By: Paul Reichert June 26, 2020
Mother Nature tried to rain on our parade earlier in the day, but the skies eventually cleared up and gave us another picture perfect night for racing at Tomah-Sparta Speedway. Another great crowd turned out to witness unexpected endings to a couple of the feature events. Michael Gilomen and Paul Finch were the beneficiaries of those ‘what just happened’ moments to capture the win in their respective division features.
Let’s start with the Coors Light Sportsmen feature. Jake Schiller took the lead right from the start, but within four laps Schiller would have a hungry trio on his tail. Tyler Sauter, along with Minnesota drivers Michael Gilomen and Dillon Sellner, battled for second and the opportunity to challenge Schiller for the top spot. Instead, they would fight over second place for the next several laps. As the field got around the lapped car of Troy Dobbratz, Schiller spun out entering turn one. While under yellow, Sauter tapped his roof admitting he spun out Schiller. Sauter went to the back and Schiller got his lead back. Still under the yellow flag, Schiller suddenly left the track and ducked into the pits with an issue. Gilomen now was in command of the race with five laps to go. A familiar foe in Sellner started behind Gilomen on the restart. Gilomen was able to pull away down the stretch to claim his first ever Tomah win and proudly ring the Victory Bell in TACU Credit Union Victory Lane.
We also witnessed an unexpected ending in the Hornet feature. Rookie Zach Oliver shot past Shawn McCarthy to show the way early in the race. The hard chargers of the division were struggling to make their way through the field over the next several laps. This allowed Oliver and McCarthy to open up a big gap on the field. As the leaders were coming up on the lapped car of Sammy Linnehan, Oliver began to slow. So did the likes of McCarthy, Jazelynn Myer and Scott Mahlum. Was there caution on the
track? No. Oliver was experiencing an issue with his fuel pump. Paul Finch, once again driving Ron Pearson’s car, kept his foot on the gas pedal and charged his way to the lead with three laps to
go. Everyone else got back on the gas, but it was too late as Finch took advantage of the situation to claim his second straight win.
Nick Quinnell and Rick DeVito battled side by side for the first couple laps of the Twisted Tea Modified feature. Quinnell got a run down coming out of turn two on lap three to surge past DeVito and into the race lead. A couple laps later, Brad Wildes made his way from the back of the field to take second away from DeVito. For the rest of the race, Quinnell and Wildes would run nose to tail. Wildes tried to push
