FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. -- Throughout this hit and miss start to the 20113 racing season, it seems that Mother Nature had gotten into an ‘every other week’ schedule of allowing on-track action at the fast 1/3-mile oval in Fountain City, WI. But this Friday night, Fastenal put together the whole package to bring to Mississippi Thunder Speedway, a packed grand stands of fans, a near uncountable number of prizes, the Carl Edwards #99 Fastenal sponsored Roush Fenway Racing’s 2013 Sprint Cup car, and, yes, blue skies and sunshine!

And even after that sun had set, you could say that the sun was still shining on Ham Lake, MN’s Jeremy Houle. Just two weeks into his ownership of a new Mars car Modified, and on his first ever visit to Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Houle politely accepted a gift and ended his evening celebrating in Victory Lane. Let’s roll the tape back and discover the chain of events that led up to Houle’s celebration.

Earlier in the evening Houle had spent the first River City Manufacturing USRA Modified heat race learning the track and sliding his way to a fourth place finish. Meanwhile, Rochester, MN speed-demon Brad Waits dominated the second heat race and cruised to an unchallenged win.

Feature time appeared to be a set up for much the same. With Waits starting on the outside of the front row, alongside current speedway point leader Jake Timm, the drop of the green flag was like an invitation for a rapid departure to Waits. With the right pedal down, Waits’ black NFG #24 left the competition behind and almost immediately stretched a lead to an entire straightaway advantage over the rest of the field which were left battling for scraps of positions two and beyond.

Lap after Lap, Waits stretched his lead on the field and if the FASTENAL 25 USRA Modified Feature had only been the FASTENAL 19 USRA Modified Feature, Waits would have been a feature winner. But 25 laps was distance, and Waits Modified decided that it only had 19 laps in it for Fastenal Night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway.

As Waits crossed the start/finish line on lap 19, it was obvious that things weren’t sounding right beneath the hood. The next time Waits crossed the start/finish line it was without power as he coasted the remainder of the front stretch and came to a stop at the top of the banking in between turns one and two, giving up a nearly half lap lead over the rest of the field.

This is, of course, the aforementioned ‘gift’ that Houle received, as his #54 was running a strong second at the time. Six laps later he was in Victory Lane celebrating HIS win of the FASTENAL 25 USRA Modified Feature, “A lot of things can happen in racing,” said Houle, “We’ll take it.”

Houle was ecstatic with the win, after starting sixth (outside row three) he spent the first 10 laps battling his way into the top three, just behind Decorah, IA’s Dan Bohr. On lap 15 Houle was finally able to get around Bohr for second, and just four laps later he was inheriting the lead en route to his first ever win on his first ever visit to Mississippi Thunder Speedway. But by no means was it an easy road to victory, as a caution and restart forced Houle to hold off challenges for the win, “I was a little worried when we had that third restart,” Houle said. “I saw the 99 (Angst) and 49 (Timm) coming, but was able to hold them off.”

Houle loaded up his hauler a new fan of Mississippi Thunder Speedway, “I’d never been here before, never even seen the place.” Explained the newest feature winner, “but I’d seen everyone talking about it on the internet, saying how great the track and facilities are. Now that I’ve been here . . . it’s safe to say that I’ll be back again.”

Bohr held on for second almost 3 seconds behind Houle’s #54 with first heat race winner Bob Timm battling his way to a third place finish from his tenth place start.

Cottage Grove, MN’s Ben Moudry raced his way through a trio of cautions, and resultant restarts, to capture the win of the 21-car Black Horse Bar & Grill USRA B-Mod feature. While Moudry raced his way to the win from his starting spot on the inside of the second row, three other drivers were slicing and dicing their way through traffic to improve their finishing positions over their starting spots.

Three members of the ‘youth brigade’ were on the move through the pack; and this trio of teenaged B-Mod super stars showed that they were intent on moving forward. Alex Williamson piloted his #15W to a second place finish after starting outside of the third row. Previous feature winner Jacob Bleess moved forward from his tenth place starting spot to a fourth place finish behind a very fact Chris Gilbertson. Meanwhile Jake Timm turned a 17th place starting spot into a 9th place finish.

If Mother Nature intends to cooperate two weeks in a row, racing will resume Friday night June 14th with Winona County night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway.

Mississippi Thunder Speedway is located 3.0 miles north of Fountain City on Wisconsin Highway 35. For more information, call 608-687-3282 or visit www.mississippithunder.com on the World Wide Web.

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OFFICIAL RESULTS
USRA Weekly Racing Series
Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Fountain City, Wis.
Friday, June 7, 2013

USRA MODIFIEDS

Feature:
1. (6) 54 Jeremy Houle, Ham Lake, Minn.
2. (4) 66 Dan Bohr, Decorah, Iowa
3. (10) 49 Bob Timm, Winona, Minn.
4. (3) 99 Josh Angst, Winona, Minn.
5. (15) 59 Hank Rollinger Jr., Buffalo City
6. (5) 77 Tom Brink, Winona, Minn.
7. (9) 94JR John Doelle, Arcadia
8. (8) 11 Lance Hofer, Cochrane
9. (12) 15 Chris Loberg, Menomonie
10. (1) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
11. (2) 24 Brad Waits, Rochester, Minn.
12. (14) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls
13. (7) 89 Eric Pember, Pittsville
14. (11) 44 Leroy Scharkey, Rochester, Minn.
15. (13) 6T7 Brian Albrecht, Winona, Minn.

USRA B-MODS

Feature:
1. (3) 85 Ben Moudry, Cottage Grove, Minn.
2. (6) 15W Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn.
3. (2) 4G Chris Gilbertson, Trempealeau
4. (10) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.
5. (1) 88 Troy Langowski, Winona, Minn.
6. (5) 90 Tyler Creeley, Winona, Minn.
7. (7) 44K Ben Anderson, Wnona, Minn.
8. (9) 95X Shaun Walski, Winona, Minn.
9. (17) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
10. (8) 23K Erik Kanz, Winona, Minn.
11. (12) 34F Nick Frion, Ellsworth
12. (15) 13 Ryan Konkel, Winona, Minn.
13. (14) 54 John Feirn, Chippewa Falls
14. (18) 80 Bill Engler, Hixton
15. (16) 48M Mike Jonsgaard, Rochester, Minn.
16. (19) 20K Kyle Brown, Minnesota City, Minn.
17. (20) 35X Phillip Dunbar, Rushford, Minn.
18. (13) 5W Mike Krueger, Sparta
19. (4) 20 Mark Motl, Owatonna, Minn.
20. (11) 81 Cody Gardner, Elkton, Minn.
21. (21) 12K Casey Knutson, Spring Grove, Minn.