9/21/2017
WISSOTA
Johnson goes flag to flag in Super Stocks at 100
By Scott Hughes
All The Dirt! ?Racing News
HURON, SD (September 16) - With the defending champion mired deep in the field, it looked like 2017 might be a prime year for a different Super Stock winner at the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.
Cory Tammen, Tim Johnson and Kip Myers won Qualifying Features earlier in the week and earned front row starting spots for the 33-car Championship Feature Saturday at Dakota State Fair Speedway.
Johnson turned that front row starting spot into a flag-to-flag winning performance with his #1jr Super Stock.
Championship Feature
With 30 laps on the board, flagman Brian Riedemann released the Super Stocks for their Championship Feature fun. Tim Johnson got to the point first and Tammen pulled to second. Myers got shuffled back as both Denis Czech and Cole Searing powered up from the second row to take third and fourth place. Myers was fifth with Dan Nissalke and Nick Guthmiller right behind in the first few laps.
When several cars made contact down the front chute on lap three, Dave Mass got spun around backwards. Corey Elward was also involved and suffered serious damage. Jeremy Meirhofer was also collected. Under caution, Jeff Brauer headed to the work area.
Tim Johnson led the field to a Delaware-style restart with Czech and Tammen in row two, Searing and Kip Myers in row three, Nissalke and Guthmiller in row four, Ben Johnson and Casey Hanson in row five.
Searing squirted through a three-wide pack to grab third after the restart but Tammen tagged onto his bumper and immediately challenged him. On consecutive laps, Jeremy North and Trevor Nelson retired to the infield, and the yellow then flew with four laps complete when Kelly Duffy and Ben Johnson got together in turn two.
The top five were Tim Johnson, Czech, Searing, Tammen and Hanson, followed by Nissalke, Kip Myers, Tyler Myers, Kevin Burdick, Jordan Tocci and Dylan Kromschroeder.
Kip Myers and Tammen briefly got locked together after the restart and it cost them track position; Myers then dropped from the action entirely. Searing moved to second after the restart and Czech was third. Stewart Schipke went to the infield with seven laps complete.
Tim Johnson continued to run alone out front but Nissalke charged up and swiped third from Czech. He then went right after Searing for second. Tammen had slipped back to sixth. Ten laps into the contest, Tim Johnson had begun putting cars a lap down. Nissalke motored past Searing at about that same time and hoped he had enough to catch Tim Johnson. He didn’t need to find out, because a restart brought the leader back to him on lap 12.
Tim Johnson led Nissalke, Searing, Czech, Hanson, Tammen, Tyler Myers, Dustin Nelson, Kevin Burdick, Jordan Tocci and Jon Tollakson with 18 laps on the board when they fired back up.
Searing slipped back past Nissalke on the restart but two cars that piled up in turn three forced another quick caution.
After the restart, Nissalke, Tammen, Hanson and Czech diced it up for third until six or seven other cars slammed each other and the concrete exiting turn four. Tocci, Guthmiller, Corey Aga and several others were all involved.
A lengthy cleanup period ensued under red flag conditions.
Eventually the field formed back up to go racing, and Tim Johnson again set a blistering pace. The pack was down to 18 cars when the drivers saw the green flag again.
Nissalke got shuffled back when he got too high in turn one, and at the other end of the track he was involved in an altercation that damaged Dustin Nelson’s car and stopped Cody Martin briefly. Nissalke went to the rear and, after having a tire changed, so did Nelson.
Tammen recaptured second from Searing after the restart and Dave Mass was up to seventh with 15 laps left. Mass almost lost it in traffic in turns three and four but saved his machine and raced on.
Tim Johnson continued to build his advantage and the field began to stretch out behind. Tammen ran second a ways ahead of Searing, who had a nice pad on Burdick and Tyler Myers. Mass was next in front of Jon Tollakson and Brauer.
Brauer challenged Tollakson and took away the seventh spot at about the same time Mass passed Tyler Myers to move into fifth. Mass hunted down Burdick next and Searing was right in front of him as well. Four laps remained when Mass went high to take Burdick and he then dropped under Searing for third. Tim Johnson continued to lead and Tammen was too far out for Mass to challenge. Searing and Burdick ran to the checkered nose-to-tail as Johnson took the win.
The finishing order of the Championship Feature was Tim Johnson, Tammen, Mass, Searing and Burdick in the top five, then Myers, Tollakson, Brauer, Czech and Nelson sixth through 10th.
Last Chance Race
Dave Mass found himself in an odd position Saturday. After winning heats and Qualifying Features Wednesday and Thursday in the Super Stocks, an untimely rub with the wall and a flat tire on Friday left him out of the picture for Saturday’s Championship Feature. To get into the big show, he had to go through the Last Chance Race Saturday night. He started on the pole and crushed the field.
As Mass drove away, there were only five positions left to get into the Championship Feature. Early on, they belonged to Dylan Kromschroeder, Corey Elward, Pat LaMere, Cody Martin and Corey Aga. Elward and Kromschroeder raced for second and Elward stole the spot. A?group of six racers battled for positions fourth, fifth and six as the first four laps went in the books.
Mass checked out, as did Elward and Kromschroeder, while LaMere held a slim lead on Martin and Corey Aga. Dale Tomes, Matt Fester and Travis Vanderby tried to catch Corey Aga for the sixth spot, but the laps ticked away and they couldn’t locate him. Mass did, however, and Aga was the last to be lapped before the finish.
The top six finishers were Mass, Elward, Kromschroeder, LaMere, Martin and Corey Aga and they moved on to the Championship Feature.
SUMMARY
WISSOTA Super Stocks:
Championship Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1JR-Tim Johnson, 45:18.027[2]; 2. 71X-Cory Tammen, 45:20.447[1]; 3. 2-Dave Mass, 45:23.023[25]; 4. 10-Cole Searing, 45:25.087[4]; 5. 30-Kevin Burdick, 45:25.404[18]; 6. 27-Tyler Myers, 45:26.244[24]; 7. 32T-Jon Tollakson, 45:28.234[13]; 8. 34-Jeff Brauer, 45:31.723[11]; 9. 2Z-Denis Czech, 45:32.249[5]; 10. 46-Dustin Nelson, 45:32.741[21]; 11. 155-Nick Guthmiller, 45:34.370[9]; 12. 5*-Andrew Hedtke, 45:35.789[17]; 13. 24M-Cody Martin, 45:35.810[29]; 14. 18C-Corey Aga, 45:21.822[30]; 15. 85-Patrick Lamere, 45:18.338[28]; 16. (DNF) 4-Casey Hanson, 42:36.907[15]; 17. (DNF) 22-Dan Nissalke, 42:26.290[8]; 18. (DNF) 15F-Jeff Flaten, 41:32.038[19]; 19. (DNF) 2C-Jordan Tocci, 24:30.256[12]; 20. (DNF) 19-Brayden Hedtke, 24:31.661[23]; 21. (DNF) 9-Dylan Kromschroeder, 24:32.012[27]; 22. (DNF) 70X-Kurt Becken, 15:49.718[16]; 23. (DNF) 65-Luis Chavez, 15:53.151[32]; 24. (DNF) 9 C-Chris Walker, 15:46.005[20]; 25. (DNF) 44-Kipp Degroot, 13:59.162[31]; 26. (DNF) 133-Stewart Schipke, 13:49.083[33]; 27. (DNF) 1-Kip Myers, 13:15.448[3]; 28. (DNF) 44X-Ben Johnson, 08:54.838[6]; 29. (DNF) 28-Kelly Duffy, 08:55.104[7]; 30. (DNF) 71-Trevor Nelson, 08:58.514[10]; 31. (DNF) 20-Jeremy North, 08:34.870[14]; 32. (DNF) 32M-Jeremy Meirhofer, 01:13.596[22]; 33. (DNF) 3E-Corey Elward, 01:12.325[26]
Last Chance Race (15 Laps): 1. 2-Dave Mass, 17:07.581[1]; 2. 3E-Corey Elward, 17:13.026[5]; 3. 9-Dylan Kromschroeder, 17:16.770[2]; 4. 85-Patrick Lamere, 17:30.467[6]; 5. 24M-Cody Martin, 17:31.481[9]; 6. 18C-Corey Aga, 17:08.347[8]; 7. 21T-Dale Tomes, 17:09.248[14]; 8. 6F-Matt Fester, 17:09.702[3]; 9. 15-Travis Vanderby, 17:11.214[12]; 10. 48-Howard Hunter, 17:11.357[15]; 11. 18R-Kevin Aga, [7]; 12. (DNF) 94-Kevin Hager, 07:43.407[13]; 13. (DNF) 8-Alan Dorris, [10]; 14. (DNF) 67T-Thomas May, [11]; 15. (DNF) 74-Daniel Tingle, [16]; (DNS) 48K-Kolten Young
Submitted By: Scott Hughes
