9/29/2017
Granite City Motor Park
Czech Wins Modifieds On Night One Of Granite Cup
By Dean Reller
SAUK RAPIDS, MN (September 29, 2017) – Denis Czech survived a late race challenge to win the WISSOTA Modified Feature on night one of the Granite Cup at Granite City Speedway.
JT Johnson led the field to the green as Czech and Don Eischens mounted pressure from the start. Czech was able to squeeze past Johnson to take the lead on lap three. Eischens followed Czech and settled into second. As the race wore on, ninth starting Shane Sabraski was coming through the field. With six laps remaining, Sabraski had caught Eischens and the pair fought for second as Czech set the pace. The gap between the top three closed in the final laps. As the trio exited the final turn, Sabraski made a move on the outside and he made it stick, but at the stripe Czech held on at the bottom to take the win. Sabraski finished alongside in second, while Eischens was right behind them in third.
“I knew he (Sabraski) was close,” said Czech following the race. “I started under-driving the car the last three laps and I was getting slower and I kept yelling at myself saying Stop It, Stop It, Stop It. But, I kept in it just enough to keep the tires under me. It had to be a good one for the fans.”
Twenty-seven WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds started the Feature race and coincidentally, it was the car numbered 27 of Matt Baker that took the win. Baker started outside the front row and he out-dueled Tyler Kaeter to grab the lead. After Cody Lee’s early spin, Jason VandeKamp moved into second. Baker then opened up a sizeable lead, before catching traffic, just past the halfway point of the race. A late caution set up a sprint to the finish. When the green waved again, Baker took off, leaving VandeKamp to finish second.
Tim Johnson made his move early and that paid off as he took the win in the WISSOTA Super Stock Feature. Dexton Koch took the lead from the pole, but Johnson was right in his shadow. On lap four, Johnson made his move as he took the lead. Dave Mass and Shane Sabraski traded second a couple of times, but in the end, Johnson had the best car as he went on to score his 600th career Feature win.
“They redid the track a little bit and it actually came around quite a bit,” said Johnson following the races. “I got lucky to get out front right away.”
It didn’t take long for Johnson to get win number 601 as he took that in the WISSOTA Street Stock Feature. Kyle Howland and Jim Gullikson fought for the lead from the get-go. Charlie Shiek joined the mix and it was a three car, three-wide race for the lead. Shiek would emerge with the top spot. Meanwhile, seventh starting Johnson was slowing working his way to the front. On lap eight, Johnson pulled off a slide job to perfection as he got by Shiek to take over the lead. Once in front, Johnson opened things up, taking the checkered flag by nearly ¾ of a straightway over Shiek and Gullikson.
“I had to work my way from the back,” said Johnson afterwards. “The car worked good, the track was really good and it just sort of came to me.”
Just two weeks after winning at the WISSOTA 100, Tyler Larson was in Victory Lane again following the WISSOTA Mod 4 Feature. Larson took the lead right away and despite an early caution, Larson never missed a beat the entire race as he went uncontested the rest of the way for the win. Dean Larson finished second and Matt Halls took third.
Justin Schelitzche showed why he is the 2017 Granite City Speedway WISSOTA Hornet Track Champion as he took yet another win. Schelitzche and Jake Smith traded paint in the early laps as they each sought the lead. Schelitzche would survive that battle and he would hold off Corey Mehrwerth in the final few laps to take the win.
“I seen him (Smith) there and I thought he was kind of gone and Boom!, there he was again,” said Schelitzche following the races. “I figured they weren’t far behind if anything. So, I just focused on what I needed to do and hit my marks and away I went.”
The next event at Granite City Speedway will be the WISSOTA National Championship Weekend on October 13, 14 and 15. For more information and to purchase tickets online, go to www.gcspeedway.com
WISSOTA Modified
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 2-Denis Czech, [2]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski, [9]; 3. 9E-Don Eischens, [3]; 4. 89JR-JT Johnson, [1]; 5. 4-Jeremy Nelson, [8]; 6. 60-Dan Ebert, [4]; 7. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [11]; 8. 45J-Johnny Broking, [10]; 9. 47-Danny Vang, [13]; 10. 414W-Clayton Wagamon, [5]; 11. 442-Aaron Johnson, [7]; 12. 52-Jason Thoennes, [14]; 13. 45-Bob Broking, [16]; 14. 5K-Tyler Kaeter, [12]; 15. 4Q2-Mark Martini, [15]; 16. 41-Larry Zeller, [18]; 17. 21-Chad Funt, [19]; 18. (DNF) 47C-Ryan Canon, [17]; (DNS) 06-Jeremy Nelson,
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Jeremy Nelson, [1]; 2. 06-Jeremy Nelson, [2]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski, [4]; 4. 45J-Johnny Broking, [5]; 5. 47-Danny Vang, [7]; 6. 45-Bob Broking, [6]; 7. 41-Larry Zeller, [3]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 60-Dan Ebert, [2]; 2. 414W-Clayton Wagamon, [1]; 3. 442-Aaron Johnson, [4]; 4. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [5]; 5. 52-Jason Thoennes, [6]; 6. 47C-Ryan Canon, [3]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 89JR-JT Johnson, [3]; 2. 9E-Don Eischens, [6]; 3. 2-Denis Czech, [4]; 4. 5K-Tyler Kaeter, [2]; 5. 4Q2-Mark Martini, [1]; 6. (DNF) 21-Chad Funt, [5]
WISSOTA Midwest Modified
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 27-Matt Baker, [2]; 2. 16-Jason VandeKamp, [3]; 3. 00T-Keith Thell, [8]; 4. 3T-Travis Schulte, [4]; 5. 88L-Eric Lamm, [12]; 6. 5K-Tyler Kaeter, [1]; 7. 17B-Zach Benson, [9]; 8. 33X-Justin Froemming, [15]; 9. TB81-Tommy Bawden, [5]; 10. 7-Brandon Mehrwerth, [16]; 11. 25-Brandon Hines, [7]; 12. 71B-Dave Siercks, [11]; 13. 50-Cody Lee, [6]; 14. 17-Ashley Mehrwerth, [13]; 15. 24-Liz Toepper, [24]; 16. 88-Jacob Toepper, [23]; 17. EZ1-Randy Laage, [21]; 18. 12-Matt Dickey, [25]; 19. 2H-Brooke Hellerman, [20]; 20. 96-Vic Schmidt, [22]; 21. 78-Nate Erickson, [27]; 22. (DNF) 7D1-Mitchell Kittridge, [18]; 23. (DNF) 20-Thomas Gill, [17]; 24. (DNF) 06-Jeremy Nelson, [19]; 25. (DNF) 34-Scott Engholm, [10]; 26. (DNF) 112-Brennan Gave, [14]; 27. (DNF) 3-Ryan Studanski, [26]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3T-Travis Schulte, [1]; 2. 16-Jason VandeKamp, [2]; 3. 5K-Tyler Kaeter, [4]; 4. 34-Scott Engholm, [3]; 5. 17-Ashley Mehrwerth, [5]; 6. 7-Brandon Mehrwerth, [6]; 7. 06-Jeremy Nelson, [8]; 8. EZ1-Randy Laage, [9]; 9. 88-Jacob Toepper, [7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Cody Lee, [2]; 2. 25-Brandon Hines, [1]; 3. 17B-Zach Benson, [4]; 4. 71B-Dave Siercks, [3]; 5. 112-Brennan Gave, [5]; 6. 20-Thomas Gill, [8]; 7. 2H-Brooke Hellerman, [7]; 8. 96-Vic Schmidt, [9]; 9. 24-Liz Toepper, [6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 00T-Keith Thell, [4]; 2. TB81-Tommy Bawden, [2]; 3. 27-Matt Baker, [8]; 4. 88L-Eric Lamm, [6]; 5. 33X-Justin Froemming, [7]; 6. 7D1-Mitchell Kittridge, [1]; 7. (DNF) 12-Matt Dickey, [3]; 8. (DNF) 3-Ryan Studanski, [5]; (DNS) 78-Nate Erickson,
WISSOTA Mod 4
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 7L-Tyler Larson, [2]; 2. 37-Dean Larson, [3]; 3. K95.3-Matt Halls, [1]; 4. 23-Trever Roediger, [4]; 5. 5H-Dustin Holtquist, [6]; 6. 5R-Robert Holtquist, [5]; 7. 16-Jamie Flickinger, [9]; 8. Y4-Thomas Sabraski, [8]; 9. 5-Doug Frederick, [7]
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 37-Dean Larson, [1]; 2. K95.3-Matt Halls, [6]; 3. 23-Trever Roediger, [4]; 4. 5R-Robert Holtquist, [7]; 5. 7L-Tyler Larson, [2]; 6. 5H-Dustin Holtquist, [3]; 7. 5-Doug Frederick, [9]; 8. Y4-Thomas Sabraski, [8]; (DNS) 16-Jamie Flickinger,
WISSOTA Hornets
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche, [1]; 2. 27-Corey Mehrwerth, [7]; 3. 0K-Joseph Wilber, [4]; 4. 21S-Jake Smith, [2]; 5. 5-Brittany Smith, [8]; 6. 99-Nate Servaty, [6]; 7. 1-Nick Kipka, [5]; 8. 11-Paul Ripley, [9]; 9. 25-Jimmy Hines, [3]; 10. 16-Brady Albertson, [12]; 11. 8-Amy Studanski, [10]; 12. 3-Thomas Inderieden, [11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Brittany Smith, [2]; 2. 21S-Jake Smith, [3]; 3. 27-Corey Mehrwerth, [4]; 4. 1-Nick Kipka, [5]; 5. 11-Paul Ripley, [1]; 6. 3-Thomas Inderieden, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche, [3]; 2. 99-Nate Servaty, [2]; 3. 0K-Joseph Wilber, [1]; 4. 25-Jimmy Hines, [4]; 5. 8-Amy Studanski, [5]; (DNS) 16-Brady Albertson,
WISSOTA Street Stock
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [7]; 2. 19C-Charlie Shiek, [4]; 3. 21-Jim Gullikson, [2]; 4. 05-Kyle Howland, [1]; 5. 14-Russell Kostreba, [5]; 6. 01-Justin Pogones, [8]; 7. 44P-Steve Eggersgluess, [3]; 8. X-tj waln, [6]; 9. 15-Josh Schmidt, [9]; 10. 92-Richard Chasteen, [10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [1]; 2. 05-Kyle Howland, [3]; 3. X-tj waln, [2]; 4. 19C-Charlie Shiek, [5]; 5. 15-Josh Schmidt, [4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Justin Pogones, [4]; 2. 21-Jim Gullikson, [5]; 3. 14-Russell Kostreba, [2]; 4. 44P-Steve Eggersgluess, [3]; 5. 92-Richard Chasteen, [1]
WISSOTA Super Stock
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [3]; 2. 2-Dave Mass, [4]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski, [6]; 4. 2C-Denis Czech, [7]; 5. 78K-Dexton Koch, [1]; 6. 70X-Kurt Becken, [9]; 7. 13-Kyle Oman, [5]; 8. 13M-Matt Miller, [15]; 9. 55S-Ryan Schaufler, [12]; 10. 2H-Bryan Hellerman, [8]; 11. 17-Ryan Kostreba, [13]; 12. 9-Ronnie Malecki, [10]; 13. 30-Kevin Schmidt, [16]; 14. 2X-Dalton Landwehr, [14]; 15. X-Shawn Wageman, [11]; 16. 29S-Joel Snyder, [17]; 17. (DNF) 27-Jared Zimpel, [2]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Jared Zimpel, [1]; 2. 1JR-Tim Johnson, [4]; 3. 78K-Dexton Koch, [6]; 4. 13-Kyle Oman, [5]; 5. 70X-Kurt Becken, [7]; 6. X-Shawn Wageman, [3]; 7. 17-Ryan Kostreba, [2]; 8. 13M-Matt Miller, [9]; 9. 29S-Joel Snyder, [8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Dave Mass, [1]; 2. 2C-Denis Czech, [4]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski, [8]; 4. 2H-Bryan Hellerman, [2]; 5. 9-Ronnie Malecki, [3]; 6. 55S-Ryan Schaufler, [5]; 7. 2X-Dalton Landwehr, [7]; 8. 30-Kevin Schmidt, [6]
Article Credit: Dean Reller