6/5/2015
UMSS Traditional Sprints Provide Record Thrill
St. Croix Falls, WI, June 5, 2015
by Nicole Lehnertz and Terry Lehnertz
After suffering rain-outs in two of the previous three weeks, St. Croix Valley Raceway celebrated its first of two Kids’ night events, featuring a driver autograph session, face painting, raffles and the always popular Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers.
After a brief intermission to groom the heavy cushion that had built up during the heat races, the feature races were readdy for action on the track. The UMSS Traditional Sprints established a new attendance record with twenty of the non-winged beasts taking on the quarter-mile at SCVR. In four events so far this season, the night has yielded four different winners, with the spoils on Friday going to Johnny Parsons III for the fifteenth time in his TSCS tenure. Neal Matuska grabbed the lead early from row starting mate Kevin “The Rocketman” Bradwell, who started on the pole. While most of the field worked a middle groove, Parsons was the first and most persistent purveyor of the low groove, racing in third place in front of a group that included Jake Kouba, Chase Viebrock, Rob Caho Jr., Jimmy Kouba and second heat race winner James Giossi. It took until lap 15 before Parsons could nudge ahead of Bradwell and into second, but only a few more laps to sneak past Matuska and into the lead. Just as Parsons took over the top spot, Caho was emerging from traffic and began pouring it on. When the leaders cleared traffic, Caho looked even stronger and rapidly gobbled up the clay between himself and Parsons. As quickly as Caho was gaining, however, laps ticked off even faster and the two-time champion had to settle for runner-up, giving Parsons his first win of 2015. After Matuska dropped out with mechanical woes, Viebrock, Bradwell and Jake Kouba rounded out the rest of the top five.
Race Results:
UMSS Traditional Sprints Feature (25 laps): Johnny Parsons III, Rob Caho Jr., Chase Viebrock, Kevin Bradwell, Jake Kouba, Jimmy Kouba, James Giossi, Mike Mueller, Joseph Kouba, Mike Walters, Jon Lewerer, Scott Brandt, Katrina Sautbine, Josh Hendrickson, Tony Klose, Neal Matuska (DNF), Dan Peper(DNF), Mike Haseltine(DNF), D Taubert(DNF), Jori Hughes(DNF)
Heat 1: Bradwell, Matuska, Jake Kouba, Joseph Kouba, Haseltine, Lewerer, Peper
Heat 2: Giossi, Viebrock, Sautbine, Walters, Taubert, Klose, Hughes (DNF)
Heat 3: Parsons III, Jimmy Kouba, Caho, Brandt, Mueller, Hendrickson
Victory Lane photo provided by Fotos by Fizzle.
Article Credit: Terry Lehnertz
