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James Giossi Returns To Victory Lane At Cedar Lake Speedway

It had been a little over a year since James "Nitro" Giossi won his first Traditional Sprint Car Series feature race at his home track. Giossi returned to Rock Auto Victory Lane at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday night July 30 for his second win of the 2016 racing season. Giossi became the third different leader of the 20 lap feature race on lap 15 and held the top spot to the checkers on his way to his third career Traditional sprint car win in just his second season behind the wheel of a non-winged sprint car. Giossi picked up $500 for the victory thanks to some sponsorship help from GRP Motorsports. Commenting in his winner's interview with Marty Gallagher in Rock Auto Victory Lane, Giossi said "I honestly didn't think we would have a top three car, but after a couple of good restarts we were able to pull it off. That was a lot of fun."

The racing program was an action-packed night, since the weekly show had been rained out the previous Saturday evening and all divisions were in action except for the late models. It was also the annual Eve of Destruction Night featuring a couple of Monster Trucks, various stunts and entertaining events including spectator drags, the outhouse race, auto football and so forth. The program started an hour earlier than usual. In order to help keep everything on track, the Traditional sprints ran their usual three heats with passing and finishing points but agreed to run a 20 lap feature instead of the typical 25 laps.

Heat race wins went to five-time CLS winner already this season Rick Kobs, the driver with the second-most career TSCS wins Johnny Parsons III, and 2015 Rookie of the Year James Giossi. As has been the case for a good share of the racing programs this season, Rick Kobs found himself in the top four in passing and finishing points following the heats. Kobs had the top score followed by Jake Kouba, Jimmy Kouba and Parsons. Following the redraw for the first two rows of the feature, it would be Parsons and Kobs on the front row with a pair of Koubas, Jimmy and Jake, in row two. All three 10 lap heats ran caution-free. Twenty of the 21 cars on hand would make the call to start the feature, as Brian Van Meveren, driving Denny Stordahl's second car, broke a rear end in his heat race and was done for the night.

Parsons drove to an early lead in the feature event with Kobs close behind. Jake Kouba got around Kobs on lap 5 for second, and one lap later when Parsons got sideways in turn four, Jake had the lead with Kobs in second. Kouba continued to show the way up front, as the young racer was looking for his first win of the season. The first yellow flag waved with 14 laps scored when Parsons spun in turn two and dropped out of the race. On the restart, Jake Kouba and Kobs battled for the lead entering turn one. Giossi, who was in third, got a good restart and saw his chance to duck low in turn one under the top two cars. Exiting turn two down the back stretch, Giossi had the lead. All cars crossed the line to compete lap 15 when Tony Klose spun in turn four to bring out the second and final caution. Giossi was the leader and held the top spot the remainder of the way for his second TSCS win at Cedar Lake Speedway. Kobs got by Jake Kouba off of turn four on the final lap for second. Mike Mueller came from eighth to finish fourth ahead of Jimmy Kouba. Three-time CLS winner this season Jeremy Kerzman finished sixth ahead of Jon Lewerer, Neal Matuska, 18th starter Ty Sampair and Hunter Custer. Parsons was the only car to drop out of the race, as nineteen cars were running at the finish with sixteen of them still on the lead lap.

Also of interest to long-time local area sprint car racing fans, the IMCA Vintage Cars were on hand at Cedar Lake and 4-time MSA Champion Bob Hop of Mendota, Minnesota drove a Gillund Enterprises-Justice Brothers #88 sprint car owned by Rob Caho, Sr. to victory in their sprint car division heat race and feature.

The Traditional sprints as well as the UMSS winged sprints now have a planned two week break before returning to action. The Traditional sprints will run an exhibition race (non-points) at the Grand Rapids Speedway on Thursday night August 18 during the Itasca County Fair before returning to full-point shows at the Princeton Speedway and Ogilvie Raceway on Friday and Saturday August 19-20. The UMSS winged sprints will join the Traditional sprints at Princeton and Ogilvie, as the Princeton program will be the 15th Annual Billy Anderson Memorial which got rained out on June 3. The UMSS Micro Sprints will also be in action at Princeton which is their weekly track. As the championship and rookie point battles start to take shape, there is still plenty of racing action remaining! Check out the schedule, results, points and other news for the Traditional Sprint Car Series on our website at www.umsprints.com by clicking on the blue logo or follow us on Facebook.

UMSS TSCS Race Results - Cedar Lake Speedway July 30, 2016 (Race #16)

GRP Motorsports A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11-James Giossi[5]; 2. 81-Rick Kobs[2]; 3. 6-Jake Kouba[4]; 4. 87-Mike Mueller[8]; 5. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[3]; 6. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[9]; 7. 69S-Jon Lewerer[11]; 8. 48-Neal Matuska[6]; 9. N1-Ty Sampair[18]; 10. 29-Hunter Custer[7]; 11. 12X-Blake Anderson[10]; 12. 99-Bryan Roach[13]; 13. 21J-Jori Hughes[14]; 14. 95-Kevin Bradwell[15]; 15. 12W-Kyle Wehking[16]; 16. 34-Denny Stordahl[12]; 17. 6L-Joe Lallier[20]; 18. 31-Doug Taubert[17]; 19. 90-Tony Klose[19]; 20. (DNF) 12-Johnny Parsons III[1]; (DNS) 00-Brian Vanmeveren
Lap Leaders: Parsons 1-5, Jake Kouba 6-14, Giossi 15-20. Cautions: (2) yellows. First caution waved with 14 laps scored for 12 spin turn 2. Second yellow blinked on with 15 laps scored for 90 spin turn 4.

Track Rat Photos Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 81-Rick Kobs[6]; 2. 48-Neal Matuska[3]; 3. 87-Mike Mueller[4]; 4. 34-Denny Stordahl[5]; 5. 99-Bryan Roach[7]; 6. 31-Doug Taubert[2]; 7. (DNF) 00-Brian Vanmeveren[1]
Lap Leaders: Matuska 1-2, Kobs 3-10. No cautions. VanMeveren in 00 car done for the night (broken rear end).

Meeks Video Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 12-Johnny Parsons III[2]; 2. 6-Jake Kouba[5]; 3. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[7]; 4. 12X-Blake Anderson[6]; 5. N1-Ty Sampair[3]; 6. 21J-Jori Hughes[1]; 7. 90-Tony Klose[4]
Lap Leaders: Sampair 1-2, Parsons 3-10. No cautions.

Hoosier Racing Tire Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 11-James Giossi[1]; 2. 29-Hunter Custer[2]; 3. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[4]; 4. 69S-Jon Lewerer[6]; 5. 95-Kevin Bradwell[3]; 6. 12W-Kyle Wehking[5]; 7. 6L-Joe Lallier[7]
Lap Leader: Giossi 1-10. No cautions.

Rock Auto Victory Lane photo courtesy of Mark Meeks at Meeks Video.

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