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I-90 Speedway 410 Special (17 Cars)

Welcome Mat
Not much for a welcome mat other than Matt Wasmund making his debut for the year, and Jack Dover coming back for a weekend in SD.

MIA
Clint Garner, Gordy Vogelaar, Joe Riedel, Ryan Bickett

VIP
Set up off of turn 4 with LDA 24 and Ms. J. Too bad LDA24's wife couldn't make it out as she was afraid of the cold and rain possibility.

Time Trials (1 lap each)
Jake Peters (8^th out) set quick time around the 3/8 mile oval at 11.001. Johnn Cressman was 2^nd quick and only the top 8 would make the heat race inversion that would go off of passing points to set up the feature event. Then the top 8 in passing points would DRAW to see where they would start in the feature. Thee absolute worst lineup procedures throughout the night I have ever seen, but leave it to Hartford to make this shit up. The top 8 hitting the heat invert: Peters, Cressman, John Lambertz, Scott Winters, Gregg Bakker, Wasmund, Chad Meyer, Dusty Ballenger. Dover didn't get a time in due to engine woes.

Time Trials Grade: C+; What's the point of time trials when passing points are used in the heats? Might as well go with a draw at the gate to set up the night's festivities.

Heats (Top 4 Inverted from TT, All to the A, Passing Points Used for Feature Invert)
Heat 1 Starting Order: 10 Laps

Heat 1 Finish: 11x 4 16 6 12L 53 1 3 2K

Heat 1 Notes: Bakker took off with the lead coming off the top of turn 2 at the start. Dover was able to move his way past a couple of 360 cars but would settle into 6^th the rest of the way on the single-file track. Lambertz was over Rosenboom at the midway point but could get nothing done. The same could be said for Peters all over C. Meyer for 2^nd with nothing getting done.

Heat 2 Starting Order: 8 Laps

Heat 2 Finish: 23w 2D 4w 1A 101 9M 19 56 (DNF)

Heat 2 Notes: Ballenger had the lead at the start when the field exited turn 2. Winters moved his way past the 'Doc' Wasmund for 2^nd on lap 2. As this was going on, Chucky Mac moved his way past the former 'Mulletman' Wolfgang for 5^th. Cressman would have front wing issues after battling mid-pack in the middle of the heat and would pull in with a few to go. Winters disposed of Ballenger with 2 to go to pick up the heat win with a great move.

Heat Grades: C+; the 2^nd heat provided some great excitement with Winters coming from the 2^nd row to win after the first heat was pretty boring. Bakker's fastest lap was clocked at 11.392 in the 1^st heat.

B Feature (Top Tag the A, Laps)

B Feature Grade/Notes: All 17 cars would start the A Feature.

A Feature (25 Laps)
Starting Order: Top 8 in passing points would draw for starting position

Finish: 6 23w 16 11x 53 2D 56 4w 1 3/ 1A 12L 4 9M 2K 19 101

A Feature Notes: Rosenboom took the lead off of turn 2 from Winters on the cushion as he was looking for his 1^st career 410 win ever. The track quickly turned into slick city; the complete opposite from the heat races as the wind had picked up from the north throughout the night. Winters went off the cushion in turn 4 while in 2^nd on the second lap and would rejoin the field in 4^th as Bakker took 2^nd away from him. Winters threw the wing back ala T-Mac as the green was out, and blew by Peters for 3rd on lap 5, and then set his sights out for Bakker for 2^nd while running the bottom as the rest of the top five was riding the cushion. Winters made his way past Bakker for 2^nd on lap 7, but it was negated as Wolfgang would spin in turn 4.

The restart saw Rosenboom leading Bakker, Winters, and Peters to the green with 19 to go. Winters wisely would move into 2^nd on the start heading into turn 1 by moving past Bakker on the frontstretch since the cone is placed off of turn 4 at I-90 Speedway. Peters would move into 3^rd on lap 9 ahead of Bakker's 11x machine and the track was starting t show that the fastest way around was riding the cushion which was getting much, much faster. The race would stay green and turns 1 and 2 started to take rubber in the middle of the corner with about 10 laps to go. Turns 3 and 4 would still have a top and bottom but it would begin to get narrower as the race progressed past the halfway point.

A caution with 8 laps to go for McGillivray on the backstretch would bunch the field together on the racing surface as Rosenboom lead Winters and Peters back to the green. Winters would wait for his chance in traffic to make a move on Rosenboom, and he narrowly missed nailing a slider on Rosenboom in turn 4 on the last lap to get the win, but Jody hung on for his 1^st career 410 feature win that paid $2,000 for the win. He also led all 25 laps in the feature.

A Feature Grade: B-; Would have been nice to have a better racing surface but Winters provided the excitement after going over the cushion early in the race while trying to run down the race leader in Rosenboom. Congrats to Jody on picking up his 1^st career 410 win.

FOAW: Even though Winters showed he was the fastest guy on the track, Jody did what he needed to do on the track in order to pick up the win. Both of them can share the honor for the night.

Crowd Pleasing Moment #1: The funniest moment of the night came when a safety worker came from the outfield pit area and onto the track in turn 4, and went flying off the 4 wheeler as it sailed into the pit area as he ate dirt. He would be fine as he would walk to his ATV as it slowly trickled into the infield!

WTF: The racing format for the 410s was the absolute dumbest thing that me, and LDA24 have ever seen. What's the point of time trials when an invert was used for the heat, but then passing points were used to set up a draw for the 410 feature. Only at Hartford will you see this.

I-90 Speedway Moment of the Night: Anytime a shit-stock went over the berm of the corners, a yellow was flown every time even though they would not spin out. Again, only at Hartford would you see this.

Mulligan Moment: Good to see Donovan Peterson is still using our buddy Wertz's design from Lasoski's #33 from the Nationals last year. But he's a tricky guy now as he switched the neon green to deep shade of yellow. Here's a note: switching the colors still doesn't do much regarding the laws in our country when the design stays the same!

Head Scratcher: Not just the 410 class, but every class would have pictures in victory lane before heading out to the scales off of turn 3. How easy would it be to take some weight off a car and then drop a brick (or more) in the car in victory lane as the only track official on the track is the flagman. Funny stuff, indeed thinking about this happening!

Thumbs Up: To the attempt of having a 410 show that didn't occur at Huset's. The crowd was pretty big for I-90 standards on a chilly and windy night that was blowing into the fan's face. Here's to having more 410 "specials" at area tracks in the future.

Thumbs Down: Weather conditions were chilly and cold, but the rained held off until about 10-15 minutes following the 410 'A.' fortunately.

Prime Mover: Cressman coming from last in 17^th all the way up to 7^th as he was the hard charger.

Trophy Queen Grade: No trophy girls in victory lane.

Closing Stat of the Night: N/A

Final Thought: $15 for a 410 special again at Hartford will probably not get me there, but you never know. It was worth a try for the promoter, and I'm guessing by the crowd count it was worth it, so maybe we'll get more of them in the near future.

BIG J

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."