Upper Midwest Ramblings from Nebraska Raceway Park
Monday, April 16, 2007
by Justin Zoch - Brian Brown is pretty good at I-80 Speedway, to say the least, and dominated the Saturday feature from the pole, which he earned through passing points and a dash win. Brown is running a white car this year for the Doogs team and has sponsor connections that may be lured by the change from black to white. As for Doogs, they’ve only run a non-black car two times. A red car made an appearance for two races before it was wrecked and never revived. Things looked brighter for the white car, at least until Sunday evening. Brown again earned a front row starting spot and was building a sizeable lead over Chuck Swenson when driveline issues sidelined him… Chuck Swenson took up the lead after Brown’s exit and sailed to the $2,000 victory and puts himself to the head of the pack in what could be an NCRA title chase for the South Dakotan. Last year, Swenson scored two NCRA wins (Wakeeney and Doniphan).
The tale of the Saturday feature was the opening lap carnage that sent Jake Peters and Chad Humston to the white-sheet joint [as Tom Savage would write it] for checkups in separate incidents. Peters had a bulging shiner on his right eye after a wild series of flips down the frontstretch and Humston was extricated carefully after a hit to the cage, while he was flipping, folded the right half down. Neither are expected to have serious injuries and were reportedly released on Saturday night… Seth Brahmer, who took a ride reminiscent of Peters’ tumble in 2005 in Knoxville’s 410 division, will return to that class for 2007. Brahmer missed the A-main narrowly on Saturday and then headed back to the shop in Wisner to prepare the car for practice next Friday at Knoxville… There could be a steady stream of haulers flowing from the west down to the east from Nebraska to Knoxville this year as Jack Dover will make his 410 debut there next Saturday night in his quest for Rookie of the Year. Mark Pace, Ryan Roberts and Rick Ideus, who technically lives just a few miles east of the Missouri River, are reported to be making the trip weekly. Things didn’t start well for Team Dover. Jake missed the transfer spot to the A-main after being passed on the final lap and his sister Trish flipped down the frontstretch on the first lap of the first heat for the companion 305 division and banged her knee and tweaked the frame, but not beyond repair. She was limping slightly on Sunday afternoon but still plans to run the Knoxville 305 show on April 27… Minnesota’s Jake Leighty won the 305 feature and plans to hit the road a bit this summer and run with the Iowa-based groups. Leighty will also run the 305 shows at Jackson but is no longer legal for the Two Barrel shows… Jason “Mighty Mouse” Johnson was on hand and lending an occasional hand to his hometown friend Leighty but mostly he was there to smell the methanol. Johnson is undecided on what he’ll do for 2007 but it will probably be mainly special events for the 27.
Gregg Bakker was caught up in the Humston melee and junked the frame on his 11X, forcing him to miss Sunday night. Bakker plans more runs to Knoxville this summer and will be a frequent attendee at Jackson but not necessarily a title chaser… Dusty Ballenger has returned to the Barstad stable and will make his first trip to Knoxville next weekend. Ballenger plans to run a lot this year and the team has a steel-head 360, an ASCS 360 and a recently-acquired 410 for Sunday runs at Huset’s. The motor is an ex-Ray Lipsey (so it is not exactly out of the box new) but should have just enough extra kick for laps at Huset’s… Scott Winters was very fast on Saturday and battled Wayne Johnson hard for the second spot before losing an engine. Winters is planning a full-time run at Knoxville’s 410 Rookie of the Year crown this summer. His father, Kent and Jason Lepp have sold Fast Wings to St. Peter, Minnesota, 360 racer Bill Johnson but Kent is still involved in the company and helping to keep things rolling. Scott, meanwhile, is a full-time employee of the Mountain Lake, Minnesota, business… Chris Graf is running under the tutelage of veteran crew chief Dale Wilson this year and will run several ASCS Northern Plains shows while still focusing on the IMCA Sprints and the Jackpot Junction Tour events. Graf flipped gingerly in his heat race on Sunday night.
Brian Dobesh was also missing from the Sunday night card but his absence had nothing to do with the demolition on Saturday; he had to attend an 85th birthday party for a family member… It is quite interesting that after driving from Minneapolis to Omaha, slicing through a large swath of both Minnesota and Iowa, you arrive at the Nebraska border and realize if you were head across the state, you’d only be halfway in your journey…. Larry Pinegar made his debut in the Larry Weeks Double Nuthin’ on Saturday night but driveline issues sidelined him in the heat race. Pinegar is excited about the team’s prospects this year and seems thrilled to be racing at Knoxville full-time after a few years of traipsing down I-80 for Nebraska events. His 2006 car owner, Chad Fegley, has committed to the Eagle safety crew this season but may still make one or two starts in his number 13… Doug Wolfgang was inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night and instantly became the most recognizable name on the list. No doubt he’ll be sharing space some day with Iowa Hawkeye and soon-to-be Minnesota Viking legend Chad Greenway from Mt. Vernon, South Dakota… Speaking of Hawkeye pride, Jody Rosenboom placed a large Hawks logo on his top wing. Rosenboom brought his own car to I-80 and will do so again next week when he makes his first run to Knoxville. Rosenboom plans a Knoxville Nationals run this year in the Layton K9 and wants to get some laps there before August. Rosenboom broke a rear end on Saturday night in one of the early melees and placed a call to his father Randy at Rosy’s Raceland to bring down a replacement for Sunday’s show.
Don Droud Jr. was a surprise entrant in the Ochs 1X and it was even more surprising when the car had not arrived before hot laps due to scheduling conflicts. Droud plans to run several events on the NCRA trail this summer for the team and got the relationship off to a crackin’ good start with a fourth-place run on Saturday and a second on Sunday afternoon. His brother Rodney was also pitside on Saturday. He’ll return to the track shortly in his father’s race car but it was not ready for this weekend… Clint Garner had a solid top-three on Saturday night and had to be pleased with the Parker power. He’s still waiting on completion of work on his 410 and hopes to have it ready for next Saturday at Knoxville… Gordy Vogelaar will be running a team-car to Shawn Van Whye this summer and has pulled his famous 99V number out of mothballs. The team will run Jackson and ASCS Northern Plains shows primarily this summer. Last year, the pair hooked up to run seven events… Chad Meyer was strolling the pit area and reports that he is still chasing several opportunities but has nothing firm for 2007 and is currently shopping for rides. It’d be a shame to see that level of talent sidelined this year… Wayne Johnson is off to a solid start in the H&H Enterprises 94 and ran second to Brian Brown on Saturday night and third behind Swenson and Droud on Sunday. Johnson will run USCS in Malden next Friday, close to his car owners base, and then head over to the ASCoT show in Columbus, Mississippi. Johnson has both cars, H&H 360 and FattFro 410, based out of Knoxville for the summer… Mark the date for the IRA’s Sunday twilight show at 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa on May 6. It’s been awhile since the 410 Sprints have rumbled around that joint. Most likely since Bert Emick brought the All Stars there in the late 1990s… The American Dirt Network, with Rod Pattison and Bill Wright, will return to broadcast Knoxville’s action again in 2007. They’ll also do the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock next October. Bookmark it and check them out next Saturday night at www.americandirtnetwork.com.
That’s it for this week and it’s time to get the Hall of Fame issue of FlatOut put together and shipped to the printer by Friday so I can head south on I-35 to Knoxville for the rescheduled practice night and the subsequent opener on Sunday. There’s a new website for the magazine at www.threewidemedia.com and the FlatOut Plus section will be fully underway in the coming weeks. I’ve also got a new e-mail address at jzoch@threewidemedia.com but the old address will still be redirected. Please let me know your early season thoughts, travel plans and other tidbits that should appear in this column.
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