Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Cedar Lake’s Jeff Gordon Night
Wade Nygaard ‘waded’ through an entire evening of Nextel Cup style hype and hoopla surrounding the arrival of Jeff Gordon and 19 and a half laps of the Sprint Car feature to break Scott Winters heart on Wednesday night. Winters, who has blown engines in his last three starts, took the lead from polesitter Nygaard on the first lap and led the field throughout, including a yellow flag stop on lap 14 that bunched the frontrunners. On the final lap, Winters slipped briefly on the cushion exiting turn two, upset the car momentarily and allowed Nygaard and third-running Billy Balog to sneak past. The win was Wade’s first of the year in a 360… As for Winters, one of the engines he lost in the past week was a 410 at the IRA show at Cedar Lake. He made just 10 laps in his debut on the ‘senior’ circuit. He hopes to have another 410 in another week or two. Winters is certainly part of a resurgent Northern Plains Sprint community that also includes promising youngsters Lee Grosz, Dustin Lindquist and Mike Sitzman Jr. These four could represent the Upper Midwest well for the next five to ten years… Sitzman is the 16-year-old son of 1993 Wissota titlist Mike Sitzman and has really impressed in the past week. Sitzman is still hovering under the 20 start mark in Sprint Cars.
Jerry Richert Jr. was back in his 63 after badly mangling it one week ago in the first lap melee at Owatonna. The ride was badly bent but with some severe TLC and a welder, the piece lives on. Richert was impressive in his heat, charging from eighth to second… Former Sprint Car racer Rob Caho has resurfaced in the racing community and he’s running the International Barstool Racing Association. Caho had about a dozen of his custom creations at Cedar Lake to entertain at intermission. Caho tours the country, and even the world, hosting barstool races at hockey rinks, racetracks and other recreational facilities. At Cedar Lake, he put several race competitors on them and Curt Lund bested Dustin Lindquist in the feature. I don’t think Lindquist is even old enough to sit on a barstool of the non-motorized variety. For more information, log on to www.rocketbarstool.com or www.ibraracing.com. Congrats to Caho for having the ‘one good idea’ that we’re all seeking on the path to success… The win was the third of the week for Lund who also won last Wednesday at Owatonna and Sunday night in Redwood Falls.
There was a pair of South Dakotans in the pits on Wednesday. Dusty Ballenger is en route to Superior and Brainerd for this weekend’s ASCS Northern Plains regional events. Kevin Ingle is not. Two things brought Ingle from Huron, South Dakota, to New Richmond, Wisconsin, on a Wednesday night. 1) His wife and 2) Jeff Gordon. “My wife wanted to see Jeff Gordon and we’ve got to get home for a horse show tomorrow.” Thanks to Ingle for making the drive, which he also did for Cedar Lake’s opener in April. Ingle has been primarily running I-90 this season but will forego that for the NST at Winner, South Dakota, on Saturday night… Speaking of the National Sprint Tour, they’ll be at Cedar Lake on Monday night, July 10. This is one of the few dates on the NST sked that is a converted World of Outlaws event and it will be intriguing to see how the attendance is affected… The Koubas were out in full force on Wednesday as Jimmy Kouba again sat in his brother Joe’s backup 55K. Jimmy made his stateside season debut a week ago at Owatonna. I say stateside because Kouba raced during the current calendar year in New Zealand.
It’s always nice to see the Kamrath brothers out racing, although Greg has relegated himself to crew chief on brother Tommy’s six car. Greg passed along that the team is still recovering from a Jackson tangle early in the year but hopes to travel a bit by summer’s end… I chatted up Butch Donahue for a bit and found out that Roger Rager will be a frequent competitor for the rest of the season in the Upper Midwest. Rager, who missed the Master’s because of his son Randy’s wedding, has two 360 engines at his disposal and a 410 recently purchased from Guy Forbrook. He’ll pull that bullet out for the NST at Cedar Lake… Dale Wilson continues to spin wrenches and dole advice to Scott Broty, who was actually born Scott Brotemarkle… The Hargraves are not having fun this week. On Sunday, Al Hargrave lost the engine in his racer and was strolling the pits on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Tony Hargrave looked to his heat race won when he shucked the rear end, ending his evening… Al Hargrave was not the only one watching on Wednesday night as World of Outlaws star Brooke Tatnell was enjoying the evening. Tatnell won at Cedar Lake last year on the Fourth of July… Although fans in Minnesota are accustomed to the name, the rest of the county might be curious to know that Spike Lempelius is still alive and racing well. Lempelius’ name is a favorite of late night “Do You Remember…” campfire chats. He usually figures in with TJ Giddings and Hawkeye Strobel... Brent Laursen, who had a brief stint in the Brian Coleman 4 IRA car before his injury at Dubuque’s IRA run, was running a DTRA Late Model on Wednesday… Remember, next Sunday night, July 9, the ASCS Northern Plains region Sprint Cars return to Steele County Speedway in Owatonna for a Sunday nighter. Visit www.steelecountyspeedway.com for the skinny.
Cedar Lake did a masterful job with their Jeff Gordon night promotion and really tried hard to capitalize and educate first time fans to Cedar Lake and dirt racing in general. They ran three divisions, no B-mains, and had the show over well before 11. Also, they had brochures explaining the evening, handed out schedules and the announcers, Joe Kaufman and Chris Stepan, did a great job of keeping newbies entertained and veterans informed… Aside from all the Gordon festivities, Cedar Lake also provided the barstool races, visits from KQRS radio personalities, a stunt jump over a handful of junk cars and a fireworks display just before the start of the Sprint feature. Maybe less racing really is more?... It was interesting to have a brush with international celebrity at a dirt track. Jeff Gordon is truly a household name in the United States and I think Earnhardt and Gordon have taken over for Foyt and Andretti as the two iconic names in American motorsports. You know someone is truly famous when an adult male will unabashedly stand in line just to catch a glimpse of another adult male. Yes, I did it. With mild abashment.
Sorry for the month long hiatus between Rambles. When the Twins start winning and the heat starts rising, it gets harder and harder to put pen to paper with any sort of consistency. Don’t sleep on the Twins, by the way. We’re comin’, we’re comin’. Off to see Wisconsin for two days of leisure before Knoxville on Saturday and Huset’s on Monday. If you’ve got news that you want in this forum, send it to me at Justin@mompub.com. If you’ve got complaints, send them to sloppywriting@mompub.com.
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