FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. -- Everyone in the racing community knows the importance of support. Drivers have, want or need sponsors – but tracks have the exact same haves, wants and/or needs. Thankfully enough, Mississippi Thunder Speedway has just such supporters; one of which is Baehman Law – the title sponsor of Friday’s 5th Annual Baehman Law USRA B-Mod Challenge – a $1,000-to-win special event topped only by the Baehman Law USRA B-Mod Nationals – the much-talked-about $10,000-to-win special scheduled for September.

“Special thanks to Jack and Stacy Baehman for a successful fifth annual Baehman Law B-Mod Challenge race,” said Mississippi Thunder Speedway owner Bob Timm after Friday’s program. “Nobody has done more for B-Mod drivers racing at Mississippi Thunder Speedway over the last five years than Jack Baehman. It would not be possible to do these special events without the support of sponsors; and ones willing to donate as much as Jack are few and far between.”

Thirty USRA B-Mod racers showed up for their crack at the $1000-to-win, $100-to-start payout for the 25-lap main event. After four heat races and a last chance qualifier B-Main, the starting field of 26 was ready to attack the track – and each other – for the race to the checkered flag.

On the pole, Winonan Shaun Walski, a successful USRA B-Mod racer looking for a big feature win, scattered throughout the field, the rest of the competitors looking for a trip to Victory Lane – first heat-race winner Jon Van Minsel lined his #1 up on the outside of row three, second heat-race winner Alex Williamson’s #15W on the inside of row two, third and fourth heat-race winner’s Cory Crapser and Troy Hovey shared the two spots in row five, the #23K of defending Track Champion Erik Kanz was inside row three, and 2010 and 2011 Track Champion Ben Anderson’s #39 was way back on the outside of the ninth row (thanks to needing a run through the evening’s B-Main to get to the Baehman Law B-Mod Challenge 25.

From the drop of the green flag, it became obvious that this was Walski’s race to win or lose; after a very brief battle with the #62 of Aaron Haggerty, Walski began a march away from the competition which, lap after lap surely appeared insurmountable. As Walski continued stepping away from the pack, Winona, MN’s Tyler Creeley enjoyed one of his better runs of the season, holding onto the second place spot until the half-way point of the feature, when Williamson took over second for seven laps; Creeley eventually slipped back to a still satisfying 8th place finish.

On lap 19, after craftily working his way through the field, Crapser finally slid his #07 into second and prepared setting up a battle for the lead which everyone fan in the grandstands was craving. Unfortunately, the battle for the top spot fizzled just two laps later when Walski’s #95x slowed exiting turn two! Just like that, Crapser was out front and in control. Hovey, who took home $3000 just a few weeks ago by winning the River City Rumble at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, put forth a valiant effort in hopes of throwing a late-race challenge at Crapser for the lead and eventual win, but Crapser was up to his regular standards of running fast, clean and smooth.

As the checkered flag waived, Crapser’s one second lead was a perfect cushion to ride for the win. “I thought Shaun and I were setting up to have a great battle for the lead there,” said Crapser in Victory Lane, “Unfortunately that never really happened and he slowed just as I caught him.” Hovey settled for a strong second, when asked if he had anything for Crapser, the Decorah, IA racer was cautiously optimistic, “I don’t know, (the) last two laps (the) middle started getting faster... maybe with five more laps, but we will never know. Congrats to Cory tonight though, he came from a ways back also.”

Jacob Bleess also raced through the pack, starting eleventh, the Chatfield, Minn., driver completed the top-three finishing positions! Another driver who successfully worked through the pack was Savage, MN’s Dan Wheeler; after winning the B-Main, Wheeler improved 12 positions after starting the A-Main in 17th, to finish fifth just behind Williamson.

Lucas Schott made a pass for the lead that silenced everybody during the Rivercity Manufacturing USRA Modified feature Friday night.

A restart on lap 13 of the 25 lap feature had the #99 of previous week feature winner, and 2010 Track Champion, Josh Angst out front, with Eric Pember’s White City Glass #89 and Schott’s #69 side by side in the first two-by-two row. As the racers put the hammer down exiting turn four, to the waiving of the green flag, Schott jumped to the high-line and passed Angst for the lead, and eventual win, that made everybody sit up and take notice. By the time Schott was sliding into turn three, he’d already built up almost a five car-length advantage over Angst and Pember!

Early in the feature, it looked to many that it was going to be a battle for the win between Pember and Angst; well, those two were still battling each other . . . but it was for nothing more than scraps and second place as Schott continued to pull away with what appeared to be nothing more than ease.

The understatement of the year came from Schott in the Mississippi Thunder Speedway Victory Lane, “Well, I found a line that worked really well for me, so I used it.”

Angst actually turned in the fast lap of the feature, way back on lap 2 . . . an 84.228 mile per hour average speed 16.028 second lap which ended up being the fastest lap of all features throughout the evening. Angst and Pember did, indeed, finish second and third respectively.

Mississippi Thunder Speedway will be dark Friday July 26th – no racing as MTS’s “bye week” allows racers and race fans alike to attend the ‘World Modified Dirt Track Championship’; however, action will return to the fast Mississippi Thunder Speedway 1/3-Mile Friday August 2nd with a special promotion ensured to pack the grandstands with fans. On Friday August 2nd, ALL FANS will get into the grandstands for just $5 (youngsters 12 and under – still ABSOLUTELY FREE)! Bring the family and friends and enjoy on-track action from the River City Manufacturing USRA Modifieds, Coordinated Business Systems WISSOTA Super Stocks, Black Horse Bar & Grill USRA B-Mods, Jailhouse Saloon WISSOTA Street Stocks, Redbox+ 600 Modifieds, & Elmer’s Auto Salvage MTS Pure Stocks battling on ‘The Big 1/3-Mile’ while the Sunshine Sanitation A and B Mini-Mods will again attack ‘The Lightning Speedway’ for their evening’s action!

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, July 19, 2013

USRA MODIFIEDS

Heat #1:
1. (1) 24 Brad Waits, Rochester, Minn.
2. (4) 49 Bob Timm, Winona, Minn.
3. (8) 99 Josh Angst,, Minn.
4. (2) 00 Robby Bunkelman, Habbotsford, Wi
5. (6) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
6. (3) 94jr John Doelle, Arcadia
7. (7) 11 Lance Hofer, Cochrane
8. (5) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls
9. (9) 86 Phil Wernert, Galesville

Heat #2:
1. (2) 05 Jake Hartung, Elmwood
2. (4) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn.
3. (5) 89 Eric Pember, Pittsville
4. (3) 45x Bob Fort, Fountain City
5. (7) 77 Tom Brink, Winona, Minn.
6. (1) 44 Leroy Scharkey, Rochester, Minn.
7. (6) 59 Hank Rollinger Jr., Buffalo City
8. (8) 15 Chris Loberg, Menomonie

Feature:
1. (6) 69 Lucas Schott, Chatfield, Minn.
2. (2) 99 Josh Angst,, Minn.
3. (5) 89 Eric Pember, Pittsville
4. (7) 49 Bob Timm, Winona, Minn.
5. (4) 05 Jake Hartung, Elmwood
6. (1) 77 Tom Brink, Winona, Minn.
7. (10) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
8. (13) 11 Lance Hofer, Cochrane
9. (11) 94jr John Doelle, Arcadia
10. (12) 44 Leroy Scharkey, Rochester, Minn.
11. (9) 00 Robby Bunkelman, Habbotsford
12. (15) 99L Steve Lavasseur, River Falls
13. (16) 15 Chris Loberg, Menomonie
14. (17) 86 Phil Wernert, Galesville
15. (14) 59 Hank Rollinger Jr., Buffalo City
16. (8) 24 Brad Waits, Rochester, Minn.
17. (3) 45x Bob Fort, Fountain City

USRA B-MODS

Heat #1:
1. (4) 1 Jon Van Minsel, Spring Grove, Minn.
2. (2) 23k Erik Kanz, Winona, Minn.
3. (1) 56h Brandon Hare, Elma, Iowa
4. (6) 44 Brandon Reutzel, Winona, Minn.
5. (5) 39 Ben Anderson, Winona, Minn.
6. (7) RED1 Dan Wheeler, Savage, Minn.
7. (3) 13 Ryan Konkel, Winona, Minn.
8. (8) 4x Brandon Lofgren, Taylor

Heat #2:
1. (1) 15w Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn.
2. (2) 5w Mike Krueger, Sparta
3. (6) 95x Shaun Walski, Winona, Minn.
4. (4) 4g Chris Gilbertson, Trempealeau
5. (5) 12k Casey Knutson, Spring Grove, Minn.
6. (7) 35x Phillip Dunbar, Rushford, Minn.
7. (3) 14x Dan Hesch, Acadia

Heat #3:
1. (4) 476x Troy Hovey, Decorah, Iowa
2. (2) 90 Tyler Creeley, Winona, Minn.
3. (5) 62 Aaron Haggerty, Albert Lea, Minn.
4. (7) 17b Matt Buddenberg, Decorah, Iowa
5. (6) 11 Jack Baehman, Hudson
6. (3) 97 Leigh Volkman, Rushford, Minn.
7. (1) 20k Kyle Brown, Minnesota City, Minn.

Heat #4:
1. (2) 07 Cory Crapser, Chippewa Falls
2. (1) 9 Brady Keefe, Stewartville, Minn.
3. (5) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.
4. (4) 81 Cody Gardner, Elkton, Minn.
5. (6) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
6. (7) 34f Nick Frion, Ellsworth
7. (3) 85 Ben Moudry, Cottage Grove, Minn.

"B" Feature:
1. (5) RED1 Dan Wheeler, Savage, Minn.
2. (3) 39 Ben Anderson, Winona, Minn.
3. (2) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
4. (4) 12k Casey Knutson, Spring Grove, Minn.
5. (10) 14x Dan Hesch, Acadia
6. (1) 11 Jack Baehman, Hudson
7. (6) 35x Phillip Dunbar, Rushford, Minn.
8. (13) 20k Kyle Brown, Minnesota City, Minn.
9. (8) 97 Leigh Volkman, Rushford, Minn.
10. (12) 4x Brandon Lofgren, Taylor
11. (9) 13 Ryan Konkel, Winona, Minn.
12. (7) 34f Nick Frion, Ellsworth
13. (11) 85 Ben Moudry, Cottage Grove, Minn.

"A" Feature:
1. (9) 07 Cory Crapser, Chippewa Falls
2. (10) 476x Troy Hovey, Decorah, Iowa
3. (11) 21 Jacob Bleess, Chatfield, Minn.
4. (3) 15w Alex Williamson, Rushford, Minn.
5. (17) RED1 Dan Wheeler, Savage, Minn.
6. (5) 23k Erik Kanz, Winona, Minn.
7. (6) 1 Jon Van Minsel, Spring Grove, Minn.
8. (4) 90 Tyler Creeley, Winona, Minn.
9. (7) 9 Brady Keefe, Stewartville, Minn.
10. (13) 56h Brandon Hare, Elma, Iowa
11. (19) 10 Jake Timm, Winona, Minn.
12. (16) 81 Cody Gardner, Elkton, Minn.
13. (20) 12k Casey Knutson, Spring Grove, Minn.
14. (2) 62 Aaron Haggerty, Albert Lea, Minn.
15. (18) 39 Ben Anderson, Winona, Minn.
16. (8) 5w Mike Krueger, Sparta
17. (12) 17b Matt Buddenberg, Decorah, Iowa
18. (21) 14x Dan Hesch, Acadia
19. (24) 97 Leigh Volkman, Rushford, Minn.
20. (26) 34f Nick Frion, Ellsworth
21. (25) 13 Ryan Konkel, Winona, Minn.
22. (22) 11 Jack Baehman, Hudson
23. (23) 35x Phillip Dunbar, Rushford, Minn.
24. (1) 95x Shaun Walski, Winona, Minn.
25. (14) 44 Brandon Reutzel, Winona, Minn.
26. (15) 4g Chris Gilbertson, Trempealeau