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Wakeeney Speedway opens season with Spring Fling
By Mike Hughes
WAKEENEY, KS (March 28)—Over 90 race teams converged on the 3/8-mile oval at
Wakeeney (KS) Speedway on Saturday, March 26. Even though the temperatures
were cold, the racing action was hot in all four divisions.
Kip Hughes of Enid, OK, jumped out to the early lead in the 30-lap IMCA
Modified feature, but gave way to Tyler Iverson of Albion, NE, on lap 4. The
first 20 laps went caution free, but the last 10 laps was caution plagued.
But Iverson was able to hold off the 20-car field, including a late charge
from 4-time national champion David Murray Jr. Murray passed Iverson on lap
29, only to have the yellow flag fly when Jerry Teel came to a stop. Iverson
then held off Murray the final two laps after the restart to claim the
checkers and the $1,000 winner’s check. Jeremy Frenier finished third,
followed by Dominic Ursetta and Corey Lagroon. Heat race winners were
Brandon Blochlinger, Iverson, Travis Sherfick and Cody Gearhart, with Nick
Tubbs and Lagroon topping the 2 B-features.
The IMCA Stock Car feature had the closest finish of the night. Gorham’s
Jason Schoenberger led all 20 laps but it was far from easy. Schoenberger
led Jason Rogers and Dustin Daniels after the first lap, but Daniels worked
his way to second by the halfway mark. A multi-car crash on the
frontstraight after a lap 15 restart brought out the red flag, and ended the
night for B.J. Waggoner and Ryan Wark. Fortunately no one was injured.
Schoenberger led the field back to green and Daniels tried every line on the
track to make a pass. At the checkers, it was a photo finish with
Schoenberger hanging on by inches to claim the victory. Terry Cunningham,
Casey Werkmeister and Rogers rounded out the top five. Heat race winners
included Cunningham, Jay Hachmeister, and Daniels.
The 20-lap IMCA Northern Sport Mod A-main saw the caution flag wave almost
as much as the green flag did. Wade Wagenblast led the first 5 laps before
Tyler Sutton took over the top spot. Sutton continued to lead past the
halfway mark before Tyler Frye of Belleville took command on lap 14. The
final caution waved on lap 19, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
Frye led the field back to green with Bryan Lariviere, Wagenblast, and
Blaine Walt in tow. That’s the way they finished at the checkers with Chris
Heim completing the top five. Lariviere, Frye, Wagenblast, and Clayton
Wilson won the four heat races, while Tanner Portenier took top honors in
the B-feature.
Luke Pfannenstiel took the lead at the drop of the green in the 15-lap IMCA
Hobby Stock main event and led the field to the crossed flags at the halfway
mark. But on the following lap, G.W. ‘Cheeseburger’ Fuller of Tescott made
the winning pass and held on to make his way to the winner’s circle.
Pfannenstiel finished second, followed by Kelly Karnopp, Cody Graham and
Jerry Hudson. Karnopp and Fuller were victorious in the two heat races.
W.W. Drilling of Wakeeney was the evening’s race sponsor.
The regular season at Wakeeney Speedway kicks off on Sunday, April 10, at
6:00 p.m. with the regular four divisions in action.
RESULTS
IMCA Hobby Stocks
Heat 1: 1. Kelly Karnopp, 2. Jerry Hudson, 3. Clint Gilmore, 4. Garrett
Hager.
Heat 2: 1. G.W. Fuller, 2. Luke Pfannenstiel, 3. Cody Ghumm, 4. Cody Graham.
Feature: 1. Fuller, 2. Pfannenstiel, 3. Karnopp, 4. Graham, 5. Hudson, 6.
Mike Giesenhagen, 7. Al Emmons, 8. Ghumm, 9. Gilmore (DNF), 10. John Luckert
(DNF), 11. Dustin Donaldson (DNF), 12. Hager (DNF), 13. Tyrel Smith (DNF),
14. Jason McIntyre (DNS).
IMCA Northern Sport Mods
Heat 1: 1. Bryan Lariviere, 2. Joe Couse, 3. Blaine Walt.
Heat 2: 1. Wade Wagenblast, 2. Justin Dietz, 3. Tyler Sutton.
Heat 3: 1. Tyler Frye, 2. Trenton Kleweno, 3. Brian Fink.
Heat 4: 1. Clayton Wilson, 2. Brian Conness, 3. Chris Heim.
B-Feature (top 8 transfer): 1. Tanner Portenier, 2. Tyler Bradshaw, 3. Troy
Attwood, 4. Tony Rost, 5. Ted Kutsa, 6. Jeremy Siegler, 7. Brandon Jessen,
8. Willie Wynn, 9. Austin Walker, 10. Don Strecker, 11. Kenny Schmidt (DNF),
12. Brenden Damon (DNF), 13. Terry Blessing (DNF), 14. Bret Conness (DNF),
15. Craig Howard (DNF).
A-Feature: 1. Frye, 2. Lariviere, 3. Wagenblast, 4. Walt, 5. Heim, 6. Brian
Conness, 7. Portenier, 8. Attwood, 9. Bradshaw, 10. Kleweno, 11. Fink, 12.
Kutsa, 13. Rost, 14. Couse, 15. Jessen, 16. Dietz (DNF), 17. Sutton (DNF),
18. Wilson (DNF), 19. Wynn (DNF), 20. Siegler (DNS).
IMCA Stock Cars
Heat 1: 1. Terry Cunningham, 2. Dalton Bauer, 3. Casey Werkmeister, 4. Jeff
Tubbs.
Heat 2: 1. Dustin Daniels, 2. Jason Schoenberger, 3. Wheat Lippelmann, 4.
Adam Balthazor.
Heat 3: 1. Jay Hachmeister, 2. Jason Rogers, 3. Ryan Wark, 4. Josh Crombie.
Feature: 1. Schoenberger, 2. Daniels, 3. Cunningham, 4. Werkmeister, 5.
Rogers, 6. Rod Bencken, 7. Lippelmann, 8. Crombie, 9. Jesse Taylor, 10.
Hachmeister, 11. Eric Kinderknecht, 12. Dustin McClurg, 13. Mike Kennedy,
14. Austin Carter, 15. Balthazor (DNF), 16. B.J. Waggoner (DNF), 17. Wark (DNF),
18. Daniel Albin (DNF), 19. Tubbs, 20. Bauer (DNF), 21. C.J. Pfannenstiel
IMCA Modifieds
Heat 1: 1. Brandon Blochlinger, 2. Danny Morrison Jr., 3. Kip Hughes.
Heat 2: 1. Tyler Iverson, 2. Jeremy Frenier, 3. Dominic Ursetta.
Heat 3: 1. Travis Sherfick, 2. Brendon Gemmill, 3. Jerry Teel.
Heat 4: 1. Cody Gearhart, 2. David Murray Jr., 3. Joe Cleveland.
B-Feature #1 (top 4 transfer): 1. Corey Lagroon, 2. Jerry Phillips, 3. Rob
Day, 4. Jason Brees, 5. Kyle Rohleder, 6. John Fose, 7. Shannon Maughlin, 8.
Casey Jo Wanger, 9. Kyle Rohleder, 10. Chadd Brown (DNF), 11. Larry Sutton
(DNS), 12. Corey Burch (DNS).
B-Feature #2 (top 4 transfer): 1. Nick Tubbs, 2. Jason Schoenberger, 3. Nate
Moore, 4. Dylan Sherfick, 5. Danny Keller, 6. Scott Brown (DNF), 7. Charles
Stryker (DNF), 8. Bill Albin (DNF), 9. Eddie Belec (DNF), 10. Wheat
Lippelmann (DNS).
A-Feature: 1. Iverson, 2. Murray, 3. Frenier, 4. Ursetta, 5. Lagroon, 6.
Brees, 7. Blochlinger, 8. Gearhart, 9. Cleveland, 10. Phillips, 11. Gemmill,
12. Day, 13. Moore, 14. D. Sherfick, 15. Hughes, 16. Tubbs, 17. Teel (DNF),
18. T. Sherfick (DNF), 19. Morrison (DNF), 20. Schoenberger (DNF).
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