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Dover Dominates Night 1 of the Rumble

The Inaugural Rock River Rumble presented by Papik Motors drew a big crowd of cars and fans for night number one of the two day event schedule at Rapid Speedway. With the addition of the MSTS 360 Sprint Cars to the four premier racing classes already 108 racers checked into the field to race in front of a great crowd under the historic covered grandstands.
The speed and excitement that comes with the Sprint Cars was on display right away as the winged warriors we clocking speeds of over 100 mph down the straightaways and they screamed past the fans. Jack Dover of Springfield, NE wasted no time in showing why he is the all-time leader in MSTS wins taking his outside front row starting spot and opened up a huge lead on the rest of the field. Just four laps into the 25 lap main event Dover found himself in lapped traffic and would show just how good his car was by dipping inside and outside weaving through cars a lapping up to the 4th position at one point. Meanwhile chasing their way behind Dover, Ryan Bickett of Ramona, SD was making a charge of his own coming from 7th to grab the 2nd spot on lap 13. In heavy traffic as well, Bickett would battle with Justin Jacobsma or Hull. A caution would fall over the race on lap 20 and allow the field to catch up to Dover, but on the restart, in dominating fashion, Dover would once again pull away from the field and net his 30th win with MSTS. “We went down to Knoxville and gave up the MSTS points lead last weekend, but we learned some things, and we put them to use here tonight,” said the victor. Jacobsma would finish in 2nd ahead of Bickett. Seafoam would present the top 3 with a new right rear tire for their efforts on the night. Rock Rapids’ Jody Rosenboom would come from 8th to finish 4th ahead of hard charger Gregg Bakker coming from 15th to 5th. Heat races were won by Bickett, Derrik Lusk, and Jason Tostenson. The MSTS will return to Rapid Speedway Tuesday July 21st as part of the Lyon County Fair races.
Earlier in the night in the Lems Auto Recyclers Sportmans Bill Kroon would shoot out front from outside the front row and set a furious pace as he was chased by Leon Sneller, Marni Deboer, and Brian Kroon, with a 3 wide battle for 5th behind them. That three car battle would turn into a caution on lap 3. On the restart, Brian Kroon would get a great jump and make his way to 2nd. Bill out in front had Brian and Leon bumper to bumper nose to tail and the three would pull away from the rest of the field and the halfway point of the race. On the final circuit the pressure to the bumper would become and battle on his inside quarter panel, but the veteran driver would not waiver and pick up his 4th win of the season. When asked about the pressure in victory lane Kroon would comment, “You don’t worry about what’s behind you, just keep looking forward.” Brian Kroon would come home 2nd ahead of Sneller, while Wyatt Steenhoven and Tyler Bradley rounded out the top 5. Heat races belonged to Kroon and Bradley.
The J&L RV Sales Bmods provided some great racing and excitement that kept the fans on the edge of their seats all the way to the finish. Trevor Tesch of Lennox, SD would set the pace early on showing the way around the outside of the track. Derek VanVeldhuizen would immediately jump into to 2nd and start his challenge for the race lead. VanVeldhuizen would look inside of Tesch in turn one, but it wasn’t there. He’d look again one lap later, but the leader kept holding him off. With the leaders battling it became a 4 way affair as Kevin Joachim and Tyler Johnson joined the mix. With Tesch leading Joachim would drive to outside of VanVeldhuizen looking to take away the 2nd spot, but as he did it the caution came out and negated his pass. On the restart, Joachim would dive to the inside and the two would switch top to bottom in the next corner. With VanVeldhuizen finding some speed on the bottom he would once again challenge for the race lead and steal it away from Tesch, then out of nowhere Johnson found his own speed on the top coming to 2nd and flying around the topside taking the lead momentarily, but a caution would once again negate a pass and VanVeldhuizen would reassume the lead. This would set up a great battle to the finish. Back to green Johnson would try a slide job on VanVeldhuizen, but to no avail, this would allow Cole Christensen into the mix now as he started his challenge for 2nd. Christensen would set his own slider on Johnson in turn four, but Johnson turned in down the hill and drove back by down the front stretch. VanVeldhuizen out in front would miss his mark in turn 4 coming to the white flag and slide off the track allowing Johnson and Christensen to fly by. Tyler Johnson would grab his 3rd win of the season and extend his point lead while Christensen finish 2nd ahead of VanVeldhuizen. Dave Kennedy would come home fourth and Randy VanVeldhuizen finished 5th. “I wasn’t thrilled about the track at the start, but it really came around. Two lanes of racing like that, you can’t ask for much more, “said Johnson in victory lane. Johnson, Tesch, and Van Veldhuizen picked up the heat wins earlier in the night.
Multiple cautions would dominate the majority of the USRA Hobby Stocks presented by Sybesma Graphics. A B-feature would cut the field of 35 hobby stocks to 24 for the main event creating quite the cluster of cars on the track contributing to the yellow flags constant presence on the race. Dustin Gulbrandson drew the lucky straw starting on the pole for the feature. The 6 would grab the lead right away with a wild pack of cars battling behind him. After the first caution would fly Nick Brady would grab the second spot chasing Gulbrandson with 3 and sometimes 4 wide racing going on behind them. Caution flags were frequent and often forcing a green, white, checkered finish with the time limit and even with the cautions Gulbrandson would maintain the top spot and the USRA National Driver of the Week would take his 4th win of the season at the track. “We really didn’t get to race a whole lot with the cautions, I was just luck enough to get the draw and start where I did,” said Gulbrandson. 2nd place went to Nick Brady followed by point leader Tyler Schlumbohm, Dawson Deboer, and Tommy Kragt. Levi VanderWeide grabbed the B-feature win while the 5 heat races were claimed by Gulbrandson, Brady, Deboer, Rick VanderWeide, and Landon Krohn.
The Precision Auto Body Stock Cars saw 25 competitors take to the track Friday night. 24 of them looking to dethrone points leader Dustin Larson, who had one the last 3 races in a row. Darrin Korthals would grab the top spot right away and lead the charge as the top 7 cars would chase each other around the top of the raceway, while Larson, who started 12th by rule, would be the lone wolf on the bottom making his charge to the front. A caution on lap 4 would bunch up the field and on the restart Larson would rocket his way to 3rd behind Korthals and Justin Regnerus. In the midst of his chase to the front all of a sudden the 5L of Larson would pull off the backstretch and head to his pit with mechanical issues leaving the door open for a new winner on the night. Korthals extended his race lead over Regnerus by 5 car lengths and was starting to catch lap traffic before another caution would fly on lap 11. This would open up the track in front of Korthals, but it also brought his competitors back to his bumper. With just four laps remaining Regnerus would take full advantage of his second chance at the lead. He would be all over the back bumper of the race leader Korthals applying ample pressure before looking inside. Coming to the white flag Regnerus would take his shot and drive to the inside of Korthals, but the momentum off the top would allow Rapid Speedway’s all-time wins leader to grab his first win of the season. “It’s been a challenging year to say the least,” said Korthals in victory lane. “ We went back to an old school Husets Speedway setup and here we are.” Regnerus would hold on for 2nd ahead of Chad Lonneman in 3rd. Scott Overgaard charged from 16th to finish 4th while his brother Chad Overgaard would come home 5th. Korthals, Larson, and Spencer Kalass pick up the heat wins.

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