From Duane Turner
Mason, MI — (May 1, 2015) — With great weather greeting race teams, and race fans, the racing action would not disappoint. Two features would be decided by less than a tenth of a second, and all features would come down to the last lap. Tony Monge, Gary Sherman, Dane Long and Brian Boesel would take the A-Feature victories.
The Sawyers Chevrolet Michigan Legends started with Brandon Thurlby taking the early lead. Gary Joppich settled in to second with Rick Kilbourn in third. A lap two restart saw Kilbourn slip in to second, followed by Tony Monge. A lap later, Kilbourn would take the point, with Monge following close behind. At the half way point, the top three continued to run nose to tail. With ten to go, the top two would separate themselves from the rest of the field in lapped traffic. Monge would keep heavy pressure on Kilbourn for the lead, and would dive to the inside on the final lap in turn three. The duo would race side by side to the checkers with Monge winning by a mere 0.022 seconds. Kilbourn settled for a disappointing second, with Thurlby, Mitchell Huber, and Joppich in the top five.
Anthony McCune would lead the Sawyers Chevrolet Superstore Spartan Sprints to the green flag and would take the early lead with Gary Sherman and John Turnbull in tow. As the front duo entered lapped traffic, Sherman used a lapped car with a bold move to take the point on lap 13. Two laps later, Dietsch would take over third, and would quickly close in on McCune for second. With 10 laps remaining, the top four cars are nose to tail with Sherman still at the point. With six to go, Dietsch would slip under McCune for second, and Turnbull followed in to third one lap later. At the finish, Sherman would hold on for the win, with Dietsch, Turnbull, McCune, and Don Hamilton in the top five.
The Boss Snow Equipment Pony Stock A-Feature would see Randy Kretzinger Jr on the pole position. Kretzinger would take the early lead, followed by Brian Boesel and Lex Jarecki in the top three. On lap five, Jarecki would dive low, and Boesel would go high for a three wide battle for the lead. Boesel would take the point, and Jarecki in second followed by Tyler Heeney in third, forcing Kretzinger back to fourth. With six laps to go, Heeney would move back to the high side taking over second, and side by side with Boesel for the lead. The front duo would stay side by side until the white flag lap when Boesel would nose ahead to take feature win. Heeney would settle for second, with Jarecki in third.
The Boss Snow Equipment Pony Stock B-Feature would see Jerry King take the early lead. Josh Finner in second with Carter Trudgeon in third. An early caution would bunch the field back up, with King retaining the point. On lap five, Shawn Hornus would make his presence felt as he moved in to third. Lap eight would see Laura Beckner take third away from Hornus. With seven laps remaining, Beckner would slip in to second, and then quickly set sail for race leader Jerry King. With three to go, the top two entered lap traffic, just as a caution would fly setting the field back to four laps remaining. When the green dropped, Beckner would use the high side to take the point, and take the win. King would hold on for second, with Ryan Hollister in third.
The Lipari Foods Spartan Stock A-Feature was set for their 25 lap main event. Mike Findlay would jump out to the early lead from the pole position, closely followed by Jordan Harvey, and Tim Lahar. On lap three, Pat Dent and Dane Long would show that they were the cars to beat as they raced past Lahar in to third, and fourth. Just a couple laps later, Dent went to the top side of the speedway, and quickly took over second, with Long right on his bumper. Two laps later, Dent would take over the point, with Long making the pass to take over second. Misfortune for Long a half a lap later as he would spin in turn four, and would have to restart at the tail. At the half way point, the second and third place cars of Jordan Harvey, and John Kennedy would make contact sending both cars for a spin. On the restart, Long would quickly move back in to second, then moved to the high side of race leader Dent. The front duo would race side by side over the final 10 laps, with Long taking the victory by just a half a car length over Dent. Harvey, Findlay, and Kennedy would round out the top five.
James Gokee Jr would take the early lead in the 25 lap Lipari Foods Spartan Stock B-Feature, with David Kelley and Tyler Hawkins close behind. With just five laps in the books, Gokee had built up a comfortable lead, until the caution would wave at lap 10. For the next several laps, the top three of Gokee, Hawkins, and Brian Boesel would distance themselves from the rest of the field. With five laps remaining, Hawkins would pull to the outside of Gokee, but would get loose exiting turn two leaving Gokee to command the final few laps. Hawkins would hold on for second, Boesel would settle for third.
Event Summery:
Sawyers Chevrolet Superstore Spartan Sprints
Qualifications: 1) 0 Doug Dietsch 12.594 2) 12 John Turnbull 12.638 3) 37 Gary Sherman 12.645 4) 31 Don Hamilton 12.963 5) 44 Anthony McCune 12.991 6) 21 Mike Stutsman 13.906 7) 00 Joe Irwin 14.011 8) 56 Mark Irwin nt
Heat Race: 1) 44 Anthony McCune 2) 37 Gary Sherman 3) 12 John Turnbull 4) 0 Doug Dietsch 5) 31 Don Hamilton 6) 21 Mike Stutsman 7) 00 Joe Irwin
Feature: 1) 37 Gary Sherman 2) 0 Doug Dietsch 3) 12 John Turnbull 4) Anthony McCune 5) 31 Don Hamilton 6) 21 Mike Stutsman 7) 00 Joe Irwin
Sawyers Chevrolet Michigan Legends
Heat Race #1: 1) 92 Tony Munge 2) 17 Greg Rudzik 3) 54 Rick Kilbourn 4) 2 Brandon Thurlby 5) 50 Gary Joppich
Heat Race #2: 1) 23 Mitchell Huber 2) 31 Mason Ludwig 3) 71 Lyn Hall 4) 13 Gordon Brodeur 5) 11 Rich Michalak
Feature: 1) 92 Tony Munge 2) 54 Rich Kilbourn 3) 2 Brandon Thurlby 4) 23 Mitchell Huber 5) 50 Gary Joppich 6) 31 Mason Ludwig 7) 71 Lyn Hall 8) 13 Gordon Brodeur 9) 11 Rich Michalak 10) 17 Greg Rudzik
Lipari Foods Spartan Stocks
Qualifications: 1) 7L Dane Long 14.128 2) 6 Pat Dent 14.200 3) 35 John Kennedy 4) 07 Jordan Harvey 5) 20 Tim Lahar 14.733 6) 10 Mike Findlay 14.878 7) 5 Shane Miller 15.116 8) 75 James Gokee Jr 15.126 9) 33 Brian Boesel 10) 87 Tyler Hawkins 15.441 11) 11 David Kelley 15.461 12) 10 Evan Jenks 17.612 13) 9 Bryan Jenks nt 14) 51 LT Harper
Heat Race #1: 1) 35 John Kennedy 2) 10 Mike Findlay 3) 07 Jordan Harvey 4) 6 Pat Dent 5) 20 Tim Lahar 6) 7L Dane Long
Heat Race #2: 1) 74 James Gokee Jr 2) 5 Shane Miller 3) 87 Tyler Hawkins 4) 9 Bryan Jenks 5) 11 David Kelley 6) 33 Brian Boesel 7) 51 LT Harper 8) 10 Evan Jenks
B-Feature: 1) 74 James Gokee Jr 2) 87 Tyler Hawkins 3) 33 Brian Boesel 4) 11 David Kelley 5) 51 LT Harper 6) 10 Evan Jenks 7) 5 Shane Miller
A-Feature: 1) 7L Dane Long 2) 6 Pat Dent 3) 07 Jordan Harvey 4) 10 Mike Findlay 5) 35 John Kennedy 6) 20 Tim Lahar 7) 9 Bryan Jenks.
Boss Snow Equipment Pony Stocks
Qualifications: 1) 11 Brian Beckner 16.170 2) 23 Tyler McGhan 16.197 3) 18 Tyler Heeney 16.236 4) 27 John Ward 16.243 5) 7 Lex Jarecki 16.267 6) 21 Ryan Gordon 16.341 7) 33 Brian Boesel 16.394 8) 17 DJ Marciniak 16.454 9) 47 Wayne Beckner Jr 10) 57 Randy Kretzinger Jr 16.614 11) 9 Laura Beckner 16.758 12) 13 Wayne Parkhurst II 16.865 13) 5 Ryan Hollister 16.981 14) 15 Jerry King 17.074 15) 01 Shane Snow 17.433 16) 27 Josh Finner 17.527 17) x15 Shelby Gokee 17.870 18) 21 Carter Trudgeon 17.903 19) 44 Jarin Larner 18.017 20) 95 Jamie Logie 18.537 21) 942 Ken Dollarhite Jr.
Heat Race #1: 1) 01 Shane Snow 2) 21 Carter Trudgeon 3) 27 Josh Finner 4) x15 Shelby Gokee 5) 95 Jamie Logie
Heat Race #2: 1) 57 Randy Kretzinger Jr 2) 47 Wayne Beckner Jr 3) 9 Laura Beckner 4) 17 DJ Marciniak 5) 15 Jerry King 6) 5 Ryan Hollister 7) 13 Wayne Parkhurst Jr
Heat Race #3: 1) 33 Brian Boesel 2) 7 Lex Jarecki 3) 18 Tyler Heeney 4) 27 John Ward 5) 21 Ryan Gordon 6) 23 Tyler McGhan 7) 7h Shawn Hornus 8) 11 Brian Beckner
B-Feature: 1) 9 Laura Beckner 2) 15 Jerry King 3) 5 Ryan Hollister 4) 13 Wayne Parkhurst II 5) 27 Josh Finner 6) 01 Shane Snow 7) 21 Carter Trudgeon 8) 95 Jamie Logie 9) x15 Shelby Gokee
A-Feature 1) 33 Brian Boesel 2) 18 Tyler Heeney 3) 7 Lex Jarecki 4) 57 Randy Kretzinger Jr 5) 47 Wayne Beckner Jr 6) 17 DJ Marciniak 7) 27 John Ward 8) 21 Ryan Gordon 9) 23 Tyler McGhan