16th Annual Tiny Lund Memorial Results

From Shelby County Speedway

HARLAN, Ia (September 15). Cold temperatures, rain and even a fire in the pits could not hold back the 16th annual Tiny Lund Memorial Race at Shelby County Speedway this past weekend, as 1600 fans packed the facility. The track on Friday night was host to 178 drivers eager to make the main event for Saturday. The Dwight Wrich Pole Dashes were held as well, with Jordan Grabouski (#30 modified), TJ Criss (#12J late model) and Dustin Smith (#85 stock car) taking home some extra cash for winning the pole dashes.

The race on Saturday started off being renamed to Pack the Track 500. The track was packed and ready to go, it rained, the cars packed the track again, it rained again, the track was packed again… well, you get the just of it. After an approximate 2 hour rain delay, and numerous “practice” packing laps for the cars, the track was ready for the B-features to begin. Once again, the infield and back pit area were filled to the brim with 182 cars on the line-up sheet. The drivers must have been anxious to get to the main event, because the B-features for all classes finished rather quickly and without incident. Cheers were heard when the pace car, the real car that Tiny Lund used to win the Daytona 500, took to the track to lead the classes through their parade lap.

Twenty-two sport compacts took to the track first for their 15-lap feature. The 55 car of Bryan Smith took off at the falling of the green flag for the early lead, but Peter Fink (#13), Tom Summerfield (#67) and Tim Cass (#33TC) were right there waiting for the advantage to take the lead. With 10 laps to go, the 2R of Dan Rhiely got into another car, each going high in the bank of turn 4. Both managed to hang on and keep going without incident. With 8 laps to go, Summerfield takes the lead but it was short-lived. Summerfield and Dustin Benning (#25) got into each other causing Summerfield to slid back to 8th place. With 3 laps to go, Tim Cass takes over the 2nd spot, while Rhiely and Ole Olson (#23) are close in 3rd and 4th. Fink takes the checker flag, followed by Tim Cass, Bryan Smith, Olson, and Benning. Right after the race was complete, the fire truck took off to attend to a fire in the pits. It appears that the #87 car of Taylor Griffin caught fire when he returned to his trailer, but the fire was extinguished and Griffin was ok.

Next up, 24 hobbies took to the track for a 20-lap feature race. Once the green flag fell, the #12 car of Doug Smith, #62B of Andy Boeckman, and the #81 car of Devin Smith all took off and separated themselves from the rest of the pack. All these drivers are from Lake City – is there something in the water over there? Doug Smith and Boeckman were battling side-by-side for the lead with 12 laps to go. By this time, the entire field was spread out over half the track length. Marcus Fagan (#1F) and Tanner Powers (#60) were trying to make headway from 4th and 5th place. The Lake City crew was able to hold onto their early lead and finish strong with Doug Smith in 1st, followed by Boeckman and Devin Smith. Powers made it past Fagan for the 4th spot, while Fagan finished 5th.

The races were rolling right along and time was being made up from the earlier rain delay. Of course, as soon as I thought that was the case, I jinxed it. Twenty-four sport mods took to the track for their 20-lap feature and caution after caution was thrown. The racing started fast and furious with 3-wide racing in turn 1 on the first lap. The 4K car of Mick King was able to make it out front to take the lead rather quickly. Once in open air, King was able to pull away. The race for 2nd through 7th place was packed tight with 17 laps to go. The first caution comes out with 14 laps to go for the #14 of Jared Hansen. Hansen went over the bank in turns 3 and 4, but was able to return to the race. Right before the caution was thrown, the #2 car of Mike Brown was hit and he ended up on pit row just as the caution was thrown. Would he be the lucky dog and not be a lap down? The answer was no – the restart had Brown at the back of the pack. With 12 laps to go, the 5J car of James May and #13 of Brett Moffitt tangled in turn 2. Both were able to keep going, but it slowed them up in their chase for the lead. King was still the leader at this point. Caution came out again and the cars lined up double-file for the restart on lap 12. Upon restart, the cars of Greg Tichy (#480), Jason Kohl (#27), and Denny Berghahn (#6X) collided with each other in the front stretch, bringing out another caution flag. With 10 laps to go, another caution came out. The restart order showed King as the leader, followed by May, Chad Dills (#11), Chris Grothe (#90) and Fred Schimmels (#94). The #99 car of Josh May pulled into the pits and Jared Hansen pulled onto pit row during this caution. With the race restarted, the #3 car of Joseph Mefferd pulled into the pits with a flat tire. King was able to take the checker, followed by Dills, May, Moffitt, and Schimmels.

The 25-lap stock car feature was next onto the track with a 24-car field. Caution came out on the first lap, causing a complete restart of the race to occur. This was hopefully not a sign of things to come for the stock car event. With 1 lap down, another caution came out for an accident in turn 4 involving the #23 car and the #38 car. The restart order showed Dustin Smith (#85) in the lead, followed by Donavon Smith (#35), Tim Bengard (#19), Doug Adamy (#93), and Brian Blessington (#92B). Dustin Smith kept running the high groove through the corners to keep him in the lead. With 16 laps to go, caution was thrown for a car hitting the wall on the front stretch (#29, Tanner Partridge) who ended up pulling into the pits. Dustin Smith still held the lead, followed by Donavon Smith, Bengard, David Smith (#8), and Adamy. With 15 laps to go, Adamy spun in turn 4 was t-boned and pushed over the bank in turn 4. Adamy finished 18th in the evening due to this incident. With 9 laps to go, another caution was thrown and the #10 car of Rod Snellenberg ended up in pit row. Dustin Smith still had the lead on the restart and took the checker flag at the end. Dustin Smith was followed by David Smith, Keith Knop (#10x), Ryan Webb (ZR1) and Bengard.

Twenty-four late models lined up four wide to take their parade lap before the crowd. The 35-lap feature started with the #12J of TJ Criss on pole. With 30 laps to go, the caution came out. The cars were all able to double-file for the restart. With 27 laps to go, the caution comes out once again. The 35 car of Ed Kosiski stalled in turn 4 and had to be pushed into the pit area. The restart order had the #10 of Jay Stewart leading, followed by Todd Cooney (#30), Dave Jorgensen (#1), Criss, and Corey Zeitner (26JR). With 25 laps to go in the race, Cooney passes Stewart for the lead, followed by Zeitner who passed Stewart now for 2nd place. Stewart maintained 3rd place at this point, but it looked like his car had something amiss and wasn’t as fast as when he first started. With 23 laps to go, the 30C car of Robert See pulled into the pits. Barry Sorensen (#45) who had started the race in 11th place was on the move up and was passing Stewart for the third place position with 20 laps to go. With 17 laps to go, Cooney caught up to the rear of the field and started lapping traffic. The race remained green from this point on and with the large amount of cars in the field and the front leaders mixed in with the pack at this point, it was very difficult to tell who was in which place. Of noteworthy “on-the move” cars, the 17M of Phil Miller started the race in 16th, fell back to 20th, but finished in 9th place. The 85 car of Kelly Tapper started the race in 13th and finished in 8th place. The 92 car of Josh Most started in 23rd position and finished in 14th. With 5 laps to go, Sorensen and Cooney were battling for the lead. It appeared that Sorensen had the lead to the checker flag and even had a victory lane interview. However, within the lap traffic that Sorensen and Cooney were fighting through while battling each other for the lead, the 5S of Jeff Segebart snuck in on the low side during the white flag lap and finished the race in first place. The ending left everyone confused, and had to be reviewed by the officials from video taken to know for sure what happened. The call that Segebart won the race was upheld.

The night concluded with the 35- lap modified race featuring 26 cars. The race started off with a bang when on the first lap, a three-car accident involving Craig Reetz (#1R), Tyler Pemble (#37), and Sean Barragan (#88), caused the caution to be thrown and a complete restart to the race. Upon the restart, Clint Homan (#27) led the field. Red Monson (#2) who started in 14th place, wasted no time in making his way to the front and took the lead from Homan with 30 laps to go in the race. Homan and the #3 car of Mike Albertsen were fighting for 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The hot racing action was slowed when with 27 laps to go, the caution was thrown for the #02 car of John Davis came to a stop on the track. On the restart, Homan reclaimed the lead from Monson, but Monson was not going to settle for 2nd and was able to gain the lead back with 25 laps to go. Meanwhile, the car of Jay Noteboom (#7N) was charging hard making his way into the top 5 cars after starting from his 21st position. Monson’s lead was in jeopardy when a caution was thrown with 9 laps to go for the tangling of Homan and Chevy Hadan (#4). Noteboom was right on Monson’s tail on the restart and within 2 laps, he was able to take the lead from Monson. However, Albertson also wanted a piece of the action as he started to mix it up with the top two cars of Monson and Noteboom. Noteboom, Albertson, and Monson staged a wild battle with Noteboom on the high side, Albertson on the low side and Monson in the middle. Albertson stole the lead for a lap, but Noteboom would gain ground and pull in front by a car length at the flag stand. The crowd was on their feet cheering on the finish of Noteboom in first followed by Albertson, Monson, Jeff Stephens (#92), and Greg Cox (#62). The crowd let everyone know how good the racing action was by giving the racers a standing ovation. All-in-all, it was a very exciting finish to the Shelby County Speedway 2007 season.

The Shelby County Racers Association (SCRA) would like to thank all the fans that came out to support the drivers and all the drivers who came out to support the track. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without all of you - so we would like to say thank you! Because of your dedication to Shelby County, we can announce at this time that we will be back with a vengence for the 2008 racing season - so mark your calendars for every Saturday night that the place to be is at Shelby County Speedway!