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All Star Circuit of Champions (27 Cars)

Welcome Mat
The All-Stars bring their boys to the track including extras like Sam Hafeterpe, Tony Bruce, TK, Gary Wright and others, but…

MIA
... Most of the heavy hitters head for Knoxville after the double-header at Belleville. Including T-Mac, Madsen, Shane Stewart, Randy Hannagan among others.

VIP
The VIP finally sets up shop where it should have been all year. Up atop turn 4 where it was weekly last year when Wertz was still in the Tri-State area. No worries though as LDA24 brings the family, Ms. J comes along, as well as Papa Wertz is in the area as usual. Then there is also one of the Report's favorite readers who showed up to shoot the shit but is long past his posting days.

Time Trials (2 laps each)
Tim Shaffer (27^th out) set the quick time for the night as the last guy out with a time at 10.608 to edge out Hafertepe's (16th out) lap at 10.613 on a rather heavy track. The rest of the top 18 hitting the heat race invert: Jake Peters, Wright, TK, Bruce Jr., Scott Winters, Troy Meyer, David Gravel, Mark Dobmeier, Ryan Myers, Brandon Wimmer, Greg Wilson, John Lambertz, Greg Hall, Daron Clayton, Marlon Jones, and Miranda Throckmorton.

Time Trials Grade: B; horsepower track on a heavy and thick cushion. Guys with the big motor and who can qualify put their cars up to the front. And for the Dobmeier sandbagging theorists, he hasn't been sandbagging… he just can't qualify, as Bill W has told us throughout the year.

Heats (Top 6 Inverted from TT, Top 6 to the A)
Heat 1 Starting Order: 8 Laps

Heat 1 Finish: 92 W20 13 23w 83 9x/ 6R 17B 17v

Heat 1 Notes: Pretty much a choo-choo race as the heat inverted 6 and then took 6 to the feature. So all the top 6 guys had to do was get in line and pull tearoffs after that point. Clayton checked out early in his first ever visit at the track as Wright got by Shaffer early. Shaffer got back by "The Texan" as the rest of the field followed the "Modern Day Cowboy" to the checkers.

Heat 2 Starting Order: 8 Laps

Heat 2 Finish: 9M 56R 15H 83R 4 12L/ 1 6 101

Heat 2 Notes: Jones jumped out to the early lead as Hafertepe moved up to 4^th quickly at the same point Myers got into 2^nd on the initial lap. C. Meyer moved up to a transfer on the 2^nd lap past his brother in a sibling rivalry as well. TK moved past Longhair with a couple to go to grab the 4^th position as Hafertepe was all over Myers during the duration, but couldn't do anything to grab the spot.

Heat 3 Starting Order: 8 Laps

Heat 3 Finish: 4WA 0 18 89G 16 1A/ 22T 15 4C (DNF)

Heat 3 Notes: Throckmorton was thrown back a row for jumping the initial start. After that, Hall jumped out on the still narrow track and would check out to grab his first heat race ever at the short track. Wolfgang had a great start to jump and was coming after the fading Throckmorton. Peters held off Wolfgang at the end but Peters would scratch for the night after the heats in what turned out to be a big deal for the draw for the feature.

Heat Grades: LDA24 called to give a D- but we'll be generous and give it just a D+ as there was some fading going on from some drivers. Still a heavy track, just like last year when there were no 360s on the card, but the feature still looked promising.

B Feature (Top 6 Tag the A, 12 Laps)
Starting Order:

B Feature Finish: 1 22T 6R 15 6 17B/ 17v 4c 101

B Feature Grade/Notes: C-; Throckmorton had the early lead but T. Meyer tracked her down with about 4 to go to grab the consolation win. Bickett held onto a transfer throughout the duration in able to make the show.

A Feature (35 Laps)
Starting Order: Top 6 in qualifying drew for their starting positions

Finish: 23w 9x 15H 18 83 92 89G W20 1 9M/ 1A 6R 6 22T 17B 4WA 56R 15 13 (DNF) 4/ 0 83R 12L 16 (DNS)

Notes: The start of the 35 lapper seen the Butterfield Bad Ass take off at the start over Wright off of turn two. Wright fell into 2^nd as TK was in 3^rd. Winters hit lap traffic three laps into the race but a caution was shown, and was later replaced by a red for TK as he slowed down the backstretch on the apron. The driveline broke on the Roth Motorsports 83R as the rescue crew came to attend him. He later walked it off and was reportedly spotted at the bar following the races.

Winters had the restart lead with 4 laps complete over Wright, Shaffer, and TBJ. On the restart, Hafertepe gave TBJ a nasty right rear going into turn one that almost resulted in Bruce sending the car into the parking lot over there. He held onto the car but lost multiple spots after the right rear from the 15H. The track was still crazy fast at this point as Winters still controlled traffic. It was mentioned traffic would be held in place after cautions, but that was not the case as they were granted a free pass to the back of the field. Maybe that was the case as it was Winters out front, but we'll see tomorrow night if it changes.

A yellow flew on lap 17 for Wimmer who saw his right rear fly over both fences out of turn 2 and into the backstretch pits. The car was a mess but Winters held onto the lead over Wright, Shaffer, Hafertepe, and Bruce back to the restart lead. Before the green was displayed, C. Meyer stopped on the backstretch with a flat tire while coming from the back up into the top ten in the early stages of the race. He would not get it changed in time in order to make the restart.

A great start for Winters pushed him out front as Hafertepe pulled into 3^rd past Shaffer on the restart. A lap or two in saw Dobmeier pull it in under green with unknown problems to grab his first DNF of the year at the track. Winters hit heavy, heavy traffic with 12 to go that saw Wright pull along side of him coming off of turn 2, but Winters took the momentum into the high side of turn 3 and into a comfortable position a lap later in traffic as Wright had to maneuver around the traffic that Winters had just disposed.

Another nice move in traffic resulted in a huge slider past Rosenboom in turns 3 and 4 with eight laps to go to put more room between him and the field. The race stayed green as the 23w owned lapped traffic throughout the race to grab his 1^st All Star Circuit of Champions feature win, 2^nd Huset's win of the year, and his 4^th career 410 win at the track. He led all 35 laps and it paid $5,000 for his victory.

A Feature Grade: A; Little biased here as Winters did what he needed to do to win. The track still wasn't the greatest since there weren't 360s, but Winters brought the Huset's faithful (and the VIP) to their feet at the checkers as he kicked their asses.

FOAW: Like there is a question here. The 23w was damn impressive, and if it wasn't for Peters scratching for the night after the heat, then Winters wouldn't have been eligible for the re-draw. Jake stole a race from the 23w earlier this year, and Winters commented on this in victory lane.

Crowd Pleasing Moment #1: Winters holding on against all odds as the Report and the VIP waited for the worst possible scenario to happen. Hell of a party out back (if you can call it that) as the man behind the wheel actually grabbed a Bud Light out of the air to enjoy. BTW to all fans reading this, there will be new 23w shirts at the track on Sunday night and they are pretty damn cheap and pretty damn bad ass as well! Keep checking out www.scottwintersracing.com as it keeps getting revamped for its relaunch as well!

Crowd Pleasing Moment #2: There was (finally) a shout out to the Report from its finest announcer Shawn Neisteadt when talking about the after-party at 212. We didn't quite make it there for reasonable reasons, but we'll be back out at the track early in order to pre-game on Sunday night. Great shout-out Shawn!

WTF: Good to hear that TK was okay after his driveline breaking between his legs. Thoughts and prayers go out to Brooke Tatnell for the same kind of incident that happened to him in his first night in the Postupack #25 out in PA. Also, Hafertepe says he has the best car out at the track while interviewed in third. The Report likes you Sam, more than most people, but c'mon man, can you really say you had the best car when you tried sending TBJ into the parking lot and Winters went to the car wash with the 5K check?

"Home of the Professionals" Moment of the Night: 25 minute grader race.

Mulligan Moment: Most of the "heavy hitters" were at Knoxville, but you know what.. the 23w is still taking the big check to the bank. Can they make it a 15K weekend with a sweep coming up on Sunday night?

Head Scratcher: Only 2 guys entering the wheelie contest. Those two being Troy Meyer and Greg Wilson, but others not making it out due to mechanical problems. Those guys being TK, Dobmeier, and Jones. T. Meyer dominated Wilson that saw him grab a cool $500 in cool hard cash from Budweiser of Sioux Falls.

Thumbs Up: VIP heading back to its normal stomping grounds from last year and letting us see the whole track again. Great call by this guy in order to get us back up top in turn 4.

Thumbs Down: Track was heavy throughout the night, just like it was for last year's show. It was damn near identical, but what do you do I guess. Hopefully we see the track conditions of the past few weeks for the 10 grand to win show.

Prime Mover: Wolfgang was the biggest mover going from 23rd to 11th in the feature. Clayton had a nice job of moving up from 15th to 6th as well.

Trophy Queen Grade: They looked pretty good from up top, but again, we'll decide in the morning when pictures get posted.

Closing Stat of the Night: In the last $5,000 to win shows at the track over the last couple of years, Winters has won two out of those three shows.

Final Thought: We should push 35-40 cars on Sunday night with guys coming up from Knoxville for the 10 grand to win show. Who ever wins the 40 lapper is definitely gonna have to earn it!

BIG J

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

Great job love the report! I might have to go tonight, I'm more excited about this race than I would be about the World of Outlaws because a local guy like Winters can win it or somebody else that doesn't always get a big check.

Congrats to Winters!! I will also be at the show tonight and can't wait.