8-6 Page 25 | ATD Racing News

Rain doesn’t reign until after Stearns, Hansen and Marko make it to victory lane at Casino Speedway

By Tony Steuck

WATERTOWN, SD (August 4) - Casino Speedway was able to complete two-thirds of their main event action on Sunday before persistent rain drops postponed the final two races. Mike Stearns, Jason Marko, and Scott Hansen grabbed WISSOTA Dirt Track Series wins, Doug Walsh topped the Gen X Late Model feature, and the Late Models and Hornets did not complete their main events before the rain fell.

The Danny Hall-owned machines of Chad Williamson and Todd Stark brought the WISSOTA Midwest Modified field to green in their 20-lap main event. Contact in the front row on the opening lap allowed Hansen to shoot to second to complete lap one. Hansen moved to the point on lap two, but more contact between team cars sent Williamson around in turn four, and Stark to the tail for the restart.

Williamson led the field back to green, but Hansen worked the high groove in a bid for the top spot. Hansen had a run around lap five, but Williamson slammed the door, while Derek Rieck ran a very close third behind Williamson. Hansen continued to use the cushion, and was nearly even with the leader to complete lap 11; he edged ahead to lead lap 12, but a miscue on the next circuit allowed Williamson to move in again. Willamson drifted across the track in turn four, which slowed Hansen and Rieck, and allowed Mike Nichols to shoot under two of the three drivers into second. Nichols moved to the lead on the next lap, but his brother Tommy spun in turn four and the yellow negated the pass.

Williamson remained the leader for the restart with seven laps to go, but Hansen used the inside groove to steal the top spot on lap 15. Williamson jumped the cushion and slapped the turn two wall to bring out a caution with five laps to go.

Nichols used the outside groove to challenge Hansen over the final laps; he got his nose to the door of Hansen down the back chute on the final lap, but that was as close as he could get before the checkered flag. Hansen scored his first of the season with Nichols second, Rieck third, Stark fourth and Luke Johnson fifth.

Cory Giessinger grabbed a big lead early in the 20-lap WISSOTA Street Stock main event. Jason Marko and Chris Serr battled for second before Marko secured the spot, and quickly reeled in Giessinger at the point. Marko worked the inside groove to take the lead on lap five, and Maria Broksieck slid into second on the next lap. The caution waved with six laps complete when Giessinger turned around and collected Serr and Al Schmidt.

Braden Brauer and Broksieck battled neck and neck for second when the race resumed, and Marko maintained about a five-length lead over the duo until halfway when Broksieck picked up the pace. Maria closed onto the leader’s bumper with Brauer in the mix as well. One final caution waved with only four laps remaining.

When the race resumed, Brauer and Broksieck once again engaged in a door-to-door battle. Broksieck finally claimed the spot under the white flag, but ran out of time to challenge the leader. Marko grabbed his first win of the season with Broksieck second, Brauer third, Tony Miller fourth and Jayden Michaelsohn fifth.

Scott Ward settled into the early lead of the 20-lap WISSOTA Modified feature with Nate Heinrich working to his inside. After a caution with three laps complete, Stearns moved into second and tested the low side of Ward. With the help of a miscue on the cushion from Ward, Stearns shot to the lead on lap six. Heinrich followed into second before Ward slowed with mechanical trouble and left the speedway.

Stearns dominated the event at the front of the pack, while Cayden Schmeling wrestled the cushion and tracked down Heinrich for second. They two came upon a slower machine, and Schmeling made contact with the lapped car and both machines came to a halt; Schmeling was restored to third.

Despite the late restart, Stearns was not challenged en route to his third win of the season. Heinrich was second, Schmeling was third and Tim Thomas was the final driver to finish the race.

Doug Walsh led flag to flag for the victory in the rough-and-tumble Gen X Late Model main event. Scott Harrington climbed to second in the late stages, and gave Walsh all he could handle in the final laps, but did not pass tech and was disqualified. Bodie Croninger, Konner Sperle, Tony Croninger and Trevor Walsh comprised the top five behind the winner.

The WISSOTA Late Model and WISSOTA Hornets features will be contested at a later date.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature - Postponed due to weather.

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 85-Jayson Good[1]; 2. 87-Curt Kranz[2]; 3. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[3]; 4. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[4]; 5. 1-Ryan Engels[7]; 6. 748-Kyle Jensen[6]; 7. (DNF) T3-Rich Thomas[5]; 8. (DNF) 12S-Trajan Schmidt[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 73M-David Carlson[2]; 2. 11-Denver Nickeson[1]; 3. 12-Chad Becker[3]; 4. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[4]; 5. 20-Trevor Anderson[6]; 6. 14-Nick Schmidt[5]; 7. 51-Justin Karlen[7]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 24S-Mike Stearns[5]; 2. 10H-Nate Heinrich[1]; 3. 13-Cayden Schmeling[3]; 4. 51T-Tim Thomas[7]; 5. (DNF) 7-Bryce Borgen[4]; 6. (DNF) 9L-Ed Leonard[9]; 7. (DNF) 37-Scott Ward[2]; 8. (DNF) 15-Tony Konold[8]; 9. (DNF) 65-Dave Brooker[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24S-Mike Stearns[3]; 2. 10H-Nate Heinrich[4]; 3. 13-Cayden Schmeling[1]; 4. 37-Scott Ward[8]; 5. 7-Bryce Borgen[7]; 6. 65-Dave Brooker[5]; 7. 9L-Ed Leonard[9]; 8. (DNF) 51T-Tim Thomas[6]; 9. (DNF) 15-Tony Konold[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 31-Scott Hansen[4]; 2. 67-Mike Nichols[7]; 3. 34J-Derek Rieck[5]; 4. 54-Todd Stark[2]; 5. 3-Luke Johnson[6]; 6. 28-Tommy Nichols[3]; 7. 12-Logan Redlin[8]; 8. 48-Camden Rassel[9]; 9. (DNF) 54H-Chad Williamson[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 54-Todd Stark[2]; 2. 31-Scott Hansen[1]; 3. 34J-Derek Rieck[4]; 4. 54H-Chad Williamson[7]; 5. 28-Tommy Nichols[6]; 6. 3-Luke Johnson[5]; 7. 67-Mike Nichols[9]; 8. 12-Logan Redlin[8]; 9. 48-Camden Rassel[3]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 31-Jason Marko[6]; 2. 14-Maria Broksieck[8]; 3. 34JR-Braden Brauer[7]; 4. 80-Tony Miller[9]; 5. 95-Jayden Michaelsohn[13]; 6. 314-Tyler Lamb[3]; 7. 58-Wade Tirrel[10]; 8. 73-Cory Giessinger[1]; 9. 0-Wyatt Brooker[12]; 10. E30-Cooper Butterfield[11]; 11. (DNF) 12-Al Schmidt[2]; 12. (DNF) 99-Andy Rossow[5]; 13. (DNF) 01-Chris Serr[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Maria Broksieck[4]; 2. 314-Tyler Lamb[2]; 3. 31-Jason Marko[6]; 4. 34JR-Braden Brauer[5]; 5. 80-Tony Miller[7]; 6. E30-Cooper Butterfield[1]; 7. 95-Jayden Michaelsohn[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Andy Rossow[1]; 2. 01-Chris Serr[6]; 3. 73-Cory Giessinger[4]; 4. 12-Al Schmidt[3]; 5. 58-Wade Tirrel[2]; 6. 0-Wyatt Brooker[5]

Gen X Late Models:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 20-Doug Walsh[1]; 2. 811-Bodie Croninger[6]; 3. 1K-Konner Sperle[2]; 4. 8T-Tony Croninger[3]; 5. 15-Trevor Walsh[4]; 6. 50-Joel Waba[8]; 7. 1-Tai Engels[9]; 8. 40+-Ryan Shepherd Sr[10]; 9. 11X-Brittany Swenson[11]; 10. (DNF) 87-Curt Kranz[7]; 11. (DQ) 14-Scott Harrington[5]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 87-Curt Kranz[2]; 2. 15-Trevor Walsh[3]; 3. 1K-Konner Sperle[5]; 4. 20-Doug Walsh[4]; 5. 1-Tai Engels[1]; 6. 11X-Brittany Swenson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8T-Tony Croninger[1]; 2. 14-Scott Harrington[5]; 3. 50-Joel Waba[3]; 4. 811-Bodie Croninger[4]; 5. 40+-Ryan Shepherd Sr[2]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature - Postponed due to weather.

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 3-Adam VanDerostyne[4]; 2. 81-Nathan Smith[6]; 3. 555-Bradley Rossow[1]; 4. 14-Justin Schelitzche[8]; 5. 79-Joshua Gebhart[3]; 6. 03-Christian Kast[7]; 7. 0BS-Michael Smith[5]; 8. 10B-Curtis Borstad[2]