was a scratch for the rest of the evening......Matt Strassheim passed 9 cars from his 15th place starting spot to finish the Late Model feature in 6th....Tom Bowling Jr came from 12th to finish in 7th....Lonnie Bailey, who was leading heat race 3 but pulled off with troubles, had to start the feature in 24th. He would pass 15 cars in the 25 lap event to take home a 9th place finish....Justin Reed came from his 23rd starting spot to pass 12 cars in finishing 11th....Jason Cook started 19th and finished in 13th, in only his 3rd Late Model start of his career....Doug Yates made the pull down to 34 pay off, as he started 25th in the feature and passed 10 cars to finish in 15th....Travis Smock came from 22nd to finish in 17th....Mark Burgtorf started 26th, after troubles in the heat, and had worked his way to 13th before pulling off mid race to finish in 19th....Matt Bailey challenged for the lead early, but would pull off early to end his run in 20th....Rob Toland was credited with 21st after his lap 8 tangle....Keith Pratt was leading early and would have troubles to end his night in 22nd......I would also like to thank Jason Goble, who opened up an empty both for fellow Positively Racing writers, Jeff Broeg and Ryan Clark, to get in out of the weather.
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