by Ed Reichert
Mark Hanson in the Modifieds and Brent Voeltz in the Hornets became first time winners at the Red Cedar Speedway on the final night of the regular season at the Dunn County oval. Other winners on a cool and breezy Friday night included Ashley Anderson, Shane Kisling and Matt Leer.
by Ed Reichert
The rains that caused a lot of tracks to cancel Friday night missed the Menomonie area, and it was a pleasant night to crown Season Champions in all five divisions that routinely race at the speedway. The proud winners who can call themselves Red Cedar Speedway 2011 Season Champions include Chad Mahder, Mark Gerth, Tom Karis, Matt Leer and Gunnar Watkins. Mahder, Gerth and Leer were also point champions at the track while the other two victors were upset winners.
by Ed Reichert
Mark Hessler won his first feature race in two years in topping the WISSOTA Modified feature event to highlight the racing program Friday night at the Red Cedar Speedway. Other feature winners on the last regular Friday night of racing in the 2011 racing season were Steve Thomas, Shane Halopka, Bill Skoug and Eric Schultz.
by Ed Reichert
For the first time in a number of years, the Red Cedar Speedway raced during the annual Dunn County Fair and a huge crowd was on hand to enjoy the racing action. There were several close finishes Friday but the highlight event was the Late Model feature where Jimmy Mars and Mike Prochnow battled it out to the wire with Mars taking the win. Other winners Friday included Kevin Adams, Jason Forehand, Shane Halopka and Jason Havel.
Doug Zimmer Photoby Ed Reichert
Scott Gilberts won a nearly race long battle with Ashley Anderson and claimed his first Late Model feature win of the 2011 season Friday night at the Red Cedar Speedway. Gilberts was joined in victory lane for the first time also by Pure Stock driver Gunnar Watkins while Kevin Adams, Steve Thomas, Cory Crapser and Eric Schultz all returned to the winner’s circle.
Gilberts and Caley Emerson battled in the early laps for the lead with Gilberts finally using the outside line to take the top spot where he was quickly joined by Chad Mahder and Anderson in a continued battle for the lead. Mahder took a shot at the leader but couldn’t complete the pass and that gave Anderson his opening to drive to the low side and move into second. He pulled up beside Gilberts on several occasions but just couldn’t complete to move into first.
Yellows for minor spins on lap eight and eleven broke up the battle briefly but once under green again, Anderson would pull up beside Gilberts in turn two on every lap but Scott was superior on the cushion in turn four and would again edge back in front. This continued throughout the race but late in the contest Mahder would rally to close and make it a three car duel. Anderson gave it his best shot on the final lap, but Gilberts held him off. Mahder also blasted the cushion on the final corner and was able to edge Anderson by inches for second with Cory Mahder and Mike Prochnow also in the top five.
Watkins has had a whole season’s worth of mechanical issues already this year, and the second year Pure Stock driver was looking to turn around his bad luck with a front row starting position Friday. He fought off Jeremy Dahl to take the early lead and then had Dahl struck to his rear bumper the rest of the way. Dahl continued to pressure Watkins through two yellow flags but Gunnar continued to hold the lead. Storming up through the field was rookie driver Tony Dubois and he got under Dahl to take over the second spot. Watkins was fighting a badly overheating car in the final laps but he managed to stay in the groove and fight off the challenges of Dubois to take his initial win of the year at Red Cedar. Dahl settled for third in the running order while Krysta Swearingen charged up from the sixth row to take fourth ahead of Kory Hathaway.
by Ed Reichert
It was a great night for Mike Anderson at the Red Cedar Speedway Friday. Not only did he win the Modified Race Of Champions qualifier for the WISSOTA 100 at Huron South Dakota in September, he also dominated the Modified special that was completed after being rained out three laps into the event last Friday night. Other feature winners in the WISSOTA classes Friday night also qualified for the AMSOIL Race of Champions at Huron and they included Jimmy Mars, Shane Halopka and Ben Hillman while other feature winners included Jason Havel in the Pure Stocks and Eric Schultz in the Hornets.
Anderson totally dominated both Modified feature events; in fact he led every lap of feature racing that the Modifieds had on Friday. In the RoC qualifier, he started on the outside of row one and powered away from Steve Hallquist in the beginning, quickly opening up a large lead as he ran the cushion on the extremely slick race track. As Anderson pulled away from the pack, the battle was for second with Hallquist trying to hold off Mark Hanson, Mark Gerth, Jesse Glenz and Brandon Jensen as there was a swarm of about ten cars in a tight pack jockeying for position.
Anderson was long gone up front, with Gerth eventually moving into the second spot. With the racing running nonstop however, Anderson had nearly a straightaway on the second place runner at the end. Jensen held off a late charge by Kevin Adams for third with Glenz completing the top five.
