By Betty Glynn
LaSalle,IL – The Illinois Valley Cellular Street Stock Series hit the high banks of LaSalle Speedway for the second leg of their six race program Saturday night. The promoters of both the Bureau County Speedway and LaSalle have created an impressive series for the hard charging Street Stock drivers.
Mineral’s Marty Thompson has captured many wins in his lengthy racing career. Most of them led to track championships. He has collected more top honors in the Open Wheel Modified class at BCS then most of us can remember.
His #25 machines and quiet demeanor are synonymous with the class in Princeton.
Before Saturday’s event, Thompson had already positioned himself on top of the points chase over Nathan Balensiefen, Randy Lucas, Leon Cade, Justin Rutledge, Scott Schoener, Jamie Balensiefen, Eric Whittington, Nick Sell and Rick Koltveit.
This year he is pulling double duty in both a Modified and, what many deem a starting step for racing, the Street Stock division. He, of course, has been a strong contender in both.
Thompson started on the feature pole next to Cade with Sell and Kevin Lenzen in row two. He flew into a quick lead with Cade and Sell trailing. During Lap 3, Cade was a bit wild in his police replica car and nearly spun himself out. A caution for someone else enabled him to return to the front runners for a restart.
Three laps later, Cade and Lenzen made contact in their battle for second.
They both exited the track but Lenzen returned before the green flag dropped. Ed Williams Jr. started ninth on the grid and had pulled into second after they were gone.
Lap after lap, it was Thompson with a huge lead while Williams trailed. The few restarts that they had wasn’t near enough for Williams to get a shot at Thompson.
With two laps to go, Williams got one final run after a caution but just didn’t have enough for him. Jake Cholke gave a great run at Williams from the high side but finished third. Tim Loomis crossed in fourth ahead of Nathan B., Jeff Hamilton who came from the semi feature transfer position up the pack, Whittington and Schoener.
The Midwestern Late Model class was more similar to a demo derby then many of the competitors would have liked. When drivers elect to shell out the cash and time it takes to own that caliber of car it is pretty uncommon to see too much intentional abuse of equipment.
Whatever the reasoning Saturday, and there couldn’t have been much, it took numerous complete restarts to get the eighteen competitors rolling. Much of the time on the track they rolled under yellow. Side by side racing was hard to come by.
Earlier in the night, LaSalle’s Mike Glynn posted the fastest qualifying time and rallied from sixth to win his Heat race for the feature pole spot.
The division hosts a passing points system which means a driver must earn their feature start from early events. This creates a way to see great door to door challenges.
Next to Glynn on the front row of the feature grid, was former track champ, Tim Hamburg of Dixon over reigning Midwestern champ Eric Dauber and Darin Furar of Granville. Immediately after the leaders started the action, Dauber spun from third collecting a few cars with him.
The next complete restart was halted for several cars in trouble farther back in the pack.
The third complete restart was the most costly to the front runners. Contact was made between Hamburg and Dauber resulting in torn up equipment for the machines of Glynn the leader, Furar and Dauber.
Not a great way to start the premier divisions feature especially with zero laps scored. Glynn and Furar were forced to leave for the pit area. Unlike Furar, Glynn was able to continue racing but the officials put him in the tail of a single file restart instead of the traditional double file start.
Hamburg wasted little time pulling away for the twenty five laps. Dauber ran second until Jim Partipilo took over the spot during Lap 10.
The race was filled with contact, broken equipment and bent sheet metal. At the finish it was Hamburg with his third season victory over Ed Williams Sr., Partipilo, Dave Smith, Eric Rebholz, Dauber, Ralph Markham, Jim Loomis, Danny Bardell and Rob Piper.
Eleven contenders signed in for the Modified class. Vince Cooper of Morris made a clean sweep claiming fast time, their only Heat and Feature wins.
Marty Thompson took home second in their main ahead of Brian Bushong, Ray Bollinger, Dale Lueth, Jim Phelps, Shawn Scripter, Derek Line, Leah Monfries, Bill Satek and Matt Weibel.
Alex Clubb picked up the Hornet checkers over Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb, Jon Small, Jamison Deford, Gabe Koncor, Jon Wagner, Asa Robart Tony Harlacher and Bill Law.
LaSalle Speedway Results
Midwestern Late Model:
Qualifying: Mike Glynn 13.222
Heat One: Mike Glynn, Eric Dauber, John Picatto, Ed Williams Sr.
Heat Two: Darin Furar, Dave Smith, Tim Hamburg, Danny Bardell Semi Feature: AJ Schmidt, Rob Piper, Robert Voice, Jack Benson, Shawn Kemp, Dave Miller
Feature: Tim Hamburg, Ed Williams Sr., Jim Paritpilo, Dave Smith, Eric Rebholz, Eric Dauber, Ralph Markham, Jim Loomis, Danny Bardell, Rob Piper, John Picatto, Mike Glynn, Scott Schmitt, Jerry Vance, Joe Partipilo, Darin Furar, Gary Schmidt, Keith Piano
Modifieds:
Qualifying: Vince Cooper 13.813
Heat One: Vince Cooper, Ray Bollinger, Marty Thompson, Dale Lueth
Feature: Vince Cooper, Marty Thompson, Brian Bushong, Ray Bollinger,Dale Lueth, Jim Phelps, Shawn Scripter, Derek Line, Leah Monfries, Bill Satek, Matt Weibel
Illinois Valley Cellular Series Street Stock:
Qualifying: Marty Thompson 15.270
Heat One: Marty Thompson, Ed Williams Jr., Jake Cholke, Scott Schoener Heat Two: Kevin Lenzen, Leon Cade, Robert Schlappi, Eric Whittington Semi Feature: Jeff Hamilton, Jay Mesarchik, Nathan Ultek, Jimmy Partipilo, Joe Jelinek, Steve Lewis, Steve Schwemlein, Bill Dauber
Feature: Marty Thompson, Ed Williams Jr., Jake Cholke, Tim Loomis, Nathen Balensiefen, Jeff Hamilton, Eric Whittington, Scott Schoener, Robert Schlappi, John Peterson, Gary Schmitt, Nathan Ultek, Mike Hughes, Jay Mesarchik, Jimmy Partipilo, Kevin Lenzen, Nick Sell, Leon Cade, Brad Severs, Donnie Cole
Four Cylinder Hornets:
Heat One: Alex Clubb, Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb
Feature: Alex Clubb, Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb, Jon Small, Jamison Deford, Gabe Koncor, Jon Wagner, Asa Robart, Tony Harlacher, William Law
LaSalle,IL – The Illinois Valley Cellular Street Stock Series hit the high banks of LaSalle Speedway for the second leg of their six race program Saturday night. The promoters of both the Bureau County Speedway and LaSalle have created an impressive series for the hard charging Street Stock drivers.
Mineral’s Marty Thompson has captured many wins in his lengthy racing career. Most of them led to track championships. He has collected more top honors in the Open Wheel Modified class at BCS then most of us can remember.
His #25 machines and quiet demeanor are synonymous with the class in Princeton.
Before Saturday’s event, Thompson had already positioned himself on top of the points chase over Nathan Balensiefen, Randy Lucas, Leon Cade, Justin Rutledge, Scott Schoener, Jamie Balensiefen, Eric Whittington, Nick Sell and Rick Koltveit.
This year he is pulling double duty in both a Modified and, what many deem a starting step for racing, the Street Stock division. He, of course, has been a strong contender in both.
Thompson started on the feature pole next to Cade with Sell and Kevin Lenzen in row two. He flew into a quick lead with Cade and Sell trailing. During Lap 3, Cade was a bit wild in his police replica car and nearly spun himself out. A caution for someone else enabled him to return to the front runners for a restart.
Three laps later, Cade and Lenzen made contact in their battle for second.
They both exited the track but Lenzen returned before the green flag dropped. Ed Williams Jr. started ninth on the grid and had pulled into second after they were gone.
Lap after lap, it was Thompson with a huge lead while Williams trailed. The few restarts that they had wasn’t near enough for Williams to get a shot at Thompson.
With two laps to go, Williams got one final run after a caution but just didn’t have enough for him. Jake Cholke gave a great run at Williams from the high side but finished third. Tim Loomis crossed in fourth ahead of Nathan B., Jeff Hamilton who came from the semi feature transfer position up the pack, Whittington and Schoener.
The Midwestern Late Model class was more similar to a demo derby then many of the competitors would have liked. When drivers elect to shell out the cash and time it takes to own that caliber of car it is pretty uncommon to see too much intentional abuse of equipment.
Whatever the reasoning Saturday, and there couldn’t have been much, it took numerous complete restarts to get the eighteen competitors rolling. Much of the time on the track they rolled under yellow. Side by side racing was hard to come by.
Earlier in the night, LaSalle’s Mike Glynn posted the fastest qualifying time and rallied from sixth to win his Heat race for the feature pole spot.
The division hosts a passing points system which means a driver must earn their feature start from early events. This creates a way to see great door to door challenges.
Next to Glynn on the front row of the feature grid, was former track champ, Tim Hamburg of Dixon over reigning Midwestern champ Eric Dauber and Darin Furar of Granville. Immediately after the leaders started the action, Dauber spun from third collecting a few cars with him.
The next complete restart was halted for several cars in trouble farther back in the pack.
The third complete restart was the most costly to the front runners. Contact was made between Hamburg and Dauber resulting in torn up equipment for the machines of Glynn the leader, Furar and Dauber.
Not a great way to start the premier divisions feature especially with zero laps scored. Glynn and Furar were forced to leave for the pit area. Unlike Furar, Glynn was able to continue racing but the officials put him in the tail of a single file restart instead of the traditional double file start.
Hamburg wasted little time pulling away for the twenty five laps. Dauber ran second until Jim Partipilo took over the spot during Lap 10.
The race was filled with contact, broken equipment and bent sheet metal. At the finish it was Hamburg with his third season victory over Ed Williams Sr., Partipilo, Dave Smith, Eric Rebholz, Dauber, Ralph Markham, Jim Loomis, Danny Bardell and Rob Piper.
Eleven contenders signed in for the Modified class. Vince Cooper of Morris made a clean sweep claiming fast time, their only Heat and Feature wins.
Marty Thompson took home second in their main ahead of Brian Bushong, Ray Bollinger, Dale Lueth, Jim Phelps, Shawn Scripter, Derek Line, Leah Monfries, Bill Satek and Matt Weibel.
Alex Clubb picked up the Hornet checkers over Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb, Jon Small, Jamison Deford, Gabe Koncor, Jon Wagner, Asa Robart Tony Harlacher and Bill Law.
LaSalle Speedway Results
Midwestern Late Model:
Qualifying: Mike Glynn 13.222
Heat One: Mike Glynn, Eric Dauber, John Picatto, Ed Williams Sr.
Heat Two: Darin Furar, Dave Smith, Tim Hamburg, Danny Bardell Semi Feature: AJ Schmidt, Rob Piper, Robert Voice, Jack Benson, Shawn Kemp, Dave Miller
Feature: Tim Hamburg, Ed Williams Sr., Jim Paritpilo, Dave Smith, Eric Rebholz, Eric Dauber, Ralph Markham, Jim Loomis, Danny Bardell, Rob Piper, John Picatto, Mike Glynn, Scott Schmitt, Jerry Vance, Joe Partipilo, Darin Furar, Gary Schmidt, Keith Piano
Modifieds:
Qualifying: Vince Cooper 13.813
Heat One: Vince Cooper, Ray Bollinger, Marty Thompson, Dale Lueth
Feature: Vince Cooper, Marty Thompson, Brian Bushong, Ray Bollinger,Dale Lueth, Jim Phelps, Shawn Scripter, Derek Line, Leah Monfries, Bill Satek, Matt Weibel
Illinois Valley Cellular Series Street Stock:
Qualifying: Marty Thompson 15.270
Heat One: Marty Thompson, Ed Williams Jr., Jake Cholke, Scott Schoener Heat Two: Kevin Lenzen, Leon Cade, Robert Schlappi, Eric Whittington Semi Feature: Jeff Hamilton, Jay Mesarchik, Nathan Ultek, Jimmy Partipilo, Joe Jelinek, Steve Lewis, Steve Schwemlein, Bill Dauber
Feature: Marty Thompson, Ed Williams Jr., Jake Cholke, Tim Loomis, Nathen Balensiefen, Jeff Hamilton, Eric Whittington, Scott Schoener, Robert Schlappi, John Peterson, Gary Schmitt, Nathan Ultek, Mike Hughes, Jay Mesarchik, Jimmy Partipilo, Kevin Lenzen, Nick Sell, Leon Cade, Brad Severs, Donnie Cole
Four Cylinder Hornets:
Heat One: Alex Clubb, Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb
Feature: Alex Clubb, Dan Leonard, Tony Provenzano, John Clubb, Jon Small, Jamison Deford, Gabe Koncor, Jon Wagner, Asa Robart, Tony Harlacher, William Law
