9-17 Page 23 | ATD Racing News

Grosz guns down Late Model Qualifying Feature field on night two of the 2024 WISSOTA 100

By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 12) - Former Sprint Car wheelman Lee Grosz showed the way to victory lane Thursday night, grabbing the win during the WISSOTA Late Model Qualifying Feature. He topped the 24-car field to take his rightful spot in front of the outside row for Saturday’s Championship Feature of the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.

Grosz and reigning National Champion Tyler Peterson earned the front row for the 15-lap feature, with Grosz the early leader. Peterson settled into second, as Chad Becker blasted into third past Shane Edginton. Jeff Provinzino was fifth.

With Grosz out front, Peterson and Becker began to chip away at his advantage, while Edginton held fourth and Cory Crapser cracked the top five.

As the field completed lap six, Grosz continued to lead, stretching back out to a .8-second advantage, with Becker on the bumper of Peterson for second. Becker pulled alongside Peterson down the backstretch, but Peterson motored away once again, and then took after Grosz, growing closer to the No. 4J in the front of the field.

With 10 laps complete, Grosz changed his line and pulled back away from Peterson, as Becker fell back a bit from Peterson and the top three spread out around the speedway. Edginton was still fourth ahead of Crapser.

Shawn Kirwin, Trevor Anderson and Amelia Eisenschenk (Cody Papke Photo)

Grosz began to work through lapped traffic with two to go, and split two lapped cars during the final lap to give himself a 2-second advantage at the checkered flag ahead of second-place finisher Peterson. Becker, Edginton, Crapser, Provinzino, Cory Tammen and Joel Bennett were the top-eight finishers.

Those drivers accepting the first eight spots in the outside row for Saturday night’s Championship Feature included Grosz, Peterson, Becker, Edginton, Crapser, Tammen, Bennett and Gunner Frank.

Earlier in the program, four heat races set the stage for the Qualifying Feature. In the first heat race, Grosz held the top spot early on, as Peterson worked by Todd Frank on lap two for second. Jeff Massingill displaced Frank for third a lap later. Out front, Grosz had a healthy lead to the checkered ahead of Peterson and Massingill. Massingill was later DQ’d, elevating Austin Kuehl to third.

Crapser was the early leader in the second heat race, but Shawn Kirwin spun and the field regrouped for a full restart. Crapser led the way to complete the first lap, with Travis Saurer just ahead of Chase Gelling in third. With the top five mainly stuck to the inside of the track, Jordan Tollakson jumped to the top and it paid off; he took third from Gelling on the final lap, as Crapser garnered the victory ahead of Saurer in second.

Shane Edginton led the field to start the third heat race, holding the advantage following lap one ahead of Joel Bennett and Amelia Eisenschenk in third. Coming into turn four, Provinzino dove down into turn four in front of Broking, and slid up to the top in front of Broking and Eisenschenk into third. Broking moved to fourth and Eisenschenk was left to regroup in fifth.

Out front, Edginton had a healthy lead ahead of Bennett, as Broking began to chip away at Provinzino’s advantage in third with three laps left. Edginton took the victory by more than 1.5 seconds, while Bennett was solid in second ahead of Provinzino. Johnny Broking was later DQ’d, elevating Eisenschenk to fourth.

In the fourth and final heat race, former multi-time National Champion Chad Becker had the pole and took off into the early lead, as Cory Tammen made his way to second and Dylan Kromschroeder and Lindsay Hansen were side by side for third. With two to go, Becker’s lead was just over three seconds, while Tammen held second and Kromschroeder had a solid handle on third. That’s how they finished, with Becker netting the victory ahead of Tammen and Kromschroeder in the top three.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[2]; 3. 12-Chad Becker[4]; 4. 5E-Shane Edginton[3]; 5. 07-Cory Crapser[6]; 6. 0-Jeff Provinzino[8]; 7. 71X-Cory Tammen[5]; 8. 7-Joel Bennett[10]; 9. 32-Jordan Tollakson[7]; 10. 21F-Gunner Frank[12]; 11. 11-Austin Kuehl[14]; 12. 66X-Travis Saurer[9]; 13. 85G-Jayson Good[13]; 14. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[16]; 15. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[18]; 16. 30-Kevin Burdick[22]; 17. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[11]; 18. 20-Trevor Anderson[20]; 19. XXX-Jon Tollakson[21]; 20. 15X-Blake Boelens[24]; 21. 18G-Chase Gelling[19]; 22. 27-Jared Zimpel[15]; 23. 10K-Shawn Kirwin[17]; 24. (DNS) 32H-Lindsey Hansen

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[4]; 3. 11-Austin Kuehl[3]; 4. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[5]; 5. 21-Todd Frank[2]; 6. 21F-Gunner Frank[11]; 7. 15X-Blake Boelens[9]; 8. 24-Mike Stearns[8]; 9. 66-Sam Zender[6]; 10. 50-Ben Wolden[10]; 11. (DQ) 6M-Jeff Massingill[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 07-Cory Crapser[1]; 2. 66X-Travis Saurer[2]; 3. 32-Jordan Tollakson[5]; 4. 18G-Chase Gelling[3]; 5. 10K-Shawn Kirwin[7]; 6. 53-Chris Mensen[4]; 7. 30-Kevin Burdick[10]; 8. 77-Corey Seckerson[9]; 9. 3H-Jerry Hauge[6]; 10. 24H-Mike Hart[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 5E-Shane Edginton[1]; 2. 7-Joel Bennett[2]; 3. 0-Jeff Provinzino[5]; 4. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[4]; 5. 20-Trevor Anderson[6]; 6. XXX-Jon Tollakson[8]; 7. 21X-Dustin Arthur[9]; 8. 47-Danny Vang[10]; 9. 10X-Robert Bitz[7]; 10. (DQ) 45J-Johnny Broking[3]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker[1]; 2. 71X-Cory Tammen[3]; 3. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder[4]; 4. 85G-Jayson Good[6]; 5. 32H-Lindsey Hansen[5]; 6. 27-Jared Zimpel[10]; 7. 31-Travis Budisalovich[9]; 8. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[8]; 9. 18X-Shawn Meyer[7]; 10. 18-Josh Rieck[2]