Weekly competitor Dennis Rabas surprised a solid field of Yellow Book MidAmerican stars to win the 50 lap feature Saturday night at the 141 Speedway in Francis Creek.
First time winners were the story of the night as Bruce Conard took his intital win of the season in Super Stocks, Paul Ray was a victor in the Mini-stocks, Matt Reinke won the Hobby Stock headliner and Terry Koenig bested a big Sport 4 field.
Leading up to Saturday night, the travelling MidAmericans had competed in five races across the Midwest, and all five had been won by series regulars. That streak came to abrupt halt at the hands of Rabas.
He used his front row starting spot to grab an early lead from Bobby Hacker. Rabas, Hacker and Daryl Gerke eased away to an early advantage, followed by Jeremy Spoonmore, Jonathan Eilen and Peter Hernandez. The advantage was erased by a series of cautions at the mid-point of the 50 lap feature. The first involved Lyle Nowak and Jeremy Miller, with Eilen and Gerke tangling four laps later battling for third.
Rabas sprang to a solid lead on the restart as Hacker did his best to hold second. Spoonmore gained the inside line on lap 34, moving to second, with Tom Schmitzer following for third. Over the course of the final 16 laps, Spoonmore chopped Rabas' lead down to less than a car length as they took the white. But Rabas controlled the fast lane, and Spoonmore could not pull even at the checker.
It was Rabas' first win in his limited series starts. Schmitzer followed Spoonmore to the line for third. Miller recovered from the early incident for a solid fourth with Josh Larsen fifth.
Conard survived a wild finish to claim the Super Stock main event. Throughout the course of the feature, Conard was under constant pressure from Jesse Gracyalny. Gracyalny, making her first run of the year in the car she team-drives with Randy VanRoy, pulled even several times but was unable to gain the edge on the outside.
With most cars tucked on the lower line, Jo Mueller moved to the outside and made a steady march to the front. On the 18th lap, she advanced to second and quickly moved in on Conard. She actually led two of the final five laps on the outside line, but contact between the top three gave Conard a chance to reclaim the lead down the backstretch. Mueller recovered for fourth, with Gracyalny third and Bill Gast fourth.
The Mini-Stock feature was up for grabs until the final circuit. Joining Ray in for a final six lap sprint to the checker were Tom Melichar, Erik Turner, Randy Nething, and Dave Gauger. Ray had taken the lead on the 17th lap from Melichar after several laps of side by side racing. The top four were door handle to door handle at the checker, with Ray prevailling.
Reinke paced all 25 laps of the Hobby Stock feature, but the outcome was up for grabs until the checker fell. David Verhagen, Jesse Benke, Jason Benke, Jason Rabas, Travis Rodewald and John Mahlberg shadowed Reinke for the entire feature. Verhagen pulled even several times on the outside, but could never wrestle the lead from Reinke. Verhagen's second place finish was his best of the year, with Jason Behnke third, Rodewald fourth and Mahlberg fifth.
Koenig appeared to finish second in the Sport 4 finale to Jesse Sheffer, but Sheffer failed tech, so the trophy went to Koenig. The two were working lapped traffic with Bryan Monday and Kraig Koehler as the checkers flew. Koenig was at Sheffer's back bumper at the line, when the checkers flew.
The coming weekend will be a busy one at 141 with two holiday shows on the schedule. Friday night, the Tisler Salvage Compact Car enduro series returns with a 7:00PM start time. The Green Mambo Jet Car will be part of the show, melting a car to the ground to cap off the night. Saturday night, the regular races will take the night off as the 4th annual Dynamite Destruction Derby takes center stage. On the card, the steel wall crash, trailer races, spin-to-win, a roll-over contest and much more. The mayhem starts at 7:00PM. For more information, visit the Speedway's website at 141speedway.com.
Mini Stock
Fast Time Randy Nething 13.433
Heat 1: 1 #6 Josh Lammers 2 #29 Chris Wellner 3 #18 Bill Schlei
4 #83 Kim Ducat 5 #65 Steve Pavlik
Heat 2: 1 #60 Mark Truckey 2 #17 Sean Farrell 3 #9 Rick Lyons 4 #32 Mike Meyerhofer
5 #97 Kurt Naidl
Heat 3: 1 #72 Troy Selner 2 #13 Jason Novak 3 #56 Jason Sand 4 #40 John Senkbeil
5 #024 Kari Kostichka 6 #4 Allen Dillon 7 #5 Dave Senkbeil
Heat 4: 1 #22 Randy Nething 2 #21C Tom Melichar 3 #86 Kevin Peroutka 4 #8 Jason
Riha 5 #01 Paul Ray 6 #29T Erik Turner 7 #24 David Gauger, Jr.
Semi-Feature: 1 #32 Mike Meyerhofer 2 #9 Rick Lyons 3 #60 Mark Truckey 4 #18
Bill Schlei 5 #29 Chris Wellner 6 #17 Sean Farrell 7 #65 Steve Pavlik
Feature: 1 #01 Paul Ray 2 #29T Erik Turner 3 #22 Randy Nething 4 #24 David Gauger,
Jr. 5 #21C Tom Melichar 6 #024 Kari Kostichka 7 #5 Dave Senkbeil 8 #72 Troy
Selner 9 #56 Jason Sand 10 #18 Bill Schlei 11 #40 John Senkbeil 12 #9 Rick Lyons
13 #32 Mike Meyerhofer 14 #86 Kevin Peroutka 15 #60 Mark Truckey 16 #8 Jason
Riha 17 #4 Allen Dillon 18 #13 Jason Novak
Super Stock
Fast Time Don Wood 12.73
Heat 1: 1 #49 Jesse Gracyalny 2 #57 Bruce Conard 3 #8 Bill Gast
4 #26 Jolene Mueller 5 #65t Jeff Treml 6 #4 Jimbo Schleis 7 #57O Jamie VanHout
Heat 2: 1 #17 Todd Hacker 2 #31 Greg Thompson 3 #32 Don Wood 4 #65 Josh Sand
5 #34 Errol Berry 6 #JO Denny Crass 7 #74w Jimmy Wilson
Feature: 1 #57 Bruce Conard 2 #49 Jesse Gracyalny 3 #8 Bill Gast 4 #26 Jolene
Mueller 5 #32 Don Wood 6 #65 Josh Sand 7 #34 Errol Berry 8 #31 Greg Thompson
9 #4 Jimbo Schleis 10 #JO Denny Crass 11 #74w Jimmy Wilson 12 #17 Todd Hacker
13 #65t Jeff Treml
Hobby Stock
Heat 1: 1 #0 David Verhagen 2 #81 Jesse Behnke 3 #18 Jason Behnke
4 #34 Maxwell Schultz 5 #50 Travis Kronforst 6 #38 Jacob Phillips
Heat 2: 1 #3 John Mahlberg 2 #7 Jason Rabas 3 #27 Travis Rodewald 4 #99 Matt
Reinke 5 #42 Peter Kumbalek 6 #35 Brian Rathe
Feature: 1 #99 Matt Reinke 2 #0 David Verhagen 3 #18 Jason Behnke 4 #27 Travis
Rodewald 5 #3 John Mahlberg 6 #81 Jesse Behnke 7 #7 Jason Rabas 8 #34 Maxwell
Schultz 9 #42 Peter Kumbalek 10 #35 Brian Rathe 11 #50 Travis Kronforst 12 #38
Jacob Phillips
Mid American Series
Fast Time Peter Hernadez 12.374
Heat 1: 1 #62 Scott Null 2 #7 Dennis Rabas 3 #07 Ron Weyer 4
#99 Jim Thorson 5 #29H Tony Habeck 6 #58 Gary Benion
Heat 2: 1 #05 Bobby Hacker 2 #32 Lyle Nowak 3 #10 Bobby Gutknecht 4 #64 Daryl
Gerke 5 #5M Jeremy Miller 6 #84 Brett Piontek
Heat 3: 1 #22 Jeremy Spoonmore 2 #71L Josh Larsen 3 #66H Peter Hernadez 4 #77
Jonathan Eilen 5 #11 Tom Schmitzer
Feature: 1 #7 Dennis Rabas 2 #22 Jeremy Spoonmore 3 #11 Tom Schmitzer 4 #5M
Jeremy Miller 5 #71L Josh Larsen 6 #32 Lyle Nowak 7 #05 Bobby Hacker 8 #84 Brett
Piontek 9 #77 Jonathan Eilen 10 #99 Jim Thorson 11 #10 Bobby Gutknecht 12 #66H
Peter Hernadez 13 #62 Scott Null 14 #29H Tony Habeck 15 #64 Daryl Gerke 16 #23
Thomas Garbacz 17 #58 Gary Benion
Sport 4s
Feature: 1 #10 Terry Koenig 2 #01 Bryan Monday 3 #29K Kraig Koehler 4 #41 Mike Dolphin 5 #29 Todd Welsing 6 #96 Mike Blashka 7 #88 Don Murray 8 #55 Kendra Cretton 9 #69 Hank Horn 10 #33 Rick Lorrigan 11 #49 Aaron Dalton 12 #28 Rachel Gauger 13 #00 Calen Graf 14 #62 Shelby Melichar 15 #18S Chris Schneider 16 #33k Craig Miller 17 #19 Nick Boldt 18 #57 Gary Novitski 19 #90 Bruce Sand 20 #1 Todd Hebel 21 #24 Rick Klein