FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. -- For the fourth time in the four-year existence of Mississippi Thunder Speedway Jack Baehman and his Beahman Law law firm rolled out the red carpet for USRA B-Mod racers with his big-money B-Mod Challenge. With $1000 on the line for the winner of the TheEngineStore.com USRA B-Mod 30-lap feature (and a guaranteed $100 to start) the field filled out nicely presenting the race fans in attendance with 3 heats and full 24-car starting lineup for the main event.

Regular weekly racers were joined by a healthy contingent of first-time visitors to the Fountain City, Wis., 1/3-mile dark clay speedway – and by the time the evening’s $1000 checkered flag was waiving, drivers from both of those groups had shown their best, but it was a member of the “Youth Brigade” collecting the big paycheck. While not a member of that “Youth Brigade, even event sponsor Jack Baehman enjoyed some laps at the front of the field during the evening’s third heat race, before finishing second to Cottage Grove, MNs Ben Moudry – but it was Chatfield, MN racer Jacob Bleess who showed, once again, that when a large payout is on the line, he’s capable of ignoring any pressures and challenges and focusing strictly on getting his EZ Fabricating #21 to the front of the field, and keeping it there. Just two weeks after collecting a $1700 pay day for winning the USRA B-Mod feature during the fourth annual Rivercity Rumble, Bleess was signing his name on the over-sized $1000 winner’s collectable check as the winner of the Baehman Law B-Mod Challenge.

But before the green flag even waived, Baehman used the opportunity of out-of-car driver introductions on the Mississippi Thunder Speedway front straight to praise the competitors in the B-Mod division to the spectators in the grandstands, “You know, the USRA B-Mod division is a very competitive division and a very fun division, made up of some really good clean racers. Earlier today I was on the USRA web site and there are almost 600 racers in this division, and of those almost 600, it’s great to see that many of our regular weekly competitors right here at Mississippi Thunder Speedway are strong in the point standings with several battling in the top-10 of the national standings!”

With the pleasantries of pre-race activities out of the way, drivers belted themselves into their rides, and prepared for the 30-lap feature to unfold in for both them and the fans.

Third heat-race winner Moudry, jumped from his pole position starting spot to lead the opening five laps, while outside pole sitter Baehman enjoyed a strong showing, battling in the top-5 for the first 10 laps, and then just outside the top-5, but still in the top-10 for the remaining 20 laps. But by lap 6, Bleess was able to relieve Moudry of the top position, and never once relinquished the lead.

Despite a rash of no fewer than five late-race cautions, that forced Bleess to show his restart prowess again and again, nobody was able to throw a successful challenge at him for the lead. Moudry, was busy holding off repeated challenges by previous feature winner Shaun Walski and second heat-race winner, and current track point leader Erik Kanz. Just behind the three car battle for second, Alex Williamson was showing his strengths by working through the field on an impressive run which started all the way back on the inside of the TENTH row – and ended as an impressive battle for fifth with first heat-race winner Troy Langowski.

But as these battles for positions within the top-5 played out over the closing laps, Bleess seemed un-phased and made it look almost easy on his run to his second high-dollar feature win in three weeks. “I couldn’t really tell how close they were behind me,” said Bleess in Victory Lane, “but those restarts just kept forcing me to get good restarts over and over again.”

Walski was able to sneak past Moudry on the final lap to finish second, with Moudry, Kanz and Williamson completing the top-5. Outside of Bleess’ win and Williamson’s 14 position gain, the other run that will have many talking for a while, was the 17 position gain turned in by Plainview, MN’s Josh Crary – after starting dead last in the 24-car field, Crary battled all the way up to a solid 7th place finish with his #22J.

SCHOTT CLAIMS ANOTHER

When the Rivercity Manufacturing USRA Modifieds hit the track for their 25-lap feature, the battle for the win ended up being a dual between successful drivers from two different generations. Defending Track Champion Bob Timm, fresh off winning the evening’s third heat race, lead the main event for nine of the first eleven laps, after taking over from pole sitter Dan Bohr who lead the opening two laps.

Timm’s run out front was ended, though, when second heat race winner, and current point leader, Lucas Schott took over. What followed was an awesome battle for the lead and eventual win that lasted all the way to the waiving checkered flag.

Schott, tending to run in the lower to middle groove, held the top spot, while Timm tried every conceivable combination of those three grooves to throw challenge after challenge at the young leader, “I was trying anything I could to challenge him,” commented Timm, after finishing a close second, “He was set up to run lower like that, and I like running high, but I needed to try something, anything.”

Timm started entering turns one and three extremely high and then diving down to the bottom of turns two and four in an attempt to creation two longer straights. “There was traction down at the bottom of two and four, so I was trying to stretch them out and give me as much of a run as I could build . . . I at least wanted to make him work for it.” laughed Timm.

But his efforts came up short, and Schott motored on to yet another feature win with his Schott’s Hardwood Floors #69. First heat race winner, and 2010 Track Champion Josh Angst worked the traffic like a master and finished third after starting inside the sixth row.

Mississippi Thunder Speedway’s 2012 season continues Friday night August 3rd with the first night of the two-night Mid-Summer Shootout. The fast 1/3 mile speedway will be silent Friday July 27th but will return with a vengeance with two complete shows both Friday the 3rd and Saturday the 4th with on-track action for all regular weekly divisions; the Sunshine Sanitation A and B Mini Mods on the “Lightning Speedway”, supporting competition on the fast 1/3-mile comprised of complete programs for the River City Manufacturing USRA Modifieds, Coordinated Business Systems WISSOTA Super Stocks, TheEngineStore.com USRA B-Mods, Jailhouse Saloon WISSOTA Street Stocks, REDBOX+ 600 Mods, & Elmer’s Auto Salvage MTS Pure Stocks.

For more details, visit the official Mississippi Thunder Speedway web site: www.MississippiThunder.com.

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OFFICIAL RESULTS
American Racer USRA Weekly Racing Series
Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Fountain City, Wis.
Friday, July 20, 2012

USRA MODIFIEDS

Heat #1: 1. Josh Angst, 2. Eric Pember, 3. John Doelle, 4. Jake Timm, 5. Leroy Scharkey, 6. Thomas Brink, 7. Phil Wernert.

Heat #2: 1. Lucas Schott, 2. Jimmy Broszeit, 3. Les Duellman, 4. Lance Hofer, 5. Dan Hesch, 6. Hank Rollinger Jr., 7. Steve Bangart.

Heat #3: 1. Bob Timm, 2. Bob Fort, 3. Chris Gilbertson, 4. Dan Bohr, 5. Chris Oertel, 6. Bill Clemens, 7. Don Schaefer.

Feature: 1. Lucas Schott, 2. Bob Timm, 3. Josh Angst, 4. Jake Timm, 5. Les Duellman, 6. John Doelle, 7. Dan Bohr, 8. Hank Rollinger Jr., 9. Bob Fort, 10. Eric Pember, 11. Chris Oertel, 12. Thomas Brink, 13. Chris Gilbertson, 14. Lance Hofer, 15. Jimmy Broszeit, 16. Steve Bangart, 17. Dan Hesch, 18. Phil Wernert, 19. Bill Clemens, 20. Leroy Scharkey, 21. Don Schaefer.

USRA B-MODS

Heat #1: 1. Troy Langowski, 2. Brandon Reutzel, 3. Jacob Bleess, 4. Leigh Volkman, 5. Tyler Creeley, 6. Jerry Young, 7. Robert Carpenter, 8. Parker Hale.

Heat #2: 1. Erik Kanz, 2. Shaun Walski, 3. Kyle Anderson, 4. Brady Keefe, 5. Jared Boumeester, 6. Ed Appel, 7. Rick Utley, 8. Don Schaefer.

Heat #3: 1. Ben Moudry, 2. Jack Baehman, 3. Jon Vanminsel, 4. Johnny Allen, 5. Matt Appel, 6. Scott Guthrie, 7. Alex Williamson, 8. Josh Crary.

Feature: 1. Jacob Bleess, 2. Shaun Walski, 3. Erik Kanz, 4. Ben Moudry, 5. Alex Williamson, 6. Troy Langowski, 7. Josh Crary, 8. Tyler Creeley, 9. Jack Baehman, 10. Scott Guthrie, 11. Rick Utley, 12. Jon Vanminsel, 13. Ed Appel, 14. Matt Appel, 15. Jared Boumeester, 16. Brandon Reutzel, 17. Leigh Volkman, 18. Kyle Anderson, 19. Brady Keefe, 20. Jerry Young, 21. Johnny Allen, 22. Robert Carpenter, 23. Don Schaefer, 24. Parker Hale.