Leighton, Jones, Sobbing, Steinbach, Soule & Fink Take I-80 Features

Jim Brennan

Greenwood, Neb. (August 23, 2009) - It was Certified Transmission Fan
Appreciation night at I-80 Speedway and everyone was treated to a fantastic
night of racing as Billy Leighton Jr., Jeff Jones, Jesse Sobbing, Marty
Steinbach, Justin Soule and Pete Fink Jr. picked up wins in their respective
classes.

The NASCAR Whelen Racing Series A-Feature saw Gary Joens Jr. take the early
lead. But by the end of lap 1 Brad Soll had the lead. Leighton, who started
10th, was on the move taking 4th on lap 2, third on lap 3, second on lap 4
and finally the lead on lap 6. Leighton proceeded to distance himself from
the rest of the field and was lapping cars about midway through the 25 lap
feature. Matt Buller took over second on lap 17, but could not catch
Leighton on this night as he won his seventh feature. Clint Benson finished
third ahead of Les Siebert and Dave Doll. Heat races were won by Leighton,
Buller and Rick Vanderheiden. The B-Feature was won by Mike Wallace and then
he charged his way to a 6th place finish in the A.

The Pro-am feature was the survival of the fitest as only 7 out of 18 cars
finished the race. Chad Sanders took the early lead only to lose it on the
back straight to Shawn Bulin. Matt Boucher took the lead on lap 6 and held
it until lap 15 when he hooked the back wall and went flipping side for side
about 3 times. The car caught fire, but the flames were extinguished
shortly. Another car hit Boucher and his roll cage collapsed. But Boucher
surprisingly didn't have to take a ride to the hospital. Jeff Joldersma took
the lead for a lap and then spun out giving the lead to Steinbach. Steinbach
stays in front the rest of the way over Terry Cleveland, Ray Dessel Rick
Negrete and the "Racing MD" Nick Steier. Heat races were won by Boucher and
Greg Cooper.

The IMCA Modified feature saw Justin Wulf take the early lead and stayed
there until lap 3 when Jeff Jones took over. IMCA National Point leader
Dylan Smith was moving to the front and took second on lap 5. But on lap 8
Smith went to high in the third turn and cut down a tire bringing out the
yellow flag. His crew got the tire changed and sent him back out in 16th
spot. Jones was not to be denied though and won his second feature in as
many nights, having won at Harlan on Saturday night. Smith raced his way
back to a second place finish ahead of Dustin Andersen, Lacey Tuttle and
Johnny Saathoff. Jones and Andersen won the heat races.

The IMCA Sports Mod feature saw Brian Florian take the early lead over
Jeremy Longmeyer. Jim Hendricks Jr. moved up to second on lap 3 and waged a
spirited battle with Florian. Hendricks took the lead on lap 10 but could
not hold off Jesse Sobbing. Sobbing took the lead on the white flag lap and
picked up the win. Florian came back to finish second ahead of Hendricks,
Longmeyer and Joe Feyen. Mike Brown and Florian won the heat races.

The IMCA Sports Compacts had 30 cars, so they were split in half for two
feature event. In the first feature Garrett Rech took the early lead. But on
lap two the red flag appeared as Martin Hansen flipped his car on the back
straight. On the restart Justin Soule took the lead and then held off a fast
closing Joe Baker for the win. Rech held on for third ahead of Steve
McConnell and Nic Hitz.

The second feature belonged to point leader Pete Fink Jr. as he took the
early lead and was never challenged. second and third was a battle between
Ole Olsen and Taylor Griffin. They swapped second and third over the next
couple of laps before Griffin spunout. Officials ruled that Olsen helped him
spin and he was set back four positions for rough driving. Jake McCloud came
on to finish second ahead of Steve Neiderhaus.


I-80 Speedway results for 08/23

NASCAR Whelen Racing Series

A-Feature: 1) 28 Bill Leighton Jr., 2) 43 Matt Buller, 3) 00 Clint Benson,
4) 51 Les Siebert, 5) 97 Dave Doll, 6) 1w Mike Wallace, 7) 50 Brad Soll, 8)
17v Rick Vanderheiden, 9) 25 Kenny Edwards, 10) 2x Andrew Kosiski, 11) Todd
Hipnar, 12) Tom Svoboda, 13) Micah Brown, 14) Jacob Brown, 15) Steve
Farnsworth, 16) Dave Cook, 17) Gary Joens Jr., 18) Kent Schimenti, 19) Jason
Longmeyer, 20) Glenn Robey, 21) Mike Morton Jr., 22) Lindsey Yost, 23) Brett
Baker, 24) Dwane Pospisil

B-Feature: 1) Wallace, 2) Longmeyer, 3) Morton, 4) Schimenti, 5) Robey, 6)
Pospisil

Pro-ams

A-Feature: 1) 5 Marty Steinbach, 2) 12 Terry Cleveland, 3) 55 Ray Dessel, 4)
72 Rick Negrete, 5) 8 Nick Steier, 6) 4 Dana Deeke, 7) 24 Don Mohr, 8) 37
Greg Cooper, 9) 19 Don Atkins, 10) 66 Jeff Joldersma, 11) Shawn Bulin, 12)
Alan Schmitt, 13) Matt Boucher, 14) Casey Cleveland, 15) Denny Berghahn, 16)
Chad Sanders, 17) Scotty Hartman, 18) Frank Timperly, 19) Eric Cunningham

IMCA Modifieds

A-Feature: 1) 19j Jeff Jones, 2) 95 Dylan Smith, 3) 8A Dustin Andersen, 4)
Z00 Lacey Tuttle, 5) 96 Johnny Saathoff, 6) 21H Shane Hiatt, 7) 1S Scott
Carlson, 8) 8 Larry Goertz, 9) Denny Johnson, 10) 48 Larry Robinson Jr., 11)
Bill Bader Jr., 12) Jeff Atkins, 13) Justin Wulf, 14) Jesse Cowles, 15)
Ethan Christiansen, 16) Harry Nixon

IMCA Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods

A-Feature: 1) 99 Jesse Sobbing, 2) 47 Brian Florian, 3) 33 Jim Hendricks
Jr., 4) 56 Jeremy Longmeyer, 5) 25x Joe Feyen, 6) 2 Mike Brown, 7) 239 Steve
Swarthout, 8) 121 Robert Tippery, 9) 96c Cory Hutchison, 10) 52k Brian
Kosiski, 11) Denny Berghahn Jr., 12) Nick Hermsen, 13) Joe Thomas, 14) Sean
Conaway, 15) John Riggleman, 16) Brett Sheppard, 17) Buddy Ray Jones, 18)
Hank Dewild, 19) Dennis Cook, 20) Dustin Thayer, 21) Kyle Harpster

IMCA Sport Compacts

1st A-Feature: 1) 16j Justin Soule, 2) 9x Joe baker, 3) 55 Garrett Rech, 4)
2x Steve McConnell, 5) 11 Nic Hitz, 6) 15 Jamie Spanel, 7) 97 John Irvine,
8) 74c Dave Christensen, 9) 18 Will McConnell, 10) 09 Tim Cortney, 11) Mike
Wallace Jr., 12) Dan Markham, 13) Tammy Clark, 14) Martin Hansen

second A-Feature: 1) 13 Pete Fink Jr., 2) 40 Jake McCloud, 3) 55p Steve
Neiderhaus, 4) 7 Kennin Colestock, 5) 23 Ole Olsen, 6) 14e Justin Hitz, 7)
89 Andrew Cuva, 8) 94 David Neesen, 9) 78 Trisha Hultgren, 10) 32 Amanda
Christensen, 11) Wayne Stricklett, 12) Taylor Griffin, 13) Kevin Zeitner,
14) John Sedlachek, 15) Caleb Hammons