By: Paul Reichert June 4, 2021
A beautiful but warm early summer evening welcomed back the race fans for another action packed evening of racing at Tomah-Sparta Speedway. The fans were treated to a special celebration along with the racing as we wished Stacy Heim, the fiancé of track promoter Greg Oliver, a happy birthday. The Midwest Dash Series made their annual journey to ‘Daytomah’ to recognize its founder with the running of the Godfather 30. Veteran four cylinder racer Phil Malouf fought back several challenges from 13 year old Karter Stark to score another win to add to his long list of victories..
A lot of jostling for position took place up front at the start of the Godfather 30 feature for the Midwest Dash Series. When the field crossed the line to complete lap one it would be Phil Malouf showing the way. Action was slowed on lap two when John Preston experienced a mechanical issue but could not get back into the pits. As Malouf began to pull away from Mark Dewey and the rest of the field, 13 year old Karter Stark and Tim ‘The Traveler’ Finstad began to make their way through the pack. Both drivers drove around former series champ George Seliger to drop him back to fifth by lap seven. Four laps later Stark and Finstad would dive under Mark Dewey down the back straight to move into second and third. Stark, who set a new track record earlier in the night during qualifying, began to pull away from Finstad and slowly reel in Malouf. With twelve laps to go Stark caught Malouf and began to look for an opportunity to get around the Manitowish Waters racer. Stark tried several times to look low for an opening but Malouf held his low line. Stark tried a few times to go to the high side but he would lose ground to Malouf and have to start all over. Malouf kept Stark in his rear view all the way to the checkered flag and scored his second series victory of the year.
In the Clark Powersport of Hillsboro Modified feature, Dan Howard charged past Bill Schott on the outside to take the early race lead. As Howard opened up his lead on the field, Derrin Salo was moving forward from the back of the pack. Salo moved into fourth on lap three at Denny Schott’s expense, then claimed third on lap four from visiting racer Carl Benn and got around Schott to settle into second on lap six. Salo would catch Howard by lap eight and would get into a side-by-side fight for the top spot. Salo worked the high line but could not complete the pass on Howard. Howard got loose coming out of turn and made contact with Bill Schott. Schott ran over the wheel of Howard and damaged his own left front wheel to end his night and bring out a caution. Salo shot to the outside of Howard on the restart and powered his way into the lead with three laps to go. Salo pulled away down the stretch to claim his first win this season.
Aaron Hendricks drove by Shelby Lockington for the lead at the start of the Hobby Stock feature.
Several drivers were making their way to the front to challenge Hendricks for the rest. Among them were Hobby Fest champ Andy Moore, opening winner Mike Krueger, Jr., two time winner from last year Brandon Riedner, Minnesota driver Nick Oxborough and last year’s champion Alex Rud. All five of those drivers were bunched up together at the halfway mark looking for their chance to claim the lead and the win. Moore stuck to his traditional outside line and powered past Hendricks to assume command with four laps to go. Rud and Oxborough tangled in turn three on lap 12 to bring out the yellow. Moore wasted little time and quickly drove away from the field on the restart and captured his second straight win.
It has been a tough year for Shawn McCarthy as the reigning Hornet champion but it looked like he was back to his old form. McCarthy drove under Matt Bean to take the lead at the start of the Oops! Saloon and Grill by Angie Hornet feature. Trying to leave the field in his wake McCarthy would be challenged for the lead by the likes of Zach Oliver, Paul Finch, and Bryan Wallace. McCarthy’s biggest threat to his lead was quickly zigging and zagging his way through the field. Mason Morphy charged by the trio of Finch, Wallace and Oliver to settle into the runner-up position just past halfway. Morphy quickly closed in on McCarthy for the top spot. Morphy was on McCarthy’s bumper by lap 11, and with two laps to go used the outside lane to power around the reigning track champion for the lead. Morphy pulled away to continue his early season dominance and score feature win number two.
In the TACU Credit Union Six Shooter feature, rookie Matt Heim drove around Todd Hollerud to settle into the lead. Heim, the son of birthday girl Stacy Heim, began to get away from the rest of the field but eventually would have to contend with Matt Moore. It would be like old times for Moore as he followed his former teammate Dan Frye, who got behind the wheel of his son Dawsynn’s ride. Frye and Moore would move into second and third at halfway. Both drivers would slowly close up on Heim as they caught him with three laps to go. Frye would get a run down the back straight on Heim to surge into the lead coming to the white flag. While Moore got second away from Heim on the final lap Frye would pull to a two car length lead to see the checkered flag first.
The Chaos division ran their first event of the 2021 campaign, the 2nd Over the Line Wins race. Sadly there would be no five wide finish like in last year’s race, but Clayton Haessig waited until the right moment to surge into second and take the victory.
Action continues next Friday, June 11 with the Six Shooter Shootout. TACU President Todd Scholz will be putting up some added money to the purse for next week’s Six Shooter feature event. They will be joined by the Modifieds, Sportsmen, Hobby Stocks, Hornets and the 2021 debut of the High School Racing Association. Gates open at 5, qualifying starts at 6 and racing action takes the green flag at 7:30.
For more information about Tomah-Sparta Speedway or the 2021 schedule of events, please call the track office at 608-461-1920 or visit us on the web at tomahspartaspeedway.com.
RESULTS
Midwest Dash Series
Godfather 30 (30 laps): 1. Phil Malouf, 2. Karter Stark, 3. Tim Finstad, 4. Mark Dewey, 5. George Seliger, 6. Merek Pankow, 7. Chris Jackson, 8. Rylie Mullin, 9. John Preston
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. John Preston, 2. Merek Pankow, 3. Chris Jackson, 4. Rylie Mullin
Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Phil Malouf, 2. Karter Stark, 3. Tim Finstad, 4. Mark Dewey, 5. George Seliger
Qualifying: 1. Karter Stark 17.204 (New Track Record), 2. Tim Finstad, 3. Phil Malouf, 4. Mark Dewey, 5. George Seliger, 6. Merek Pankow, 7. John Preston, 8. Chris Jackson, 9. Rylie Mullin, 10. Lyle Phillips (NO TIME)
Clark Powersport of Hillsboro Modifieds
Feature (15 laps): 1. Derrin Salo, 2. Dan Howard, 3. Carl Benn, 4. Denny Schott, 5. Bill Schott Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Bill Schott, 2. Derrin Salo, 3. Dan Howard, 4. Denny Schott, 4. Carl Benn Qualifying: 1. Derrin Salo, 2. Denny Schott, 3. Carl Benn, 4. Dan Howard, 5. Bill Schott
Hobby Stocks
Feature (15 laps): 1. Andy Moore, 2. Mike Kreuger Jr., 3. Brandon Riedner, 4. Thomas Farra, 5. Aaron Hendricks, 6. Alex Rud, 7. Shelby Lockington, 8. Nick Oxborough
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Alex Rud, 2. Aaron Hendricks, 3. Thomas Farra, 4. Shelby Lockington Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Nick Oxborough, 2. Brandon Riedner, 3. Andy Moore, 4. Mike Krueger Jr.
Qualifying: 1. Mike Krueger Jr., 2. Brandon Riedner, 3. Andy Moore, 4. Nick Oxborough, 5. Alex Rud, 6. Thomas Farra, 7. Aaron Hendricks, 8. Shelby Lockington
Oops! Saloon and Grill by Angie Hornets
Feature (15 laps): 1. Mason Morphy, 2. Shawn McCarthy, 3. Zach Oliver, 4. Bryan Wallace, 5. Paul Finch, 6. Matt Bean, 7. Sammy Linnehan, 8. Scott Mahlum, 9. Amelia Marshall, 10. Jazelynn Myer, 11. Jamie Pearson, 12. Tristan Drazkowski, 13. Matt Drazkowski, 14. Kyle Cottone, 15. Andrew Lamb, 16. Andrew Gardner, 17. Kyle Riedner
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Andrew Gardner, 2. Jazelynn Myer, 3. Andrew Lamb, 4. Scott Mahlum, 5. Matt Drazkowski, 6. Kyle Cottone, 7. Brandon Bergstrom
Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Kyle Riedner, 2. Sammy Linnehan, 3. Zach Oliver, 4. Shawn McCarthy, 5. Tristan Drazkowski, 6. Amelia Marshall
Heat #3 (8 laps): 1. Paul Finch, 2. Bryan Wallace, 3. Mason Morphy, 4. Jamie Pearson, 5. Matt Bean, 6., Jordan Finch
Qualifying: 1. Mason Morphy, 2. Sammy Linnehan, 3. Paul Finch, 4. Kyle Riedner, 5. Zach Oliver, 6. Bryan Wallace, 7. Amelia Marshall, 8. Matt Bean, 9. Shawn McCarthy, 10. Jordan Finch, 11. Jamie Pearson, 12. Tristan Drazkowski, 13. Scott Mahlum, 14. Andrew Gardner, 15. Brandon Bergstrom, 16. Jazelynn Myer, 17. Matt Drazkowski, 18. Kyle Cottone, 19. Andrew Lamb
TACU Credit Union Six Shooters
Feature (15 laps): 1. Dan Frye, 2. Matt Moore, 3. Matt Heim, 4. Dustin McCracken, 5. Jestin DeLap Sr., 6. Taylor McMullen, 7. Tim Murphy Sr., 8. Chuck Muller, 9. Todd Hollerud, 10. Andrew Moore, 11. Joshua Zacharias, 12. Donovan Hawes, 13. Andy Muller, 14. Clayton Haessig, 15. Landon Lockington, 16. Greg Brown, 17. Devin Glass
Semi-Feature (10 laps): 1. Austin Blank, 2. Mike Gratz, 3. Seth Gnewikow, 4. Josh Myer, 5. Lue Tanton, 6. Jonathan Walling
Heat #1 (8 laps): 1. Mike Gratz, 2. Seth Gnewikow, 3. Josh Myer, 4. Lue Tanton, 5. Austin Blank, 6. Jonathan Walling
Heat #2 (8 laps): 1. Joshua Zacharias, 2. Matt Heim, 3. Jestin DeLap Sr., 4. Todd Hollerud, 5. Taylor McMullen, 6. Tim Murphy Sr., 7. Devin Glass, 8. Donovan Hawes, 9. Greg Brown
Heat #3 (8 laps): 1. Matt Moore, 2. Dustin McCracken, 3. Dan Frye, 4. Landon Lockington, 5. Andrew Moore, 6. Chuck Muller, 7. Clayton Haessig, 8. Andy Muller, 9. William Petty
Qualifying: 1. Matt Moore, 2. Taylor McMullen, 3. Chuck Muller, 4. Tim Murphy Sr., 5. Dustin McCracken, 6. Jestin DeLap Sr., 7. Dan Frye, 8. Andrew Moore, 9. Matt Heim, 10. Todd Hollerud, 11. Andy Muller, 12. Clayton Haessig, 13. Joshua Zacharias, 14. Donovan Hawes, 15. Landon Lockington, 16. Devin Glass, 17. William Petty, 18. Greg Brown, 19. Josh Myer, 20. Mike Gratz, 21. Seth Gnewikow, 22. Jonathan Walling, 23. Lue Tanton, 24. Austin Blank
Chaos
2nd Over the Line Wins (6 laps): 1. Clayton Haessig, 2. Matt Moore, 3. Tim Murphy Sr., 4. Jestin DeLap Sr., 5. Matt Drazkowski, 6. Alex Rud, 7. Tristan Drazkowski
