Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

Full report to follow later on today. Summary of what ended up being a very good UMSS 360 sprint car feature race!

UMSS A Main (20 laps):

1. Chris Graf #20G (5)
2. Jerry Richert, Jr. #63 (2)
3. Andy Jones #73 (3)
4. Tony Norem #45 (1)
5. Scott Broty #33 (4)
6. Greg Gunderson #22x (7)
7. Bill Johnson #56 (13)
8. Mike Luks #8 (11)
9. Jared Goerges #9 (8)
10. Brandon Allen #77 (14)
11. Ronnie Erickson #62 (10)
12. Anna Kouba #5 (20)
13. Richard Smith, Jr. #9s (16) -1 lap
14. Chad Patterson #15 (17) -1 lap
15. Jimmy Parsons #12 (18) -1 lap *Johnny's brother from Indy.
16. Justin Giddings #23J (9) -2 laps
17. Brad Barickman #34 (6) DNF
18. Justin Allen #22 (15) DNF
19. Tony Kaus #3TK (21) DNF, flipped
20. T. J. Luedtke #21T (12) DNF
21. Kevin Bradwell #95 (19) DNF
22. Cody Hahn #23 DNS, pushed off but in-out shifter would not keep car in gear.

Lap Leaders: Norem 1-10, Richert 11-16, Graf 17-20

Cautions: (2) yellows, (1) red
Yellow with 4 laps in for 22 spin turn 2.
Red with 7 laps in for 3TK flip turn 2.
Yellow with 10 laps in for 23J spin turn 4.

Note: Norem led first half of race with Richert applying some pressure. Richert got under Norem on lap 11 for the lead following restart. Graf moved by Norem on lap 12 for second. Leaders reached lapped traffic again on lap 15. Graf made winning move in turns 1-2 on lap 17 in lapped traffic. Jones got by Norem for 3rd on lap 18. Race was very good from halfway mark on!

Pretty large crowd on hand Sat night at Elko. Car counts were 22 UMSS sprints, 6 TSCS sprints, 26 IRA sprints, 16 Elko mods, and 21 Legends.

TSCS (nonwinged) Exhibition Feature (10 laps):

1. Johnny Parsons III #22
2. Tommy Kamrath #32
3. Jeff "Race Doc" Pellersels #1
4. Kevin "The Rocket Man" Bradwell #95
5. Jalen Morris #17
6. Rob Caho, Jr. #78

Lap Leader: Parsons 1-10

No cautions.

Note: With Caho arriving just before hotlaps, that made a total of nine different TSCS sprints who have competed in at least one event so far in 2011. I know of a few more cars under construction, so we very well might reach a dozen different cars in the first year for this upstart series. Many more inquiries tonight from potential competitors and interested fans in the nonwinged cars. Thanks to Elko for inviting the TSCS sprints to race with the IRA and UMSS sprints. Next week the TSCS cars will run with the UMSS 360 sprints at the Kouba Memorial in Brainerd.

TSCS sprints are then scheduled to race July 29 at St. Croix Valley Raceway near St. Croix Falls, WI. Let's HOPE the closing goes through next Monday morning as scheduled for the sale of Kopellah Speedway.

If you got bad things to say Strange Wings keep it to yourself. Everyone in this club is good people including (Anna). Greg does the results for the UMSS, so if you need 410 results you can check in at the IRA Sprints website.

Mark Meeks

Yea, well not hard to win when you are starting on the pole, there JPIII. Just kidding, he is just so smooth and in another league right now in the wingless car. Tommy will get him one of these days though and well the rest of us may take a little longer but we will get there. I got to feel what bicycling a sprint car feels like last night. Ron said over the raceceiver (which I lost somewhere on that track) there is a big hole in turn 4 so I managed to hit it several times and got her bucking pretty good.

Scott Biertzer won the "crash fest" IRA sprint car feature. I did not write down any results for the IRA, but I know their 25 lap feature lasted close to one hour. Several wrecked sprinters kept coming pitside during their feature race. I don't do any media work for the IRA, so you'll have to check the IRA website for more results. Tatnell might have had that one if not for a busted shock.

Victory Lane photo courtesy of Jacy Norgaard Photography.

Action photo courtesy of Stan Meissner at Minnesota Dirt Track Racing.

Many thanks to all UMSS competitors in both the winged and nonwinged divisions for participating in the abbreviated one night Summer Dirt Nationals. The UMSS had a decent field of 22 cars on hand while the TSCS nonwinged cars had 6 for their two exhibition races. Over all, I thought the UMSS put on a good show at Elko. We would have liked to run three heats and a feature, but we were told that two heats is all we could do. Ron is always very cooperative, so we went with two and added a couple extra laps to each heat race. When the UMSS runs with the WoO or IRA, we do not utilize our normal race procedure of heats and challenge races.

Once again, Greg Gunderson from Sioux Falls, SD had a large contingent of deaf fans on hand from the Twin Cities area to watch him race at Elko on Saturday night. Greg had a solid sixth place run in his new second generation 1/2 downtube Schnee Chassis. It is always a pleasure to see Greg come over a few times each season and run with the UMSS.

Making a long tow north again for this weekend was Justin Giddings from Kansas City, KS. Justin is the son of T. J. "The Jedi" Giddings, as sprint car racing fans from the 1980s and 1990s era should certainly recall that name. T. J. was a strong runner throughout the Upper Midwest during his time behind the wheel.

Another long haul goes to Jimmy Parsons who is the brother of Johnny Parsons III from the famous Indiana racing family. The #12 Parsons winged sprint was repaired from an earlier crash at Rice Lake, and Johnny decided to put his brother Jimmy in the car. Jimmy was up here in Minnesota visiting. Jimmy has a lot of nonwinged racing experience, but had never driven a winged sprint car before last night. Johnny won the TSCS feature race, and Jimmy finished 15th in the UMSS winged feature.

IRA and MSA driver Travis "T.J." Luedtke was doing double duty last night. The Plymouth, WI driver brought two cars along and ran in both the IRA and UMSS portions of the show. Next weekend up at North Central Speedway another MSA driver, Scotty Thiel from Sheboygan, is planning on racing with the UMSS for the second time this season. Scotty was at the first Brainerd show back in the middle of June.

Solid run for Mike Luks of New Richmond in the Al Hargrave Racing sprinter. Mike was making his very first start of the season at Elko, and matched his car number in his feature race finishing position (8). Good to see Mike Luks and the Hargrave team back out in action.

Tony Kaus was also making his first start of the season at Elko. Tony's luck at Elko has not been favorable the past two years, as he has gotten upside down each year. Last night Tony flipped his white and red #3TK sprinter exiting turn two with seven laps in. Tony was okay, but he told me the silence when he was airborne seemed to last forever before he felt the first impact.

Robby Caho made his first start of the season in his own #78 sprinter in the TSCS nonwinged division. Caho thrashed all week long to get his car ready for Elko on Saturday night. They arrived just before hot laps, and still had some work to do on the car to get it ready. Rob told me this was basically a test session to fire the car and put some laps on it. Rob indicated the car needs many more setup adjustments before he'll get it dialed in. He's hoping to head to Brainerd but was uncertain of his work schedule this coming week.

Bill Johnson and Anna Kouba moved up the most in the main event from their starting positions. Bill advanced six positions from 13th to 7th while Anna moved up eight positions from 20th to 12th. Cody Hahn was unable to start the feature from his scheduled 5th starting spot, so that moved the cars behind him on the inside up one row. Race winner Chris Graf was scheduled to start 7th, but Cody's misfortune saw Graf take the green from the 5th starting spot.

UMSS drivers and fans will now look forward to one of the marquee events of the season, as the 19th Annual Kouba Memorial takes center stage at the North Central Speedway just south of Brainerd off of Highway 371 this coming Saturday night July 23. A few non-regular UMSS drivers have made inquiries regarding this race, so we shall see who shows up next Saturday at NCS. A strong field of cars is expected to compete in the $2,000 to win, $300 to start main event. The feature winner will also receive a Hoosier Racing Tire certificate worth $200 for a right rear Hoosier of their choice, so it ends up being like $2,200 to win. Look for a press release to come out shortly regarding the upcoming Kouba Memorial.

I thought that the UMSS put on one heck of a show last night @ Elko, compared to the IRA's. It was my 1st time watching them & I was really impressed. Looking forward to seeing them in action again later this year.

Speaking of Elko Speedway. A really nice facility there. Great seats for the fans I thought. Am definitely looking forward to coming back there in October to see the CBC Late Models & UMSS.

His post is outa' here!

He bashes the IRA and just about every other subject on the boards. My only question for Strangewings is if Sprint Car racing irritates him so much why does he waste his time hanging around Sprint Car message boards? I don't like operas so I don't hang out on opera internet message boards saying nasty, negative things. It just doesn't make any sense to me why this guy bothers to camp out and pounce on results posts.

Stan Meissner

Thanks for coming over Ron. Sorry I did not get to see you last night, as I was pretty busy before the races in the pits and then during the races up in the tower assisting our Race Director Don Randall and most importantly keeping the announcer, Terry Lehnertz,informed and up-to-date on lineups and UMSS happenings. Terry did not lack for UMSS info, as I had a pretty good arsenal available for him to use for the UMSS portion of the program.

In 58 laps of UMSS racing (both divisions combined) on a heavy surface, we only had two yellows and one red to slow the pace of the program. Our feature race saw three different leaders with some good racing for the top spot and a couple of battles a bit further back in the field. As Brooke Tatnell commented to me after the races, he said the UMSS drivers are gaining more experience and for several of them it is starting to show up in their racing abilities on the track. We just need to keep getting track time for our cars and drivers, and let many of the younger and lesser experienced drivers gain knowledge and understanding of what it takes to get one of these cars to circle the track in a quick manner. I'm proud of the drivers and teams that race with us whether full-time or on occasion, as we have generally been providing some entertaining feature races for the fans so far this season. We try our best to be ready when the track asks us to be, as Ron B is all about cooperation between us and all of the other divisions on the racing program each night. When we have the opportunity, our autograph sessions during intermission have been a HUGE success. We have some very dedicated and qualified people helping to put on the shows from the push vehicle operators, pit helpers, tech people, race directors, and all of the wonderful people who lend a hand behind the scenes. Through their efforts and that of the drivers and pit crews, we've typically been able to provide an entertaining evening for our great fans who come out and support us at the tracks we race at.

I too did not think the post was anything to get excited about or needed to be deleted, as he/she seemed more interested in obtaining the IRA race results. I have no clue who the person is nor I have really paid attention to any of his/her Hosehead posts or intentions. Stan M is the moderator, so he has the right to remove any post he does not like. Apparently that person has caused some problems over on Hoseheads board, as Stan seems familiar with the strange wings handle and some of the goings-on.

Greg, it was fun coming up to the Twin cities area again. The track workers are to be commended for the hard work in getting the race track ready on Saturday, especially with all of the rain that your area had over the past few days.

I figured that you would be busy with the responsibilities that you have with the UMSS. But I did look for you after the races just to say hi. Maybe I will see you at Knoxville next month. I am not going to the 410 Nationals this year, but I will be there for the finals of the 360 Nationals on Saturday August 6. I decided to go to Knoxville that night because I am planning on watching the USAC Sprint cars/ SLMR Late Models @ Eagle, NE Raceway on Friday the 5th. So I figured since Knoxville is a 2 1/2 drive east from Lincoln, I might as well go to Knoxville & watch more racing.

What I like with UMSS is trying to keep the costs down & get new drivers into Sprint car racing, whether it is a winged or non winged car. Down here in the Sioux Falls area, we've hardly had very few new drivers in the 360 class over the past couple of years. Many apparently like to spend the big bucks for engines, and with tracks only paying $600-700 to win is a main reason.why car counts are dwindling.

You're correct on this observation GRP. Consider it a preemptive strike.

Stan Meissner