Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
After scrambling to his second victory of the season at Knoxville, Wayne Johnson has now won three of the five major 410 shows in the state of Iowa this season while Kerry Madsen has won the other two. All winter, Johnson and Madsen were debated as the favorites for the Knoxville title and they’ve not disappointed…The 360s at Knoxville have been far less predictable and Johnny Anderson’s win was the second first-time trip this season. Anderson had a second place finish earlier this season and wasn’t a shocking victor. The family team has been seeking this one and Johnny Lightning was quick to credit Glenn Freeland, the crew chief who left for Jesse Giannetto’s stable earlier in the week, with helping the team get to victory lane…Brad Sparks has switched from wrenching to Giannetto’s car to helping Wissota champ Dustin Lindquist, who was outstanding with his third place run at Knoxville in just his second visit. Lindquist is running weekly at Huset’s and will hit Knoxville when the schedule allows. Next weekend will find him returning to Wissota action at Brainerd before he heads south to run the entirety of ASCS Speedweek.
Dusty Zomer proved he’s for real and a quick learner by scoring the 410 feature at Huset’s in just his third night in a 410. Zomer’s team could use the pick-me-up after grenading one of their two 410s at Huset’s last Sunday and flipping in the 360s at Knoxville on Saturday night…Lyle Howey III showed a veteran’s poise and putt-putted around the bottom at Huset’s to score the 360 feature at Huset’s. He’ll next head to McCool Junction in Dan Goosman’s car for the ASCS Midwest region event…Mitch Runge grabbed the win at Rock Rapids on Friday night but the team has been chasing a stumbling racer for three weeks. At Huset’s, they finally discovered a faulty fuel pump but not before missing the A-main. Runge took his 2005 provisional, given to the top point finishers from last season, and started scratch. Matt Garner was helping the team while also wrenching brother Clint’s 40 car…Donavon Peterson scored another heat win in Tom Wilson’s 10 and finished seventh in the A-main. Peterson ran one heat at Grand Forks in the Layton K9 before rain settled in again. Next weekend, Peterson will chase NOSA to Minot with the K9 before hitting Huset’s with Wilson on Monday…Mark Dobmeier bested Peterson in that heat race at River Cities and drove straight to Knoxville following the cancellation. He checkered eighth but related that he wouldn’t be back to Knoxville until Nationals time as NOSA obligations will keep him busy until then.
Ricky Logan really earned the $300 Hard Charger award at Knoxville as he came from the back to tenth without power steering. Logan also earned a bonus for quick time at Knoxville. Unfortunately, the extra cash will go to fixing the front end lost into Huset’s frontstretch concrete on lap one of the feature. Lynton Jeffrey also lost a front axle in the incident…Shawn Van Whye has two complete cars ready for his Rock Rapids, Jackson and Huset’s weekend tours but the aluminum headed car has only been used once at Jackson. Van Whye and the rest of the Jackson gang will have to choose between running Huset’s for points or Jackson’s special non-points show next Sunday. Jackson has been rained out every week since their opener in late April…Doesn’t Kenny Hansen look more like a Sprint Car driver from the state South Dakota than anyone ever could?...Dave Hesmer’s horrible season continued when driveline and brake problems sent his pitside while he was running second in the 360s. If Hesmer gets one this season, the traditional chorus of boos had better be dampened.
Josh Higday’s long, horrible week got even longer when he broke his front end on the first lap and couldn’t restart the 360 main. Higday’s house was robbed and race trailer was stolen. Only the race and rig were recovered in a bizarre situation. Many people have jumped to the aid of the Des Moines resident and helped to get him back to the racetrack without missing a week…Chad Meyer has a new corporate sponsor in Kee Technologies, www.keeusa.com, an Australian-based agricultural technologies firm with an office in Sioux Falls…Justin Henderson grabbed twin top-fives this weekend, fifth at Knoxville for Dan Oswalt and third at Huset’s for Bill Smith. His latter ride is a seven year old Schnee Chassis that Henderson gets every inch out of on Sunday nights. He could be a good candidate to join the list of first time Knoxville winners this season. He was up to third on Saturday before the tires went away…Jake Peters garnered more B-main points at Knoxville and came from 17th to fifth. Last week, he went from 18th to fifth. He bookended that performance with his first 2005 feature win against the Sprint Invaders at Lee County and a fourth-place run at Huset’s in the 410s. It was Peters’ first trip to Lee County and first Invaders win.
Huset’s is running under a new format but racers still must acquire a two-race point average to start in the first few rows. The first heat winner draws a pill that determines the lineup. If it is a one, two or three, the finishers in those positions in the heats start first. If it is one of the two zeros put in the bag, the top finishers are inverted by point average. If a driver finishes in the first four spots without a point average, he lines up behind those that do. On Sunday, Henderson drew a zero, putting low point average holders Dusty Zomer and Johnn Cressman on the front row. Cressman later wrinkled his car in a turn two flip into the concrete while having a great run…Nice to see Robert Bell make the A-main at Knoxville on Saturday evening and he was still smiling well into the show at Huset’s, where he missed the finale…Eric Vanderploeg will make the US36/Knoxville/Huset’s trifecta his weekly tour in Lenard McCarl’s 7X. This week, he ran fourth while a rejuvenated Jim Cameron took the victory. Vanderploeg has taken a semester off from college to start his own business, VPR Kart Parts…It will be a sad day when Gary DeWall no longer brings the 16 into the pit area at Huset’s…A few seasons ago, it was all the rage to run both Sprint divisions at Huset’s. Now, only Micah Schliemann runs double duty on the day of rest.
Randy Droescher is registered for the Masters Classic on June 3 at Knoxville but there has been some concern about car count for this season’s event. If you know anyone that is over 50 and drives a Sprint Car, urge them to contact the Hall of Fame and compete. The race pays very well and the Midgets will run a full show in companion…Be sure to get to Knoxville early next week and take in the Wal-Mart Beef Burger Banquet. All proceeds benefit the Children’s Miracle Network and Ricky Logan and Johnny Anderson are signing autographs from 4-5:30….Jon Agan had been getting really quick but lost two cars in two nights. At Lee County, he vaulted Justin Parrish’s right rear and did some early season detasslin’ in Lee County’s turn two cornfield. Then, on the first lap of his Knoxville heat, Agan was a victim of circumstance and dumped hard in turn two. Each frame was reportedly a complete loss…Larry Neighbors returned to Knoxville to join the 360 division in his own 29. He hopes to make it a weekly trip. He ran 20th at 81 Speedway’s rescheduled show on Sunday while Danny Wood scored his first for Court Grandstaff.
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