RABAS REPEATS IN MIDAMERICAN SERIES HEADLINER
By 141 Tower
FRANCIS CREEK, WI: Proving the first time was no fluke, Dennis
Rabas captured his second straight Yellow Book USA MidAmerican Series feature
win Saturday night at the 141 Speedway in Francis Creek.
Joining Rabas in victory lane were Josh Sand in the Super Stocks, Jesse Sheffer
in the Sport 4s and Paul Ray not once, but twice; capturing wins in both the
Mini-Stock and Hobby Stock classes.
As the travelling series winds its way through the MidWest, they often encounter
their toughest local competition at 141. Rabas proved that to be true again,
backing up a feature win in June with his second series win Saturday night.
First task at hand for Rabas was to secure the lead from polesitter and series
regular Bobby Gutknecht. Taking command of the inside line, Rabas moved to
the point on the 8th lap with Greg Haese in tow. Gutknecht regained the inside
after the two local racers got by. And that's exactly where the top three
stayed for the duration of the event.
Unable to establish bite on the high line, Haese followed directly Rabas'
tire tracks until the checkers flew. One tense moment came on the 24th lap
as Haese tried to dig to extreme low line. He tapped Rabas sending him into
a near spin. But Haese backed off, and Rabas made a sliding save through the
fourth corner. By the time they were headed down the frontstretch, Rabas had
control again and was on his way to the trophy.
With most teams tucked to the low line, passing was at a minimum. Peter Hernandez
was able to pick up a couple spots in the final laps, advancing to fourth
with Jeremy Miller fifth. Local driver Greg Herrmann also placed in the top
ten, taking eigth.
While the outside line didn't work for the MidAms, two drivers used it to
their advantage in the Super Stock feature.
Jason Henrickson appeared headed to a feature win until Sand and Don Wood
hooked up on the outside. Sand moved around second place Jason Muelemans then
pulled even with Henrickson on the 20th lap.
Right behind Sand came Wood, who raced to front from a last row starting spot.
But with both running the high line, Wood was unable to mount a challenge
for the win in the closing laps. Henrickson, Muelemans and Andy Casavant rounded
out the top five.
The Mini-Stock feature was marred by a seven car crash on the fifth lap. Contact
between the lead cars of Kevin Wellner Josh Sand also collected Kurt Naidl,
Randy Nething, Allen Dillon, Rick Lyons and Troy Selner. Miraculously, only
Wellner was through for the night.
With the leaders gone, Jason Novak and Dave Gauger took over the front row.
From the outside Gauger grabbed the lead.
Ray closed in a hurry, moving to outside on lap nine. The two raced side by
side for a lap, with Ray taking the lead on the 10th circuit.
A final incident involving Naidl, Sean Farrell and Kari Kostichka ended the
feature under caution, with Gauger, Dillon, Noval and Corey Dallmann all awarded
top five finishes behind Ray.
Ray jumped from the pole and pulled away to an easy win in the Hobby Stocks.
With the win pretty much secured. All eyes were on a tense battle for second
with Matt Reinke, Dave Verhagen, Jesse Behnke, Jason rabas, Travis Kronforst,
Pete Kumbalek and Jason Behnke all in the hunt.
Changing spots back and forth, it was Jesse Behnke who mastered the pack to
take second behind Ray. Reinke, Rabas and Jason Behnke posted top fives.
Sheffer led all 20 laps of the Sport 4 feature to edge Rick Lorrigan for the
win. Title contenders Todd Welsing and Kraig Koehler were joined by Bruce
Sand in a battle for third, with Sand taking the spot at the line.
Championship night for all divisions is Saturday night sponsored by the First
National Bank. The night will include a special penny drop for the kids, with
time trials at 5:30 and racing at 7:00.
For more information, visit the track's website at 141Speedway.com.
Mini Stock
Fast Time Allen Dillon 13.393
Heat 1: 1) #2 Rick Kretschmann 2) #23 Jake Vosters 3) #60 Mark
Truckey 4) #18 Bill Schlei 5) #5 Dave Senkbeil 6) #17 Sean Farrell 7) #86 Kevin
Peroutka 8) #29 Chris Wellner 9) #7 jason willadsen
Heat 2: 1) #21 Corey Dallmann 2) #13 Jason Novak 3) #56 Jason Sand 4) #97 Kurt
Naidl 5) #8W Kevin Wellner 6) #01 Paul Ray 7) #024 Kari Kostichka
Heat 3: 1) #40 John Senkbeil 2) #24 David Gauger, Jr. 3) #22 Randy Nething 4)
#9 Rick Lyons 5) #72 Troy Selner 6) #4 Allen Dillon 7) #8 Jason Riha
Semi-Feature: 1) #86 Kevin Peroutka 2) #17 Sean Farrell 3) #60 Mark Truckey 4) #5 Dave Senkbeil 5) #2 Rick Kretschmann 6) #29 Chris Wellner 7) #7 jason willadsen 8) #23 Jake Vosters 9) #18 Bill Schlei
Feature: 1) #01 Paul Ray 2) #24 David Gauger, Jr. 3) #4 Allen
Dillon 4) #13 Jason Novak 5) #21 Corey Dallmann 6) #40 John Senkbeil 7) #22
Randy Nething 8) #56 Jason Sand 9) #72 Troy Selner 10) #60 Mark Truckey 11)
#9 Rick Lyons 12) #86 Kevin Peroutka 13) #17 Sean Farrell 14) #024 Kari Kostichka
15) #97 Kurt Naidl 16) #8W Kevin Wellner 17) #8 Jason Riha
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Super Stock
Fast Time Greg Thompson 12.836
Heat 1: 1) #8 Bill Gast 2) #32 Don Wood 3) #10 Crystal Koenig
4) #77 Paul Rabas 5) #74w Jimmy Wilson 6) #57O Jamie VanHout 7) #26 Jolene Mueller
Heat 2: 1) #123 Jason Henrickson 2) #25 Andy Casavant 3) #31 Greg Thompson 4)
#66 Jason Meulemans 5) #4 Jimbo Schleis 6) #65 Josh Sand 7) #57 Tim Conard
Feature: 1) #65 Josh Sand 2) #32 Don Wood 3) #123 Jason Henrickson
4) #66 Jason Meulemans 5) #25 Andy Casavant 6) #4 Jimbo Schleis 7) #26 Jolene
Mueller 8) #8 Bill Gast 9) #10 Crystal Koenig 10) #77 Paul Rabas 11) #57 Tim
Conard 12) #74w Jimmy Wilson 13) #31 Greg Thompson 14) #57O Jamie VanHout
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Hobby Stock
Heat 1: 1) #18 Jason Behnke 2) #27 Travis Rodewald 3) #0 David
Verhagen 4) #50 Travis Kronforst 5) #99 Matt Reinke 6) #123 Bruce Henrickson
7) #38 Jacob Phillips 8) #35 Brian Rathe
Heat 2: 1) #15 Paul Ray 2) #7 Jason Rabas 3) #81 Jesse Behnke 4) #34 Maxwell
Schultz 5) #25 Adam Pontzloff 6) #001 Brian Stanelle
Feature: 1) #15 Paul Ray 2) #81 Jesse Behnke 3) #99 Matt Reinke
4) #7 Jason Rabas 5) #18 Jason Behnke 6) #0 David Verhagen 7) #27 Travis Rodewald
8) #123 Bruce Henrickson 9) #34 Maxwell Schultz 10) #25 Adam Pontzloff 11) #001
Brian Stanelle 12) #50 Travis Kronforst 13) #38 Jacob Phillips 14) #35 Brian
Rathe
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Mid American Series
Fast Time Brett Piontek 12.399
Heat 1: 1) #62 Scott Null 2) #31 Jeff Tisler 3) #99 Jim Thorson
4) #73 Todd Mott 5) #38 Mike Oswald 6) #50 Gary Tisler 7) #23 Thomas Garbacz
Heat 2: 1) #05 Bobby Hacker 2) #7 Dennis Rabas 3) #5M Jeremy Miller 4) #11 Tom
Schmitzer 5) #8 Monte Strouf 6) #B7 Gregg Haese 7) #77 Jonathan Eilen 8) #79
Greg Herrmann
Heat 3: 1) #48 Brad Keith 2) #66H Peter Hernadez 3) #10 Bobby Gutknecht 4) #22
Jeremy Spoonmore 5) #71L Josh Larsen 6) #32 Lyle Nowak 7) #84 Brett Piontek
8) #71B Josh Bauer
Semi-Feature: 1) #31 Jeff Tisler 2) #05 Bobby Hacker 3) #73 Todd Mott 4) #99 Jim Thorson 5) #50 Gary Tisler 6) #62 Scott Null 7) #38 Mike Oswald 8) #48 Brad Keith
Feature: 1) #7 Dennis Rabas 2) #B7 Gregg Haese 3) #10 Bobby
Gutknecht 4) #66H Peter Hernadez 5) #5M Jeremy Miller 6) #71B Josh Bauer 7)
#22 Jeremy Spoonmore 8) #79 Greg Herrmann 9) #32 Lyle Nowak 10) #11 Tom Schmitzer
11) #8 Monte Strouf 12) #05 Bobby Hacker 13) #31 Jeff Tisler 14) #77 Jonathan
Eilen 15) #84 Brett Piontek 16) #73 Todd Mott 17) #23 Thomas Garbacz 18) #71L
Josh Larsen
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Sport 4s
Feature: 1) #56 Jesse Sheffer 2) #33 Rick Lorrigan 3) #90 Bruce Sand 4) #29
Todd Welsing 5) #69 Hank Horn, VII 6) #29K Kraig Koehler 7) #62 Shelby Melichar
8) #28 Rachel Gauger 9) #57 Gary Novitski Jr 10) #96 Mike Blashka 11) #41 Mike
Dolphin 12) #55 Kendra Cretton 13) #49 Aaron Dalton 14) #1 Todd Hebel
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