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Anderson Wins Qualifying Feature at Great Lakes Border Battle

SUPERIOR, Wisc. (07/1/2016) - The inaugural Great Lakes Border Battle kicked off at the Amsoil Speedway in Superior, Wisconsin under bright sunshine and comfortable temperatures with a whopping 59 WISSOTA Modifieds, 53 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and 29 WISSOTA Pure Stocks in attendance. The FYE Motorsports promoted event was the largest payout in the history of the Superior, Wisconsin facility that has been in operation for 60+ years. The event was sponsored Propane Strategies, O’Brien Enterprises, ThermoSeal Insulation, RH Rebel Storage, RacinDirt.com, Tim’s Automotive Machine, Collins Brothers Towing of St. Cloud, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Anderson’s Pure Maple Syrup, Realtruck.com, Wehrs Machine, Steussy Investments, Schill Construction, Outpost Drive Inn and Southworth Chevrolet.

Six 15-lap Modified heat races were center stage with passing points being utilized to determine the top 24 starters in the night’s qualifying main event.

Heat one saw Andy Jones jump to the lead from the start with Mike Stearns sliding into second early. Steve Lavasseur and Stearns battled fiercely for the runner up spot with 7th starting Mike Anderson working every inch of the speedway to find any kind of an opening. Jones drove off to victory with Anderson making the move of the night on the final lap to sweep by Lavasseur and Stearns into second with the approval of the on it’s feet crowd!

Heat two saw Bob Broking jump from the outside of the front row with 4th starting Scott Greer moving into second at the start. Broking and Greer ran first and second through the majority of the event with 6th starting Darrell Nelson working over Greer lap after lap for the runner up spot until finally sneaking by with just a few laps remaining. Nelson charged after Broking but ran out of time as Broking raced to the heat race victory.

After a criss cross for a scratch in the lineup, the third heat would see JB Stortz blast to the lead from the outside of the front row with Ward Imrie glued to his spoiler for the lead during the majority of the 15-lapper. Tyler Peterson raced from 6th to third and Tim Jackson charged from 9th into fourth midrace and tried to race down the leaders. Stortz picked up the win with Imrie a close second.

The fourth heat featured defending National Champion Kevin Adams taking the lead from the outside of the front row with 4th starting Kevin Eder challenging early. Eder was able to sweep to the outside of Adams for the lead mid race and hold off Adams throughout the remainder of the event. Ashley Anderson charged from 8th to 3rd at the finish.

Heat five saw Johnny Broking drive away from the field from his pole position starting spot in a run away with Al Uotinen solidly jumping into second after starting inside the second row. Uotinen would race the bottom of the track as Danny Vang and 10th starting Rick Niemi tried to move forward. Broking would join his father as a heat race winner with Uotinen in second.

The final heat race saw Jake Hartung race to the lead from outside of the front row with Scot Danzeisen a solid second early. Matt Leer and Neil Balduc moved in to challenge and Balduc raced by into second. Neil then tried to chase down Hartung up front with Leer slipping by Danzeisen for third. Hartung would hold off Balduc for the victory in heat race number six.

Friday night consisted of a full program for the WISSOTA sanctioned Pure Stocks, which featured a large field of 29 cars from across the region. After three heat races were completed, event promoters decided to start all 29 cars in the 15-lap, $325 main event. Solon Springs, Wisconsin racer Alex Smith took the lead from the drop of the green from the outside of the front row and paced the early laps with Dustin Follett and Jason Havel in tow. Havel and Follett tried multiple lines and multiple times to overtake Smith for lead until Havel tried a bit too hard and spun his #5 bringing out one of 5 cautions and sending him to the tail. Smith regained the lead on the restart and worked his way in front of Follett for much of the remainder of the event. Follett was able to finally race his #3d to the inside of Smith to overtake Alex for the lead with just two circuits remaining to claim the victory. Michael Blevens ralled late to a second place finish ahead of Jon Hammitt, Havel from the tail and Matt Deragon rounded out the top five finishers.

53 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds signed in on the opening night of the Great Lakes Border Battle in search of the $1,500 top prize awaiting the winner. The field was widdled down to 26 feature starters after 6 heat races and 2 bmains. Hibbing, Minnesota pilot Tyler Kintner and Thunder Bay, Ontario racer Kevin Monteith paced the field to the green for the 25-lapper, with Monteith jumping out to the lead early on Canada Day to the delight of the Northern crowd in attendance. Kintner and Skeeter Estey moved in on Monteith early in the event to battle out front, while Jason VandeKamp worked his way forward from his 8th starting spot. The battle tightened up and was soon a thrilling 4 car race up front as Monteith, Kintner, Estey and VandeKamp waged a way in front of the packed stands. Estey swung to the outside of the Monteith/Kintner side by side battle for the lead and swept by to the lead just past the halfway point. VandeKamp also snuck by into second spot and tried to run down Estey. VandeKamp was able cut into Estey’s advantage and dove to the inside of Skeeter’s #37x on multiple occasions as the laps wound toward the end. The duo raced hard for the lead with Estey in the preferred groove and VandeKamp right there looking for an opening. The race came down to the final lap in which Estey was able to withstand one final VandeKamp push for the $1,500 victory. VandeKamp settled for second with 12th starting Michael Truscott rallying to third and Justin Fromming fourth, from 19th and Kintner in the top five.

The final race of the night was the 25-lap Modified Qualifying Feature that would start 24 cars and lock in the top 15 finsihers into Saturday night’s $10,500 main event. Ashley Anderson and Jake Hartung redrew the front row and Anderson blasted from the pole to the lead at the start with Hartung in tow. Mike Anderson settled into third with Andy Jones and JB Stortz battling for fourth early. 8th starting Darrell Nelson worked his way steadily toward the front with a thriller of a battle for transfer spots occurring just outside of the top five between Matt Leer, Ward Imrie, Broking, Tyler Peterson, Seth Brede Al Uotinen. That gaggle of cars was worth the price of admission alone as they were three and sometimes four wide for position trying to lock themselves into the main event. Meanwhile back up front Anderson continued to lead with Hartung a close second. The lead duo began to encounter some lapped traffic, which allowed Hartung to challenge for the top spot, but Anderson was up to the task and held off Hartung for the non-stop victory. Anderson was third with 9th starting Johnny Broking and Nelson coming across the checkered in the top five.

The championship night of the inaugural Great Lakes Border Battle will take place on Saturday night, July 2nd with a 6pm start time, Full programs for WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks and the b-mains, last chance race and 60-lap, $10,500 to win main event for the WISSOTA Modifieds. Check out www.FYEMotorsports.com for more information.

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