WUERDEMAN WINS USAC MIDGETS, KORSMO CONTINUES TO DOMINATE SPORTSMEN

 

(Cedar Rapids, IA 06/03/05)—Ronnie Wuerdeman of Cincinnati picked up his first career win in the USAC Ford Focus Midget feature at Van Meter Industrial Supply Night at Hawkeye Downs Speedway on Friday night. The series was making the first of two stops scheduled at “The Downs” this season.

 

            Wuerdeman took control of the race on  the eighth lap of the scheduled 30 lapper and then held off Derek Fisher of Columbus, IN to take the checkers. Stephanie Mockler of Westfield, IN finished third. Mockler currently sits second in series points.

 

 More information on this race can be found at www.usacracing.com.

 

            All six divisions of the Papa Johns Cup I-Wireless Championship were in action also on a night that was marred a bit by an uncharacteristic number of cautions and a very scary incident in the Miller Time IMCA Asphalt Modified division.

 

            In quarter-mile action, Nathan Ballard notched a feature win in the Marines.com Hornets. The win was the second of the season for the Marengo driver in the division which is running it’s first full season at Hawkeye Downs. Samantha Blumer of Manchester finished in second and point leader Rick Gallo of Center Point wound up third.

 

            The Barron Motor Supply IMCA Hobby Stocks put on another very entertaining showe with Ron Dighton of Cedar Rapids crossing the Lint Millwright Finish Line ahead of Roland Bohnsack of Clutier. Rodney Grother of CR completed the race in third.  The win was the first of the season for Dighton and came in a race that saw plenty of side-by-side action throughout.

 

            Rounding out action on the quarter-mile track were the Barron Motor Supply IMCA Stock Cars. Brad Dvorak of Cedar Rapids edged out Bob Ahrendsen, also of CR, for the win taking the lead on the last circuit of the 25-lap event. Dvroak and Arendsen raced side-by-side for several laps before Dvorak got the upper hand. Chris Wessmer of Quasqueton nabbed third.

 

            The race was stopped twice for cleanup after a pair of cars suffered blown engines.

 

            Kevin Korsmo put another notch in his six-shooter claiming his sixth trip to Coca-Cola Victory Lane in the first Budweiser Late Model Sportsmen feature of the night. Craig Bender of Cedar Rapids led in the early going with Kevin Lee giving chase. Korsmo took second from Lee with five laps remaining and moved to the lead on the next lap.

 

            The first six finishers crossed the stripe nearly nose to tail with Bender posting a strong second  while Lee finished third.

 

            The second 20-lap feature for the Sportsmen got off to a bumpy start with a couple appearances by the Yellow Book Caution Flag before things settled down. Landon Cassill of Fairfax took top honors while Martin Ballard of Marengo posted another impressive finish in finishing second. Point leader Kevin Korsmo finished in third.

 

            Johnny Spaw overcame a dropped cylinder to win the first 20-lap Performance Concepts Late Model feature, holding off a determined Chris Sevey. Spaw’s margin of victory was .138 seconds according to Alliant Energy Electronic Timing and Scoring. Spaw, who leads the points chase,  started on the pole and led every lap of the caution-free race.  Denny Osborn finished in third.

 

            Chris Sevey, who pulls to Hawkeye Downs from Waterloo, collected the checkers in the second 20-lap feature for the Late Models. Sevey took the lead just past the halfway mark after passing Jim Ross. Sevey held off the pack on a restart with a half-dozen laps to go and finished ahead of Brad Osborn and his father Denny Osborn.

 

            Chad Willett of Cedar Rapids broke the string of wins by Arlo Becker and Tim Plummer in the Miller Time IMCA Asphalt Modifieds on Friday night. Willet posted his first win of the season and in doing so became the first driver to visit victory lane other than then aforementioned Becker and Plummer in that division.

 

            The race wasn’t without some trying moments though as a scary crash with seven laps gone brought out the red flag. In a chain reaction incident the car of Griffin McGrath of Cedar Rapids, was hit and burst into flames on the backstretch. The fire safety crew and other track officials arrived on the scene quickly and extinguished the flames. McGrath was not injured.

 

            After a lengthy cleanup racing resumed with Willett eventually collecting the win over Becker and Plummer. Willett got the lead from Larry Clausen on a restart earlier in the race after Clausen faltered a bit as the green waved.

 

USAC FORD FOCUS MIDGETS

FEATURE (30laps)

1)       Ronnie Wuerdeman, Cincinnati, OH; 2) Derek Fisher, Columbus, IN; 3) Stephanie Mockler, Westfield, IN; 4) Tate Martz, Rushville, IN; 5) Jimmy Light, West Springfield, PA  (complete results available at www.usacracing.com)

 

MARINES.COM HORNETS

FEATURE (10laps)

1)       Nathan Ballard, Marengo; 2) Samantha Blumer, Manchester; 3) Rick Gallo, Center Point; 4) Creston Williams, Atkins; 5) Derrick Beadle, Hiawatha; 6) Jeff Ballard, Marengo; 7) Connie Clutier, Clutier

 

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY HOBBY STOCKS

FEATURE (15 laps)

1)       Ron Dighton, Cedar Rapids; 2) Roland Bohnsack, Clutier; 3) Rodney Grother, Cedar Rapids; 4) Brandon Herb, Marion; 5) Scott Siems, Cedar Rapids; 6. Terry Shaffar, State Center; 7) Kandi Floyd, Cedar Rapids; 8) Tim Dains, Cedar Rapids; 9) Roger Lacoursiere, Cedar Rapids; 10) Chad Vozenilek,  Fairfax; 11) Shawn Blauer, Cedar Rapids; 12) Deb Mefford, Marion; 13) Carl Ellis, Pleasantville; DNS- Perry Thomsen

 

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY STOCK CARS

FEATURE (25 laps)

1)       Brad Dvorak, Cedar Rapids; 2) Bob Ahrendsen, Cedar Rapids; 3) Chris Wessmer, Quasqueton; 4) Chad Siems, Mt. Auburn; 5) Cory Houdek, Marion; 6) Norman Chesmore, Rowley; 7) John Ness, Cedar Rapids; 8) Greg Hentrich, Hiawatha; 9) Mark Bolton, Cedar Rapids; 10) Wendy Carnahan, Cedar Rapids; 11) Randy Filling, Toddville; 12) Logan Hale, Cedar Rapids; DNS- Doug Simon, Marion

 

MILLER TIME IMCA ASPHALT MODIFIEDS

FEATURE (30 laps)

1) Chad Willet, Cedar Rapids; 2) Arlo Becker, Norway; 3) Tim Plummer, Norway; 4) Larry Clausen, Cedar Rapids; 5) Rodney Rocarek, Mt. Vernon; 6) Bob Gase, Cedar Rapids; 7) Pat Flannagan, Cedar Rapids; 8) Shawn Stinger, Palo; 9) Brian Allen, Cedar Rapids; 10) Jim Hanson, Cedar Rapids; 11) Scott Grady, Cedar Rapids; 12) Steve Lindell, Marion; 13) Keith Siefken, Cedar Rapids 14) Scott Strauss, Cedar Rapids; 15) Griffin McGrath, Cedar Rapids; 16) Aric Becker, Cedar Rapids; 17) Darrell Long, Cedar Rapids

 

BUDWEISER LATE MODEL SPORTSMEN

FEATURE #1 (20 laps)

1)       Kevin Korsmo, Atkins; 2) Craig Bender, Cedar Rapids; 3) Kevin Lee, Cedar Rapids; 4) Andy Duggan, Marion; 5) Brian Franks, Central City; 6) Martin Ballard, Marengo; 7) Landon Cassill, Fairfax; 8) Mel Schappert, Cedar Rapids; 9) Dave McCalla, Cedar Rapids; 10) Gene Peterson, Des Moines; 11) Kevin Franks, Cedar Rapids

 

FEATURE #2 (20 laps)

1)       Cassill; 2) Ballard; 3) Korsmo; 4) Bender; 5) McCalla; 6) B. Franks; 7) Schappert; 8) Duggan; 9) K. Franks; 10) Lee; 11) Peterson

 

PERFORMANCE CONCEPTS LATE MODELS

FEATURE #1 (20 laps)

1)       Johnny Spaw, Cedar Rapids 2) Chris Sevey, Waterloo; 3) Denny Osborn, Janesville; 4) Dudley Fleck, Cedar Rapids; 5) Brad Osborn, Janesville; 6) Kyle Hinrichs, Swisher; 7) Jeff King, Cedar Rapids; 8) Landon Cassill, Fairfax; 9) Jim Ross, Cedar Rapids; 10) JJ Meyer, Cedar Rapids; 11) Scott Wennermark, Ely; 12) Brian Allen, Cedar Rapids

 

FEATURE #2 (20 laps)

1)       Sevey; 2) B. Osborn; 3) D. Osborn; 4) Wennermark; 5) Meyer; 6) Fleck; 7) Spaw; 8) Ross; 9) Hinrichs; 10) King; 11) Cassill; 12) Allen