I-80: First LM Win for Leapley; Hipnar Wins Title

Jim Brennan

(Greenwood, Ne., 09/09/07) The NASCAR Whelen All American Series Chase for
the Championship continued Sunday night with Gary Leapley taking his first
Grand National feature win of the year and Todd Hipnar getting his first
career point title.

The Grand National feature event was one of the best races of the year as
Curt Drake won a 3 car battle for the first lead of the night. But Andrew
Kosiski and Gary Leapley were up for the task at hand as the 3 battled 3
abreast for much of the race. Right behind them in a 2 car battle were Dave
Cook and point leader Todd Hipnar. Leapley was running the high groove,
Kosiski the middle groove and Drake the low groove. With 3 laps left Leapley
took control of the race and with 2 laps left Cook shot up to 2nd. At the
finish line it was Leapley, Cook, Kosiski, Dwane Pospisil, Drake and Hipnar.
For Hipnar the 6th place finish sewed up his first track title in 18 years
of racing.

In the Modified class a spinout in his heat race, sent point leader J.C.
Wyman to the pits and cost him a top 12 inverted start in the feature. He
started 21st and it was just too much ground to make up. The feature started
with Jeremy Leiting grabbing the early lead. By lap 3 Reece Coffee took
command of the race and went on to record his 5th win of the year. Robert
Brinkman was 2nd ahead of Matt Richards, Mike Johnson, Jeremy Leiting and
Wyman. Richards 3rd place finish gave him the point title over Wyman and
Coffee.

The Pro-am feature saw Jeff Atkins grab the early lead. But on lap 2 Thad
Thomson took the lead and went on to record his 3rd win of the year over a
fast closing Rick Negrete, Joe Feyen, Shawn Bulin, Jason Cieslik and Marty
Steinbach. Bulin's 4th place finish earned him the Pro-am track title.

The Hobby Stock feature saw Rick Munson take the early lead only to lose it
on lap 2 to Josh True. But True's lead was short lived as on lap 3 Josh Sink
passed him and went on to record his first feature win of the year. Track
champion Jesse Sobbing finished 2nd ahead of Tom Myers, True and Munson.

The next event scheduled at I-80 is the Cornhusker Classic, September 21st
thru 23rd featuring the NCRA/TORA Super Late Models, the IMCA/USRA/I-80 Type
Late Models, Modifieds, Grand Nationals, Pro-ams/IMCA Stocks, B-Modifieds
and Hobby Stocks.

I-80 NASCAR/Whelen All American Series Results for 9/09/07
City Weekly Grand Nationals

A-Feature: 1) T3 Gary Leapley, 2) 9 Dave Cook, 3) 2x Andrew Kosiski, 4) 2
Dwane Pospisil, 5) 55d Curt Drake, 6) 12 Todd Hipnar, 7) 56x Jeff Tilley, 8)
50 Brad Soll, 9) 8x Ron Tex Jr., 10) 97d Dave Doll, 11) Matt Buller, 12)
Shawn Harker, 13) Kevin Hamele, 14) Lennie Pospisil, 15) Kortney Kosiski,
16) Matt McAtee, 17) Brent Baker, 18) Don Droud Jr., 19) Kenny Bartram, 20)
Jacob Brown, 21) Cory Hutchison, 22) Tony Leonardo, 23) Kenny Darnold (DNS)

Modifieds
A-Feature: 1) 16 Reese Coffee, 2) 1m Robert Brinkman, 3) 1r Matt Richards,
4) 3x Mike Johnson,
5) 21j Jeremy Leiting, 6) 4 J.C. Wyman, 7) 55d Nick Deal, 8) 8 Larry Goertz,
9) 3r Rodney Stopak, 10) 1s Scott Carlson, 11) Bill Bader Jr., 12) Brad
Tuttle, 13) Mark Leiting, 14) Lowell Holland, 15) Jeff Stephens, 16) Melvin
Densberger, 17) Lacey Tuttle, 18) Tim Thomas, 19) Michael Anderson (DNS),
20) Stacey Wilhelm (DNS), 21) Randy Foote (DNS)

Pro-ams

A-Feature: 1) T72 Thad Thomson, 2) 72 Rick Negrete, 3) 25x Joe Feyen, 4) 36
Shawn Bulin, 5) 16j Jason Cieslik, 6) 5 Marty Steinbach, 7) 49x Chad
Sanders, 8) 8 Nick Steier, 9) 49 Jeff Atkins,
10) 24 Don Mohr, 11) Scotty Hartman, 12) Denny Berghahn Jr., 13) Tim
Podraza, 14) Jeff Joldersma, 15) Jim Kruse, 16) Alan Schmitt, 17) John
Allensworth, 18) Doug Stevenson, 19) Rich Steier, 20) Nick Hermsen, 21)
Larry Robinson Jr. (DNS), 22) Denny Berghahn Sr. (DNS)

Hobby Stocks

A-Feature: 1) 10 Josh Sink, 2) 99 Jesse Sobbing, 3) 7 Tom Myers, 4) 2T Josh
True, 5) M70 Rick Munson, 6) 86j Jerod Weston, 7) 6 Jimmy Nichols, 8) 4w Joe
Wollenhaupt, 9) 4x Chad Bassinger, 10) 52 Roger Timperly, 11) George
Whitmore, 12) Kenny Darnold, 13) Kurt Hansen, 14) Mike Mass