Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings, Part Two
Monday, July 18, 2005
Gregg Bakker left little doubt on Friday night at Jackson as he charged from ninth to second in his heat, scoring the pole for the A-main, and then streaked to his fourth Jackson win of the year. Scott Winters was the show, however, charging from 18th to fourth and he made good on his potential and won the finale on Saturday night. It is Winters first Nationals title and the first for the family as his father Kent never managed a Nationals win, despite being a track champion…Dave Becker had a short night on Saturday as he collided with Shawn Van Wyhe in turn three of the first heat and flipped into the fence. He was uninjured. Becker had a fourth place finish at Jackson, where he races every Saturday in 2005, on July 2….Bruce Anderson swept both nights of racing in the Double Barrels and won his first Jackson Nationals. Last year, he won the prelim before bowing to Troy Schmidtke in the finale on Saturday…William, who goes by Willy, Eggiman was sporting New Fashion Pork as a new sponsor on his 77w Sprinter. Eggiman is also helping his longtime crewman Doug Bratrud get started in the Double Barrel Sprint Cars. Bratrud had never raced before jumping into the division…Similarly, Ben Crees was a racing neophyte prior to purchasing his Sprinter. He’s already got his first win, at Jackson in June, and his first hard flip, at Slayton in July, out of the way.
Jason Eckard skipped the Double Barrel division and went straight to 360s this season. The Milford, Iowa, driver has been running weekly at Jackson with an engine he purchased from a California team over E-Bay. Pretty cool way to use the internet…There were several theories on the low car count, including the entry fee, the tire rule, high gas prices, the wreckage at Twin Features and the rescheduled race in US36 and it seems that all of these contributed but mid-summer fatigue and mounting bills might have been the primary factors…Jeff Mitrisin and his Wares/Harrison team decided to forego Knoxville on Saturday and stay for the Jackson finale and were rewarded with a runner up finish to compliment his third place run on Friday. Friday was the first time he had ever raced Jackson…Dusty Zomer and Clint Garner also shirked Knoxville duty to run Jackson on Saturday. Zomer scored third and only lost one spot in the Knoxville standings.
Brett Geldner had a rough Nationals as Friday was consumed with recovering from a heat race accident. He ran 12th on Saturday in the finale. Geldner plans to bring his J&J Chassis to Knoxville for the 360 Nationals, where he ran 12th in the B-main in 2004…Matt Folstad, who junked a car on Nationals Friday last year and rebuilt a new one to win the Saturday 360 finale, swung through Jackson for a podium finish en route to an IRA stop at Powercom Park. He ran sixth there, which matches his spot in the standings. He leads the Rookie of the Year chase over former Alaskan Billy Balog and MSA grad KJ Skelton, who won Friday at Wilmot in 360 action. Scott Neitzel leads IRA points heading into the Summer Classic at Knoxville…Jeff Metli ran his 305, with an IMCA little wing, with the DBSCS at Jackson. His only previous starts in 2005 were non-wing at Stuart. Metli is a former mini-sprint winner at Jackson.
Devlin Polkinghorn is still missing in action and if you have any updates on his whereabouts, e-mail me at Justin@mompub.com. Dave Westercamp is reportedly still living in Johnston, Iowa, but no word on whether he is still involved in racing. For this week, let’s find out what happened to Bob White from Des Moines, Iowa.
Tidbits
SprintCarXR.com has reached an agreement with the Knoxville Raceway to promote the Best Appearing Car contest during the Nationals. The website will allow fans to vote during the week and is providing substantial cash prizes for the winner…Colin Northway got his first win of the season at US36 in the rescheduled Bud Shootout on Friday night over Ricky Logan, who had a mid-race slug out with local driver Chris Crouch after contact between the two saw Crouch test the welds…Mark Widmar, who has raced Knoxville in his modified at the Harris Clash, drove to his first Sprint Car win in 305 action last week at Bloomfield…Jerrod Hull joined the 10 win club with his victory in Sprint Invader action that same night. Fred Rahmer still leads with 18 while Steve Kinser has tallied up 15, including his sixth Kings Royal at Eldora. Tim Allison did his best Kinser impression and swept both NRA races at Eldora…Dave Hill has contributed to various websites and FlatOut Magazine for several years but he’s got a new home for his photos at www.davehillsracingimages.com...Mark Dobmeier completed a weekend double with wins at River Cities and Huset’s. He missed the hat trick when Canadian Lou Kennedy Jr. scored at Victory Lane in Winnipeg in a Thursday night special. Those were his eighth and ninth wins of 2005…Jay Jordan kept parity popular at Eagle by being the seventh straight different winner. In 15 races for the 360s, there are 13 different winners and only Larry Pinegar has multiple wins. The Des Moines racer has three but trails Rodney Droud, who charged from the tail after winning the B-main to third on Saturday, in the chase for the title.
Well, I’ve been home in Minnesota for six hours and it is time to head back out on the road. This week will find UMR heading to the Sprint Invaders in Memphis, Missouri on Tuesday, Farmer City for MARA Midgets on Wednesday and then back to Knoxville for the Harris Clash Thursday and the Summer Classic Friday and Saturday. Sunday, it’s a break from racing to catch the Warped Tour in the afternoon and Mike Gunther at night in downtown Minneapolis. In the meantime, I’ll be checking e-mail whenever I can at Justin@mompub.com.
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