8/13/2016
Rapid Speedway
Zevenbergen Takes The Big Check Home
The Sportsmans class kicked off the feature events with 7 cars taking to the track. Brian Kroon started on the front row, and took the lead at the start. Kroon would go on to lead every lap of the race in dominating fasion. Wieczorek got by Roger DeBoer on the final lap to secure 2nd place. Kroon’s win was his 4th of the season at Rapid Speedway. The USRA Hobby Stocks were the second of the four classes Friday evening. Tim Waltner got off to a much better start this week than last, taking the early lead, leading the pack around the top-side of the track. After a couple cautions, Chad Lonneman had worked his way into second, from his eleventh starting position. Lonneman would clear Waltner for the lead shortly after a restart and never look back. Waltner would hold on for second, followed by Dustin Gulbrandson, now only 26 points behind Dylan Fitzpatrick. The win was Lonneman’s fifth this season at Rapid Speedway. Twenty USRA B-mods took to the track to start the feature event, but when it all ended, only seven finished. The “B-mod madness” started on lap one, when Colter Deutsch and David Kennedy made contact, sending Kennedy around and finished for the night. Cullen De Ruyter, after blowing a motor last week, grabbed the lead on lap one, and would have to survive many cautions. The second caution waved for Tyler Tesch, but even more contact happened in turn four, where Tyler Johnson, Trevor Tesch, Greg Eden were involved, ending Eden’s night. After two more caution flags, Deutsch was challenging for the lead when multiple wrecks took place, ending the nights for both Johnson’s, Kelderman, both Ahler’s, Walker, and Pruner, who was running third at the time. This setup a two lap dash to the finish. De Ruyter took the white flag with pressure from Deutsch, from ninth, and Thor Anderson, from fourteenth, and De Ruyter was able to hold them off and pick up his third victory of the year at Rapid Speedway. The night was capped off with the $1000-to-win, $100-to-start, main event for the USRA Stock Cars. The field of seventeen drivers took the green flag, led by the brothers Chad and Scott Overgaard on the front row. Scott Overgaard jumped to the early lead, but a few laps later he went off the track, along with Zevenbergen and Gaul on the same lap, sending all three drivers to back of the pack as the race stayed green. That handed the lead to Chad Overgaard, who held on for a couple laps until the 127 of Randy Brands showed his speed, getting around Overgaard. One lap later, Chad looked underneath Brands but lost control, bringing out another caution, directing him to the rear. On the restart, Elijah Zevenbergen was ninth, but the top-side opened up and was his for the taking, crossing the line one lap later in fourth position. On the next lap, Zevenbergen passed Jon DeBoer and Mert Kracht to get into second place. The next handful of laps saw the lead swap a couple time between Zevenbergen and Brands, each running two different lines on the track. After a caution, with 10 laps to go of the 25 lap race, Zevenbergen moved to the bottom-side of the track, pulled away from Brands, and took home a thousand dollar check with his name on it, along with a six-foot tall trophy. Randy Brands held on for second, with point leader Rich Gregoire coming home third. Join us at Rapid Speedway next Friday for the return of the Late Model Street Stock Touring Series! Don’t miss the USMTS on August 26, as the Hunt for the Casey’s Cup invades Rapid Speedway.
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