5-18-2018
Tomah, WI.
By:Dan Deicher
On a beautiful night for short track racing Friday night, fans at the Tomah Sparta Speedway were entertained by several at the line close finishes and for a few drivers, victory was so close, but broken parts sent them home empty.
Hobby Stock driver, Benjamin Arndt of Sparta, WI. found himself leading the 15 lap feature until a back wheel broke off, sending him into a spin in turns one and two. That gave the lead on the re-start to Sparta, WI. Driver Tom Farra. But again, part failure led to the demise of another driver as during the caution, Farra’s rear end broke, giving the lead and eventual win to Jeffery LaFave Jr.
Two drivers’ that had never faced each other before found themselves running side by side for the last 7 laps of the Midwest Dash Series 25 lap feature. West Salem, WI. Driver Patrick Thicke ran a clean, hard nosed side by side race with Wausau, Wisconsin’s, George Seliger. In the end, Seliger moved his MDS car just inches past Thicke to claim the checkers. In the post race interview, Thicke said “That had to have been one of the best races I have ever been in”. Seliger responded with “All I wanted was that 56 to race me clean, and man did he ever”.
With two exciting features in the books, the Modified drivers would be next to take center stage, with a fantastic finish to their feature event. Jay Potter said he knew winning the race with Denny Schott and Paul Brown battling for position right behind him for 10 laps was going to be a tough task….and it was. With 5 to go, Brown found his way to the outside of Potter’s 33 machine and he then took the lead with 2 to go. Brown would cruise from there for his second win of the year.
Rio, Wisconsin’s James Junget had probably the weirdest Friday night ever in his racing career. Junget found himself atop the leader board after qualifying. During his heat race, Junget brought out the caution after his Hornet car was hit from behind, sending him backwards and hung up on the turn two wall. To some, his night was over. Not so fast. Junget not only made it back out for the 15 lap feature, but he found himself in a side by side battle with Chandler Turner for the final 5 laps. Junget went from what looked to be a disastrous night, to victory lane.
The next event is Friday night, May 25th with Modifieds, Sportsman, Hobby Stocks, 6-Shooters, Dash Cars and Hornets. The Chaos event will be Second over the line.
