6-18 Page 38

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Rivord never backed off and continued to lead, and his big lead never faltered as he blew away the field. The race for second, however, was a very good one with Copp picking up the pace in the late going and moving into second at the finish with Johnny Broking and his dad next in line. Between the Mod and Super features, we saw 53 straight laps of green flag racing without a single yellow waved.

While Jensen had a solid run in his Super Stock, he came from the fifth row to win a contested main event over a big field of cars in the Mid Mods. They started 27 cars in their main on Friday and while that might sound like the formula for a disaster, it was not. There were only three yellow flags and the last 10 laps ran off green to checkers. Jimmy Latvala led the first lap before he was shouldered out of the way by Ryan Savoy, wearing a “Turn 3 Motorsports” poster on the side of his car and hoping to take it to victory lane.

There was a group of about six drivers running in tight formation at the head of the pack with Cole Chernosky, James Vendela, Will Moelter and Cody Carlson among the group. Jensen worked his way up to fourth by the halfway point of the race and that is when he really took off.

He found a line on the high side of the track that really helped him pick up speed and he was knocking off a car a lap in the late going, as he charged to the front. He was alongside Savoy and made a pass for the lead with just three laps to go and then pulled away.

Savoy settled for second with Chernosky, Vendela and Moelter next in line. All but three of the 27 starters still racing and no one lapped.

Both the Hornets and Pure Stocks are struggling here for car counts currently, with each having only enough cars to support one heat race. Aaron Bernick took the lead right at the start of the Pure Stock main and fought off Jake Smith and Shane Basina to get his first win here in quite some time.

Carson Gotelaere started on the outside pole of the Hornet feature and ran away from the pack. DeJay Jarecki finished second but had nothing for Carson.

Interestingly, just a couple of years ago, Gotelaere, as the quarterback, was throwing passes to Rivord, the receiver, for the Superior Spartans high school football team. Tonight found both in victory lane.

A tip of the hat to the track prep team on Friday. They did have to take a couple of extended periods to rewater and pack the track at various times, but the surface was smooth and fast and drivers were racing all over using multiple grooves while it produced no dust. It doesn't get much better than that.

Saturday, June 15

Oh these last few weeks have been trying times, weather-wise! The challenge this past Saturday, following a rainout at Rice Lake, was to not allow Mother Nature to defeat me. I went to find some place high and dry where Saturday night racing was still a go.

Hibbing was the best option based on the forecast, and for once I hit a home run. Hibbing was able to get their whole show completed thanks to great work by both management and the drivers. Unfortunately, ABC — one of my other options — was up to their eyeballs in water by the time the first green flag was to have flown.

A good field of drivers were on hand for all five WISSOTA sanctioned classes, with most from the local area. The Canadian drivers were on hand and drivers in the Mid Mods, Mods and Supers from north of the border joined the Iron Range drivers on this night.

The Simpson racing teams and the Uotinen racing teams may think I have been stalking them as of late; it seems like for the last two weeks, every place I have showed up, there they are racing as well.

It was good to see Andy Davey and Trevor Arens are back racing in 2024, after having been out of the sport for a bit. Davey is racing Mid Mods while Arens is back in a Super Stock.

There was no messing around Saturday with the way the weather looked. Just before 7 p.m. the anthems were played, the first heat hit the track and racing began. In fact, the first green flag of the night may have been waved even before the scheduled start time and that doesn't happen very often anywhere.

Twelve preliminary heat races were clicked off in quick fashion with a minimum of yellow flags and with the conditions starting to sour, no more than a five minutes break was taken before the Mid Mod feature was called to the track to help roll in the water added by the prep crew, and then it was time to go feature racing.

It must have been the direction the strong wind was blowing in that made it more auditory, but I noted during the heat races I can't remember hearing tires chirping so loudly in the corners. Actually, I also heard them just a bit on Friday night in Superior, too, so perhaps that is the new trend when it comes to racing tires. I'm not certain on that though.

Paul Ripley started on the pole in the Mid Mod feature with 21 other drivers chasing him. After Ripley showed great speed in his heat, coming from fifth in eight laps to win, I thought it might be a slam dunk in starting from the pole. However, while he did lead the first nine laps, he was unable to hold off 16-year-old Sam Blevins, who passed him and then drove away for the win. When Ripley was unable to hold the bottom, Sam drove under him just at the halfway point of the race, and then led the final 10 laps for the win, his second of the year at Hibbing.

Mervin Castle raced into second and put plenty of pressure on Blevins during the final laps, but Blevins prevailed to get the win while Ripley settled for third.

Shane Sabraski was chasing the weather just like me and he showed up with his team to race in both the Super Stock and Modified classes. He made the trip north worthwhile as he took the Super Stock feature but not before a tough battle with Andy LaBarge.

Arens led the opening laps of this race, which went green to checkers, before Sabraski came up from the third row to take over the lead. However, Sabraski couldn't shake free from LaBarge, who was a constant challenge for the lead. One slip up would have made the difference. Of course, slip-ups are not a part of the Sabraski plan and he led LaBarge home, winning by just over a car length. Arens had a fine run to finish third.

So far this season, Kyle Peterlin has either won or broke at Hibbing and thankfully for his sake, tonight was marked by the former. He started on the pole for the 30-lap Late Model feature and pulled away from the pack for most of the contest. He built up a big lead before Skeeter Estey started to cut into it late. I thought perhaps Peterlin was having more carburetor issues, a problem that sidelined them last week, but apparently it was just that he was being careful and was having trouble getting past a slower car.

Whatever the circumstances, Estey really caught up at the end and made it close. If it were a few laps longer, fireworks could have broke out. As it was, Skeeter had to settle for a close second with Ben Heinle moving up to pass both Danny Vang and his father Mark. Based on their performances so far this year, both Heinles appear to be among the most improved Late Model drivers.

The 30 laps of the feature seemed a bit excessive to me, even if they were racing for $1,000 to win on this night.

A yellow with one lap completed saved Mack Estey early in the Modified feature, after he had taken the early lead but Johnny Broking drove past him. However, that reprive would be a short one as on the restart, Broking again put on the heat and this time he made the pass stick. After that, there was no catching Johnny for the lead. The last 24 laps of the race clicked off nonstop and Broking had a comfortable margin the rest of the way. Estey settled for second and Bob Broking came storming up from the fourth row to pass Jeffrey Wood for third.

Twenty-two Hornets took the green flag for their feature race to round out the night. Normally that number of cars would have been a formula for yellow flag fever, but not Saturday. It stayed caution free and drivers kept their cars pointed in the right direction.

This race also produced the closest finish of the night, as the top three ran in close formation for most of the race. While Tristen McLynn led from start to finish, he was hard pressed to hold off the charging Joe Puidokas and Justin Barsness at the finish and the three crossed the line in close formation in a very exciting contest.

Here are some amazing stats from the program on Saturday. The entire 17-event program, including five feature races, was completed in two hours and 22 minutes! That was easily the fastest show of the year, particularly considering that five divisions were racing full programs.

And in the five feature races, 110 laps of racing was held and the yellow flag was used a grand total of three times! Three of the main events went green to checkered without a single stoppage.

This was a great job by track management, the track officials and the drivers for racing hard but clean and having the decency to get off the track when they had issues and not just stop on the track. It can be done and needs to be done by more tracks more often to keep our antsy fans from walking out early and not coming back again.

A great job was done by all. Congratulations to them! It was also noted that Hibbing does have a weekly track program, so congratulations to them also for keeping that going.

Racing will continue every Saturday night throughout the summer here at Hibbing with five classes in action each week. Check their schedule for special events also.