Carey, Holthaus, Stanton score season championship checkers at Cresco

  • August 30, 1998

CRESCO, IA (August 30) - Season championships night made for exciting racing action at the Cresco Speedway, Sunday. With the points battles close in all divisions, the racing was tight and fast.

The stock car feature races started out with a duel between the top two points leaders, Laverne Carey and Brian Tank. The two battled for five laps until a blown tire forced Tank to the pits. From there, Carey led the rest of the way holding off Troy Hansmeier for the win. Kevin Bidne, Darrel Devries and Jake Ludeking rounded out the top five.

The hobby stock points championship was also very close with Steve Holthaus, Dan Jones and Roger Derry all having a shot at the title. Holthaus jumped out to the early lead with Jones, Derry and Troy Scholbrock in hot pursuit. It looked like it was going to be a fantastic finish until Jones blew a tire coming out of turn two and rolled his car with Derry's car coming to rest on top of it. Luckily, both drivers escaped with no injuries. From there it was a two-car battle with Holthaus taking the checkers followed by Scholbrock, Brian Losen, Mike Kelley and Jeff Vsetecka.

By making it to the modified feature Chris Adams assured himself of the points championship. However, that did not take away from the excitement of the race itself. Adams led the race until the halfway mark when Chuck Stanton made his move to the front and ran to his first ever modified feature win. Adams finished second followed by Larry Schmidt, Owen Grube and Randy Geisler.

The Bud Challenge also made for an exciting racing extra for the night. To qualify for the Bud Challenge a driver either had to win a feature or finish in the top ten in points. In the stock car challenge, Bidne started out on the front row and pulled away for the victory. In the hobby stocks, Scholbrock and Holthaus made it a two-car battle with the lead changing hands six times before Scholbrock pulled ahead on the last lap to pick up the win. Adams led flag-to-flag in the modified challenge.

Points champions for 1998 include Laverne Carey (stock car), Holthaus (hobby stock) and Adams (modified).

Next week J & L Oil presents the IRA sprint cars with the hobby stocks and stock cars also running.