8/22/04
Echo Valley Speedway
West Union, IA
IRA
27 cars
Jeff Mitrisin set quick time (19th out) at 15.161 seconds, and was followed by John Haeni (1st), John Sernett (11th), Matt Wasmund (27th), Mike Kertscher (25th), Scott Neitzel (4th), Tim St. Arnold, (20th) Mike Reinke (23rd), Bill Warren (2nd), and Jason Johnson (8th).
Heat 1) (started) 1. 8s Tim St. Arnold (4) 2. 17G Jeff Mitrisin (6) 3. 68 Dave Uttech (2) 4. 7 Scott Uttech (1) 5. 44 Jason Johnson (3) / 6. 4w Matt Wasmund (5) 7. 85M Steve Meyer (7) 8. 75 Ty Bartz (8) 9. 53W Bill Wirth (9)
St. Arnold took command at the start from his second-row starting position by slamming off the cushion in turns one and two. Mitrisin would follow suit, but could not catch the 8s. Wasmund and Meyer waged a good battle for 6th, with Wasmund up high and Meyer low. Wasmund emerged with the spot, but would not garner the transfer.
Heat 2) (started) 1. 02 Mike Reinke (4) 2. 1M Kim Mock (3) 3. 21J John Haeni (6) 4. 77 Wayne Modjeski (2) 5. 4B Scott Biertzer (7) / 6. 80k Mike Kertscher (5) 7. 83D Mike Stefka (1) 8. 6K Kurt Davis (8) 9. 49 Ryan Irwin (9)
Stefka jumped out to the early lead, but Mock chased him down on lap four to pass him for the lead. Reinke demonstrated that he was willing & able to run the high side of turns one and two higher and harder than anybody else on the track. His throttle-stomping saw him shoot by on the outside of Mock with one lap remaining in the 8-lapper. Haeni had a nice run getting up to third, while you could throw a blanket over 4th through 7th behind him. Biertzer nearly nipped Modjeski for fourth, while holding off a rim-riding Kertscher in an exciting heat.
Heat 3) (started) 1. 55 Joe Kouba (2) 2. 2w Scott Neitzel (5) 3. 91 John Sernett (6) 4. 4 Jimmy Kouba (3) 5. 50 Rusty Egan (7) / 6. 95 Bill Warren (4) 7. 9A Andy Hunt (9) 8. 91D Jack Dubin (1) 9. 19k Dan Owings (8)
The elder Kouba took the early lead, but action was stopped for an Andy Hunt spin in turn 1 on the fifth circuit. Sernett has surged up to the runner-up spot, but was shuffled back on the restart at the hands of the IRA points leader Neitzel. Kouba held off Neitzel in the remaining laps to lead every lap in the heat while Egan used the last lap to pass a fading Dubin to get in the show.
B-Main) (started) 1. Kertscher (2) 2. Wasmund (1) 3. Meyer (6) 4. Warren (3) 5. Bartz (7) 6. Davis (8) 7. Stefka (4) 8. Hunt (12) 9. Dubin (5) / 10. Wirth (10) 11. Owings (9) 12. Irwin (11)
Wasmund assumed command from the pole, with Kertscher close behind. Kertscher took the top spot on lap 8. Kertscher would pull away to pick up the win, with Irwin spinning to a stop in turn 4 (the checkered was in the air) with an apparent broken front end.
A-Main) (started) 1. Reinke (9) 2. Sernett (2) 3. Neitzel (1) 4. Mitrisin (4) 5. St. Arnold (10) 6. Haeni (3) 7. Joe Kouba (5) 8. Wasmund (11) 9. Biertzer (20) 10. Meyer (19) 11. Modjeski (15) 12. Kertscher (12) 13. S. Uttech (16) 14. D. Uttech (14) 15. Johnson (8) 16. Davis (23) 17. Stefka (17) 18. Jimmy Kouba (6) 19. Bartz (22) 20. Egan (21) 21. Mock (7) 22. Dubin (18) 23. Hunt (24) 24. Warren (13)
Sernett jumped to the lead from the outside pole and towed Neitzel behind. Reinke was on the move from row five by cowboying up on the fast cushion in turns 1 & 2. Reinke and Haeni (running the low side) had a good battle going when Bartz spun on lap 9 to halt the action. Sernett led Neitzel, Mitrisin, Reinke, and Haeni. Reinke surged to second on the restart and began closing in on Sernett. He squeezed on the outside of Sernett going down the backstretch on lap 14 to seal the lead. Warren pulled in on lap 17. Mitrisin was trying to stay with the leaders when he made contact with the lapped car of Hunt on lap 22, sending Hunt spinning in turn 4. Mock, who had been running strong in the thick of the top-10, apparently clipped the inside rail in turn 2 at this same point in time and was finished with skewed front suspension parts. Reinke led Sernett (with two lapped cars between them), Neitzel, Mitrisin, Haeni, and St. Arnold to the green. Reinke held on to win, capping off his sweep of the weekend. Hunt & S. Uttech tangled up in turn 4 at the finish, but it was in the books. Biertzer, one of the handful of competitors who found the extreme high side of turns 1 & 2 to their liking, got into the top-10 and was the hard-charger for his efforts.