Friesen wins USMTS opener

Good night for the first show of the year. They ran off 70 mods and 3 heats of stock cars in a little under 4 hours, and it would have been a lot less had it not been for a red and half a dozen yellows in the A. For that kind of car count and the first night - I won't complain. It was COLLLD, but a good time.

Track was "springtime rough," and that's not an insult. At this time of the year, the tracks haven't been worked enough to get a solid base, but it stayed relatively fast all night and drivers avoided any of the larger ruts out there (and there weren't many that were that big).

Great race with several lead changes in the feature with local boy Jason Friesen coming out on top. The B features were wild too, a lot of good equipment sat on the trailer for the A - these are a tough bunch.

"MCOOL JUNCTION, Neb. -- With 70 drivers from nine States and Canada signed in to do battle, the O’Reilly Auto Parts United States Modified Touring Series put the first event of the 2006 season in the books Friday night with the running of the 3rd Annual Nebraska Spring Thaw at the Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Neb.

At the end of a nerve-testing night of action, it was a local ace standing in victory lane and a new name added to the O’Reilly USMTS list of winners.

With many of the nation's hottest Modified drivers in attendance, Jason Friesen of Sutton, Neb., survived a tough racetrack and an even tougher field of competition as he stormed to his first career O’Reilly USMTS feature win at the 3/8-mile clay oval." Full article - dirtdrivers.com:

Here's a shot of the winner in action early in the evening (click for larger):