7/22/2017
Derrik Lusk Makes It Two Straight With Tabor Memorial Win At Ogilvie
A warm summer evening with fantastic weather brought out a large crowd and a good turnout of UMSS winged sprint cars for the 6th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial at the Ogilvie Raceway on Saturday July 22. Following another entertaining 25 lap feature, Derrik Lusk of Jackson made it back-to-back wins in UMSS competition to become the sixth different driver to win a Tabor Memorial title. Lusk also moved a little bit further ahead of Chris Graf in the Midwest Power Equipment/GRP Motorsports series of nine races with a second and now two wins in the first three events. Lusk celebrated his win in Rock Auto Victory Lane and the $1,634 payday that came with it. Lusk took the lead from two-time and defending Midwest Power Series champion Chris Graf on lap 11 and held the top spot the remainder of the race.
A decent field of eighteen UMSS winged sprints signed into the pits on a hot, sunny afternoon at the Big O to get ready to do battle around the fast 3/8th mile dirt oval. Three 6-lap heat races and two 9-lap Challenge races were run with drivers earning passing and finishing points in each round of qualifiers in order to set the starting lineup for the feature event. Heat race wins went to Graf, 2015-2016 UMSS Champion Ryan Bowers, and leading Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Viebrock. With the top five finishers in the heats inverted for the Challenge races, Lusk and Jason Tostenson each took the lead on lap 5 of their races and sped on to victory. The top four drivers in points then redrew for starting spots in the first two rows of the feature. The redraw would see Bowers and Graf fire off from the front row with Lusk and Tostenson right behind them in the second row.
All cars made the call for the 25 lap Davey Tabor Memorial feature race. Bowers set a quick pace right from the drop of the green and blasted into the early lead with Graf and Lusk trailing. Just five laps into the race, Bowers began lapping cars running near the tail end of the field which allowed Graf and Lusk to close right in. On lap six the battle for the lead heated up with a pack of cars exiting turn four. Lusk was in the process of moving from third to first as the cars sped down the front stretch with lapped traffic. Suddenly Bowers car spun around near the start-finish line after some contact and came to rest on the edge of the infield. This brought out the first caution with scoring reverting back to lap 5. Bowers restarted 17th on the grid, as Graf was now the new leader.
Graf gassed it on the restart and pulled away from Lusk. With Bowers literally putting on a show moving up from the back of the pack, fans were keeping an eye on "Showtime" as well as the leaders. Graf caught the back of the field four laps later and Lusk closed in. Some exciting racing once again for the top spot was in store, as Lusk managed to get by Graf on lap 11 in traffic for the lead. And for the second time, some drama would play out on the front stretch as leaders worked lapped traffic in an attempt to complete 12 laps. Contact between Graf and the lapped car of Kevin Bradwell saw Graf loop around and Bradwell come limping to a stop with a broken front end. Graf appeared as though he might flip over but somehow managed to maintain control of his car, get it straightened out and continue on. Bob McVitty came flying in and clipped Bradwell's already disabled machine. McVitty headed for the infield and ended up making some more contact with Ronnie Erickson who was trying to avoid the crash. Scoring reverted back to lap 11 with Graf still in second, Erickson able to restart near the tail, and unfortunately with both Bradwell and McVitty riding the hook to the pits.
With Lusk in the lead, he set sail on the restart over Graf. Again the leaders began approaching lapped traffic and Graf closed in on Lusk. Lusk had come upon a group of four cars racing for positions further back in the field. Just as Graf got close, Lusk masterfully worked through that group and gained some breathing room again up front. Not so for Graf, as Bowers had now run him down and eventually took second in turn three. The final 14 laps clicked off caution-free with Derrik Lusk picking up his third career UMSS feature win. "Showtime" Ryan Bowers thrilled the crowd, which included many Ryan Bowers fans in attendance at what Ryan considers his home track, with his charge up through the field to ride home in second. Graf held on to an ill-handling car after the incident earlier in the race to finish third. Viebrock and Tostenson rounded out the top five with strong runs for each of them. Jamey Ogston was sixth. Making a rare appearance with the UMSS, Ramona, SD racer Ryan Bickett finished seventh and also earned the special GRP $100 Long Tow Award. Jared Goerges was back in action with his very recently repaired 360 motor back in the car (just several hours before race time) for an eighth place finish. Dean Brown and Reed Allex completed the top ten. The 305 sprint car of Val Urman, Tori Knutson, Ty Sampair in his Traditional sprint, Erickson, Jeff Pellersels and Trevor Reding completed the sixteen cars that finished.
A huge thanks to Margaret Tabor for her generous contribution of well over $2,000 into the winged sprint car purse along with the Midwest Power Equipment and GRP Motorsports money made for a nightly payout in the division of $9,000. The UMSS and the Tabor family want to thank Ogilvie Raceway for hosting this special night and Midwest Power Equipment and GRP Motorsports for their contributions to the purse. It was once again another entertaining evening of racing and another successful Tabor Memorial on a night the local area sprint car community came together to remember and honor one of their own.
The UMSS winged sprints will now take a month off before returning to action at the Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids on Friday August 18 and the Madison Speedway out in western Minnesota on Saturday August 19 for the fourth and fifth races in the Midwest Power Equipment/GRP Motorsports Series. It is fairly typical at this time of the season for the UMSS winged sprints to have some off-time with a couple of big sprint car racing weekends down at the Knoxville Raceway coming up in early August. Although it will be several weeks before the UMSS winged warriors race again, look for the point battle to continue between Lusk, Graf and Bowers when the double-header weekend rolls around in mid August. All three feature races so far have been very entertaining in this special nine race series. Keep tabs on all of the UMSS winged sprint car action by visiting our website at www.umsprints.com and clicking on the red logo or by following us on Facebook.
UMSS Race Results - Ogilvie Raceway July 22, 2017 (Race #11)
6th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial
Midwest Power Equip/GRP Motorsports 6th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 2-Derrik Lusk, [3]; 2. 64-Ryan Bowers, [1]; 3. 20G-Chris Graf, [2]; 4. 50-Chase Viebrock, [7]; 5. 36-Jason Tostenson, [4]; 6. 03-Jamey Ogston, [8]; 7. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [5]; 8. 9-Jared Goerges, [6]; 9. 1-Dean Brown, [9]; 10. 91A-Reed Allex, [10]; 11. 462-Val Urman, [12]; 12. 14K-Victoria (Tori) Knutson, [15]; 13. N1-Ty Sampair, [11]; 14. 62-Ronnie Erickson, [13]; 15. 22-Jeff Pellersels, [16]; 16. 95-Trevor Reding, [18]; 17. (DNF) 77-Kevin Bradwell, [17]; 18. (DNF) 7M-Bob McVitty, [14].
Lap Leaders: Bowers 1-5, Graf 6-10, Lusk 11-25. (2) yellows: 64 spin on front stretch coming to complete lap 6 while leading and in traffic. 64 tagged the tail and scoring went back to lap 5. Final caution for contact on front stretch in traffic between 20G & 77. 77 broke front end and colleted 7M & 62. 20G kept going, so he kept his spot in 2nd. 62 restarted tail end. 77 & 7M went out on hook to pits.
Margaret Tabor Challenge Race 1 (9 Laps): 1. 2-Derrik Lusk, [3]; 2. 03-Jamey Ogston, [1]; 3. 20G-Chris Graf, [6]; 4. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [5]; 5. 50-Chase Viebrock, [7]; 6. 62-Ronnie Erickson, [2]; 7. 462-Val Urman, [4]; 8. 14K-Victoria (Tori) Knutson, [8]; (DNS) 77-Kevin Bradwell.
Lap Leaders: Ogston 1-4, Lusk 5-9. No cautions.
Margaret Tabor Challenge Race 2 (9 Laps): 1. 36-Jason Tostenson, [5]; 2. 64-Ryan Bowers, [7]; 3. 1-Dean Brown, [2]; 4. 9-Jared Goerges, [6]; 5. 91A-Reed Allex, [3]; 6. N1-Ty Sampair, [4]; 7. 7M-Bob McVitty, [1]; 8. 95-Trevor Reding, [9]; 9. (DNF) 22-Jeff Pellersels, [8].
Lap Leaders: Brown 1-4, Tostenson 5-9. No cautions.
Midwest Power Equipment Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 20G-Chris Graf, [3]; 2. 36-Jason Tostenson, [2]; 3. 2-Derrik Lusk, [5]; 4. 1-Dean Brown, [1]; 5. 03-Jamey Ogston, [6]; 6. 22-Jeff Pellersels, [4].
Lap Leader: Brown 1-2, Graf 3-6. No cautions.
Midwest Power Equipment Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 64-Ryan Bowers, [4]; 2. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [5]; 3. N1-Ty Sampair, [3]; 4. 77-Kevin Bradwell, [1]; 5. 7M-Bob McVitty, [2]; 6. (DNF) 14K-Victoria (Tori) Knutson, [6].
Lap Leader: Bowers 1-6. (1) yellow for 14k stopped on front stretch after 1 lap. On hook to pits.
Midwest Power Equipment Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 50-Chase Viebrock, [1]; 2. 9-Jared Goerges, [4]; 3. 462-Val Urman, [2]; 4. 91A-Reed Allex, [5]; 5. 62-Ronnie Erickson, [3]; 6. 95-Trevor Reding, [6].
Lap Leader: Viebrock 1-6. No cautions.
Rock Auto Victory Lane photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
