By: Paul Reichert
August 11, 2023
Friday night was supposed to be all about the kids as all of us at Tomah-Sparta Speedway helped them get ready for the new school year with our annual Backpack Giveaway Night. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not playing nice with us for a second time in three weeks as she threatened to rain on our racing parade. An audible was called to run features only after qualifying, and we managed to get a few features in before the weather became an issue. We were able to get the most important feature of the evening completed before the rains arrived. That was the season finale for the High School Racing Association as Ghage Moore captured his first career feature win while Ryatt Dobbratz was crowned the first ever Tomah HSRA champion.
Monty Odegard powered by Trinity Aasen to take the lead at the start of the final High School Racing Association feature of 2023. Aasen continued to fall back through the field as she first gave up second spot to Ghage Moore on lap two, and then surrendered third on lap three over to Ryatt Dobbratz. Moore and Dobbratz got into a good side-by-side battle for the runner-up position, while they were both catching up to Odegard. Now we had an exciting three-way fight for the lead, the win and possibly the championship until yellow flew on lap eight when Odegard dipped onto the old track in turns one and two and ran over one of the tire markers. Those tire markers are like the ‘out of bounds’ double yellow line used on the big tracks in NASCAR. Odegard was sent to the tail end of the line, while Moore and Dobbratz lined up next to each other for the restart. Moore drove around the outside of Dobbratz to take a firm hold on the lead on lap eight. As Moore maintained a three or four car length lead ahead of Dobbratz, his mirrors were filling up with the orange machine of Curtis Hellickson. Moore would go unchallenged the rest of the way as he claimed his first ever HSRA feature victory. Dobbratz held off Hellickson in the closing laps to maintain second and become the first ever ‘Daytomah’ HSRA champion.
The Clark Powersport of Hillsboro Hobby Stock feature witnessed a back-and-forth battle between the front row of Landon Lockington and rookie leader Seth Gnewikow. Lockington would nose ahead of Gnewikow at the end of each lap as both drivers could not break free from each other. On lap seven another issue with his car forced Gnewikow to pull up and retire from the race. That situation would allow Shelby Lockington to drive underneath Chad Leis to move up to second on lap seven. Moore made contact with Lockington entering turn one on lap eight to send her into a slide. Bill Schott’s Modified could not avoid making contact with Lockington as she suffered a fair amount of front end damage. Racing was stopped to clean up the debris in turns one and two and to get the tire back in its place. As the red flag was lifted the rain arrived and forced officials to call the race official. It may not have been how he wanted to win a feature but Landon Lockington would claim his first ever feature win.
Rookie Zach Oliver pulled ahead of Bill Schott to lead the opening lap of the Zoellick Home Repair and Log Staining Modified feature. Schott would fight back and power his way around Oliver to take back the top spot on lap two. Schott would maintain a four or five car length advantage, but Oliver was doing his best to stay within shouting distance to make another run at Schott. The Modifieds were catching the Hobby Stock field as we were closing in on the halfway mark of the race. That is when Shelby Lockington’s slide happened in turns one and two. Schott made contact with Lockington and gave her a fair amount of front end damage, but somehow Lockington was able to continue in the race. The rain finally reached ‘Daytomah’ as the red flag for the cleanup ended. The checkered flag was displayed and the race called official as Zach Oliver was awarded his first career feature victory.
Despite not getting to run their feature events, the Command Post Saloon Hornets and the Tomah Area Credit Union Six Shooters will start off this Friday’s show running their features from last week. We were also able to give out about three dozen backpacks to the boys and girls for our Backpack Giveaway Night. There are still a ton of backpacks to be handed out, so stay tuned on the details about continuing the backpack giveaway this Friday.
The racing action ramps up big time next Friday, August 18 as the Mid-Am Racing Series presented by Wilkins Rebuilders Supply returns to ‘Daytomah’. Five-time and defending series champion Ron Vandermier, Jr. looks to claim his fourth straight Tomah victory while on a mission for his record setting sixth title. A few of Tomah’s Sportsmen regulars will look to defend their home turf against the Mid-Am regulars. The Hobby Stocks, Hornets and Six Shooters will all be in action, plus the Mini-Vans and Chaos divisions will decide their season points championships in their final events of the season. Gates open at 5:00, the fast paced qualifying action begins at 6:15 and the thrilling on track racing action steps on the gas at 7:30.
Call the track office at 608-461-1920, visit our web site at tomahspartaspeedway.com or check out the track’s Facebook page for more information about Tomah-Sparta Speedway and the 2023 schedule of events.
RESULTS
High School Racing Association
Feature (15 laps): 1. Ghage Moore, 2. Ryatt Dobbratz, 3. Curtis Hellickson, 4. Mitchell Berg, 5. Caleb Arneson, 6. Landin Frye, 7. Trenton Frye, 8. Trinity Aasen, 9. Braydon Lockington, 10. Logan Backus, 11. Monty Odegard, 12. Adrian Day, 13. Bella Bolduan, 14. Zachary Neal
Qualifying: 1. Mitchell Berg 19.085, 2. Caleb Arneson 19.701, 3. Logan Backus 19.763, 4. Ryatt Dobbratz 19.773, 5. Curtis Hellickson 19.806, 6. Ghage Moore 19.895, 7. Trinity Aasen 20.012, 8. Braydon Lockington 20.063, 9. Monty Odegard 20.199, 10. Landin Frye 20.244, 11. Trenton Frye 20.691, 12. Zachary Neal 21.370, 13. Bella Bolduan 21.559, 14. Adrian Day 21.912
Clark Powersport of Hillsboro Hobby Stocks
Feature (Called after 8 laps): 1. Landon Lockington, 2. Andy Moore, 3. Shelby Lockington, 4. Chad Leis, 5. Seth Gnewikow
Qualifying: 1. Andy Moore 17.739, 2. Chad Leis 18.219, 3. Shelby Lockington 18.482, 4. Seth Gnewikow 18.546, 5. Grant Witcraft 18.619, 6. Landon Lockington 19.654
Zoellick Home Repair and Log Staining Modifieds
Feature (Called after 8 laps): 1. Zach Oliver, 2. Bill Schott
Qualifying: 1. Bill Schott 16.243, 2. Zack Oliver 16.912
Command Post Saloon Hornets
Feature (15 laps): To be made up at the start of this Friday’s program
Qualifying: 1. Paul Finch 18.538, 2. Kaleb Hardy 18.757, 3. Terry Lafleur 18.853, 4. Andrew Gardner 18.889, 5. Tristan Drazkowski 18.900, 6. Samantha Linnehan 19.039, 7. Landon Peterson 19.075, 8. Matthew Heim 19.217, 9. Jordan Finch 19.320, 10. Caitlyn Wood 19.972, 11. Jim Hendricks, Sr. 20.080, 12. Matthew Drazkowski 20.117, 13. Jim Gardner 20.559, 14. Austin Manning 20.602, 15. Tristan Finnegan 20.634, 16. Austin Albrecht 21.179, 17. Lonnie Wood, Sr. 21.229, 18. Lonnie Wood, Jr. 21.975, 19. Clint Hagstrom 22.974, 20. Josh Schwartz (NO TIME)
TACU Credit Union Six Shooters
Feature (15 laps): To be made up at the start of this Friday’s program
Qualifying: 1. Mike Gratz 19.142, 2. Karl Genett 19.233, 3. Kevin Armagost 19.444, 4. Alex Lueth 19.960, 5. Tim Murphy, Sr. 19.990, 6. Greg Brown, Jr. 20.004, 7. Patrick Reeves 20.123, 8. Tory Lockington 20.137, 9. Austyn Blank 20.639, 10. Zachary Morgan 20.999, 11. Brandon Young 21.223
