6/14/2013
VanMeveren With First Career Victory
Mother Nature asserted herself again Friday night at St. Croix Valley Raceway. Rain caused the first five shows of the season to be cancelled, and it delayed Friday’s races for several minutes after a short but heavy shower during intermission. After the soaking, track officials and a multitude of racers worked the clay back into shape, prepping the track for yet another round of exciting feature races before the show closed out with some light-hearted and carnage-filled trailer racing.
With the natural watering during intermission, The Valley’s quarter mile bull-ring was lightning fast. As seems to happen every week at The Valley, the UMSS Traditional Sprints were a non-stop thrill-fest for the night’s final sanctioned race. Inaugural TSCS champion Kevin Bradwell and first heat race winner Jimmy Kouba paced the field to green for a race that would feature multiple three-wide battles throughout the field.
Bradwell claimed the top spot early, with Kouba in tow but fire-breathing rookie Brian VanMeveren vaulted from his fifth starting spot to second in just two laps. Not wanting to be left out, Johnny Parsons, Cam Shafer and reigning series champion Rob Caho Jr. were throttle-stomping myriad grooves near the front in pursuit of Bradwell. At the crossed-flags, VanMeveren powered under Bradwell in turn two to stake his claim to the lead, leaving Bradwell to fend off Caho and Schafer. After a late caution, Bradwell resumed his assault on VanMeveren to retake the lead. Bradwell’s #95 sprinter was starting to respond to the high groove as he inched ever closer to the middle-groove running VanMeveren but the early leader simply ran out of laps as VanMeveren collected his first career sprint car win in just his fifth race as a sprint pilot behind the wheel of the Reactor Racing entry. Bradwell settled for second in front of Shafer, Caho and Ryan Olson. VanMeveren became the first rookie driver to win a feature in UMSS Traditional Sprint Car Series competition since Jalen Morris back in 2011.
UMSS Traditional Sprint Heat 1- Jimmy Kouba, Cam Shafer, Brian VanMeveren, Katrina Sautbine, Denny Stordahl, Tom Porter, Jake Hendrickson.
UMSS Traditional Sprint Heat 2- Rob Caho Jr., Kevin Bradwell, Mike Mueller, Johnny Parsons, Jack Clark, Ryan Olson.
UMSS Traditional Sprint Feature- Brian VanMeveren, Kevin Bradwell, Cam Shafer, Rob Caho Jr., Ryan Olson, Mike Mueller, Jack Clark, Denny Stordahl, Katrina Sautbine, Jimmy Kouba, Johnny Parsons DNF, Tom Porter DNF, Jake Hendrickson DNF.
Victory Lane Photo courtesy of Kris McMartin at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Terry Lehnertz
