Dave Uttech
WoO/IRA
Donny Schatz (5th car out to time) took two-tenths of a second off Bill Balog’s year-old track record on the 1/3-mile oval at 11.718 seconds. David Gravel (4th car out) was second quick, followed by Shaen Stewart (9th), Joey Saldana (13th) and Paul McMahan (24th). Those five were under the old record. Daryn Pittman (18th) was sixth quick, followed by Jason Johnson (36th), Jason Sides (10th), Brad Sweet (29th) and Jacob Allen (16th). Jeremy Schultz had issues and took one lap at the end.
Heat one (started): 1. Schatz 15 (1) 2. Sweet 49 (3) 3. Scott Neitzel 2w (5) 4. McMahan 7 (2) 5. Scott Thiel 64 (4) / 6. Jeremy Schultz 5J (6) 7. Greg Wilson w20 (7) 8. Scott Uttech 7u (8) 9. Blake Nimee 79 (9) 10. Tim Vandervere 7v (10)
Schatz led Sweet the entire 10-lap distance. Neitzel used the low side to move by McMahan for third on lap two. Thiel took the fifth and final transfer from Schultz on lap three.
Heat two (started): 1. Gravel 5 (1) 2. Pittman 9 (2) 3. Allen 1a (3) 4. Brandon McMullen 73 (4) 5. Parker Price-Miller 2x (5) / 6. Wayne Modjeski 14AJ (6) 7. Kyle Marten 99 (7) 8. Bill Wirth 53w (8) 9. Clyde Knipp 13 (9)
They finished where they started in this one. McMullen was impressive. He’s made just a handful of 410 starts, but looked very strong, pulling away from PPM. He’s second in MSA 360 points.
Heat three (started): 1. Stewart 2 (1) 2. J. Johnson 41 (2) 3. Logan Schuchart 1s (3) 4. Mike Reinke 02 (5) 5. Bill Balog 17B (4) / 6. Phillip Mock 1m (6) 7. Matt Vandervere 10V (9) 8. Dave Uttech 68 (7) 9. Michael Decker 12 (8)
Before a lap could be completed, Decker made hard contact with the frontstretch wall, ending his night. He was unhurt. M. Vandervere visited the work area after contacting him, and returned to the fray. Stewart led wire to wire. A second caution flew for D. Uttech, who ran up the backstretch wall with three laps to go. That caution was a stroke of luck for Balog, who was a straightaway behind Mock for the final transfer. He took advantage of the double-file restart, and shot into fifth.
Heat four (started): 1. Saldana 83 (1) 2. Sides 7s (2) 3. Jordan Goldesberry 65 (3) 4. Mike Kertscher 80K (4) 5. Dominic Scelzi 41x (6) / 6. Ben Schmidt 59 (5) 7. Russell Borland 23B (7) 8. Kris Spitz 4K (8) 9. Dennis Spitz 41D (9)
The last heat was pretty single-file around the bottom, which is uncharacteristic of this place. The lone move came from Scelzi, who found his way around Schmidt on the second lap for the last transfer.