9/1/02
Cresco Speedway
Cresco, IA
IRA
41 cars
Travis Whitney (4th car to time) set a new track record of 13.630 seconds, breaking the year old mark of Blake Feese. The surface was tacky and made for good racing tonight. Kerry Madsen (16th) was second quick, followed by Jeff Hodgson (9th), Mike Reinke (8th), Todd Hepfner (22nd), Colin Northway (20th), Derek Beckman (3rd), Steve Meyer (2nd), Lynton Jeffrey (21st) and John Haeni (18th). Roger Hurst had his motor shut down in time trials and was done for the night.
Heat one (started): 1. Kurt Winker 10w (3) 2. Whitney 9 (6) 3. Hepfner 28 (5) 4. Scott Biertzer 4B (2) / 5. Jeffrey 4K (4) 6. Todd King 97 (7) 7. Robbie Punzel 91D (9) 8. Scott Uttech 7 (1) 9. Joe Symoens 96 (11) 10. Matt Wasmund 4w (8) 11. Ryan Irwin 49 (10)
Lots of racing action in the heats. Biertzer led most of the way in this one before bobbling with two to go. That provided some hair raising action that saw Winker go to the front with Whitney and Hepfner in tow. Hepfner had fallen back to eighth before charging back through the field. Irwin exited on lap six.
Heat two (started): 1. Ricky Logan 3s (2) 2. Manny Rockhold 02 (1) 3. Madsen 82 (6) 4. Northway 12 (5) / 5. John Sernett 91 (3) 6. Haeni 21J (4) 7. Darrell Dodd 11 (7) 8. Mike Kertscher 17K (8) 9. Fred Ebler 64 (9) 10. Bill Boles 05 (10)
This was a good heat to be a Knoxville regular. The rest were shuffled back. Logan won by almost half a lap. Madsen and Northway had a great tussle for third and both had good runs to earn transfer spots.
Heat three (started): 1. Skip Jackson 21 (3) 2. Dave Enders 51E (2) 3. Beckman 50D (5) 4. Wayne Modjeski 77 (1) / 5. Hodgson V8 (6) 6. Jason Johnson 44 (4) 7. Ty Bartz 75 (7) 8. Curt Grant 36 (9) 9. Billy Warren 95 (8) DNS - Hurst 14K
The initial start saw Hodgson and Enders tangle in turn two. Beckman made contact as well, but the three kept going. Those who spun in the incident included Bartz who continued, and Warren who went pitside. Jackson wrestled the lead from Enders, who had front wing problems and went on to win despite white flag spins by Bartz and Grant. Hodgson could not get by the resilient Modjeski for the last transfer.
Heat four (started): 1. Reinke 17 (6) 2. Jerry Richert Jr. 45 (1) 3. Scott Neitzel 2w (2) 4. Joe Roe 61 (4) / 5. Kim Mock 1m (3) 6. Meyer 85m (5) 7. Tim Ammon 1a (7) 8. Dave Uttech 68 (8) 9. Charley Osborn 53 (9) 10. Mike Stefka 35s (10)
Reinke went straight to the cushion and rode above the front three rows to win going away. The race was for the final transfers between IRA veterans Roe and Mock. Roe took the spot on the low side on the backstretch with two laps remaining.
B main one (started): 1. King (5) 2. Punzel (9) 3. Bartz (6) / 4. Wasmund (7) 5. Grant (10) 6. Warren (8) 7. Mock (4) 8. Johnson (3) 9. Hodgson (1) 10. Stefka (12) 11. Jeffrey (2) 12. Irwin (11) DNS - Hurst
It was a bad race to be a front runner. On lap six, Hodgson and Jeffrey were running in second and third when they tangled, sending both spinning. Only Hodgson restarted. Mock was leading convincingly when he suffered a flat right rear with three to go. He was unable to regain a transfer spot. Punzel, Bartz, Wasmund and King put on a great four way battle for position, sometimes racing three wide and swapping positions as they went. Wasmund ended up being the odd man out.
B main two (started): 1. Meyer (1) 2. Haeni (2) 3. Dodd (5) / 4. Sernett (3) 5. S. Uttech (4) 6. Ammon (6) 7. Kertscher (7) 8. Symoens (12) 9. Ebler (9) 10. Osborn (10) 11. Boles (11) 12. D. Uttech (8)
Meyer led flag to flag in an event slowed only by a lap seven spin by D. Uttech. Boles 360 power plant was a lot less effective on the racey surface than it was last spring when the track took rubber. Dodd and Sernett provided side by side action for seven consecutive laps, with Dodd running low and Sernett running the high groove. Dodd won the war for the final transfer position.
A main (started): 1. Logan (1) 2. Madsen (7) 3. Jackson (2) 4. Meyer (10) 5. Reinke (4) 6. Whitney (8) 7. Neitzel (15) 8. Roe (12) 9. Hepfner (6)10. Winker (3) 11. King (19)12. Beckman (9) 13. Northway (5) 14. Richert (18) 15. Dodd (20) 16. Rockhold (16) 17. Haeni (11) 18. Enders (12) 19. Modjeski (17) 20. Punzel (22) 21. Biertzer (13) 22. Bartz (21)
Logan was by far the class of the field in the 25 lapper. The only caution came on lap two, when Biertzer was tagged and spun, collecting Bartz. Both were finished. The rest of the way provided great racing action in lapped traffic, though no one could touch Logan. Meyer was impressive utilizing the bottom groove to pick his way by Whitney and then Reinke for fourth. Madsen moved up well also, but just couldn't run down the pole sitter. Haeni elected to start at the rear with a sour sounding motor. Enders also elected to start at the tail.