9/14/2017
Kerzman Holds Off Emerson By .175 Seconds For Legendary 100 Win
Jeremy Kerzman of Gray Eagle, MN is no stranger to Rock Auto Victory Lane at the Cedar Lake Speedway. Coming into the Legendary 100 non-point show for the UMSS Traditional sprint cars on Thursday evening September 14, Kerzman had won six times at the popular western Wisconsin dirt oval in TSCS action over the past couple of seasons. Make that seven wins now, as Kerzman held off rookie competitor Caley Emerson by .175 seconds at the finish to record his fifth win of the season and fourth at Cedar Lake in 2017. The win paid Kerzman $500, as he became the first Traditional sprint car driver to earn a Legendary 100 title. Twice in the previous two years the Traditional sprints had attempted to run at the Legendary 100, and twice those planned opening night events were washed out. Not so on this very warm and muggy late summer night.
Even though it was a non-point event, a decent turnout of seventeen non-winged sprints signed into the pits. Two heat races were run. Cam Schafer made a last lap pass of Rick Kobs to win the first heat while Richert Memorial winner Mike Mueller passed Brad Peterson on lap 4 to win the second heat. The top four cars in passing points drew for starting positions in the first two rows of the feature. Schafer drew the pole with Kerzman outside. Mueller and Jon Lewerer comprised the second row.
All seventeen cars took the green flag for the 25 lap feature race. Kerzman immediately jumped up top and set a quick pace. The lone caution of the race flew when Bryan Roach spun in turn 4 with seven laps scored. Kerzman took off again on the restart, as rookie competitor Caley Emerson began working his way forward from fourth. Emerson had started fifth on the grid. On lap 12, Emerson moved past Mueller for second. Sixth starter Rick Kobs, subbing for the injured Ty Sampair in his N1 sprinter, was also working his way forward. On lap 18, Kobs moved to third place. The laps continued to click off under the green, but fans could see that both Emerson and Kobs were slowly closing the margin on the leader. With just a couple laps to go, Emerson closed to within a few car lengths of Kerzman with Kobs close behind. A hard charge coming to the white flag would see Emerson close up right behind Kerzman, but Kerzman stretched his advantage a bit exiting turn two on the final lap. Another valiant effort in turn four on the final lap would see Emerson come up just .175 seconds short at the checkers in an exciting finish. Kobs wasn't far behind the lead duo to finish third. Rounding out the top five finishers was Schafer and Lewerer. Jake Kouba, Mueller, Jimmy Kouba, Blake Anderson and late model racer Harry Hanson completed the top ten. Only one car failed to finish with fifteen cars still on the lead lap at the checkers.
The Traditional sprints will close out their season on Friday and Saturday, September 15-16, at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa and at the Deer Creek Speedway south of Rochester. They will be joined by the UMSS 360 winged sprints and the IRA 410 Outlaw Sprints both nights. Weather permitting, the Spencer race will mark the first time the Traditional sprints have ventured to Iowa. They were scheduled to race in Iowa on August 26 at Decorah, but rainy weather forced cancellation of that event. Keep tabs on all of the Traditional sprint car racing action by visiting our website at www.umsprints.com and clicking on the blue logo or by following us on Facebook.
UMSS TSCS Race Results - Cedar Lake Speedway September 14, 2017 (Race #20)
Legendary 100
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman, [2]; 2. 15E-Caley Emerson, [5]; 3. N1-Rick Kobs, [6]; 4. 14-Cam Schafer, [1]; 5. 69S-Jon Lewerer, [4]; 6. 6-Jake Kouba, [12]; 7. 87-Mike Mueller, [3]; 8. 2K-Jimmy Kouba, [14]; 9. 12X-Blake Anderson, [11]; 10. 7-Harry Hanson, [13]; 11. 93-Brad Peterson, [7]; 12. 33C-Cody Emmans, [15]; 13. 99-Bryan Roach, [9]; 14. 24-Brian VanMeveren, [16]; 15. 29-Hunter Custer, [8]; 16. 23-Jake Hendrickson, [17]; 17. (DNF) 12-Johnny Parsons III, [10]
Lap Leader: Kerzman 1-25. (1) yellow with 7 laps scored for 99 spin turn 4. Margin of victory .175 seconds! Very good race.
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 14-Cam Schafer, [3]; 2. N1-Rick Kobs, [2]; 3. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman, [5]; 4. 99-Bryan Roach, [1]; 5. 29-Hunter Custer, [7]; 6. 12X-Blake Anderson, [6]; 7. 33C-Cody Emmans, [4]; 8. 7-Harry Hanson, [9]; 9. 23-Jake Hendrickson, [8]
Lap Leaders: Roach, Kobs 2-9, Schafer 10. No cautions. Very good race!
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 87-Mike Mueller, [4]; 2. 93-Brad Peterson, [1]; 3. 69S-Jon Lewerer, [8]; 4. 15E-Caley Emerson, [7]; 5. 12-Johnny Parsons III, [2]; 6. 6-Jake Kouba, [6]; 7. 2K-Jimmy Kouba, [5]; 8. 24-Brian VanMeveren, [3]
Lap Leaders: Peterson 1-3, Mueller 4-10. No cautions.
Rock Auto Victory Lane photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
