7/29/2017
A Long Time Coming, VanMeveren Victorious At Cedar Lake
It had been a long time since Brian VanMeveren of St. Paul sat in Rock Auto Victory Lane in the UMSS Traditional Sprint Car Series. Over four years ago in fact. VanMeveren drove to his first Cedar Lake Speedway victory and second career UMSS Traditional sprint car win on Saturday night July 29 at the Cedar Lake Speedway. VanMeveren passed race leader Denny Stordahl on lap eight and led the remainder of the twenty lap feature event, but the margin of victory at the checkers was just a mere .101 seconds over Blake Anderson of Elk Mound in what turned out to be another very good feature race for this popular non-winged class of sprint cars.
A wonderful summer evening saw a twenty car field sign in the pits, as the Traditional sprints were part of the 4th Annual Eric Herbison Memorial program at Cedar Lake. Three heat races were run on what turned out to be a very dry track during the early portion of the evening. Heat winners included Stordahl, Brad Peterson and VanMeveren. It was another Dash for Cash night as well. Blake Anderson topped Mike Mueller in the dash. The top four drivers in passing points following the heats redrew for their starting positions for the main event. Mueller drew the pole with Stordahl outside. VanMeveren and Peterson comprised the second row. Based on track conditions early on, it was determined that a 20 lap feature would be appropriate. As it turned out, the CLS track crew was able to prepare a decent surface by feature time but the distance had already been set.
Following the preliminary races and a popular Meet the Drivers Night promotion for kids to obtain autographs and goodies from the many drivers who parked their cars on the front stretch during intermission, it was time for the Traditional sprints to run the first feature of the evening. Stordahl stomped on the "loud pedal" from the drop of the green and opened up a lead over the remainder of the field. VanMeveren, who loves to run the high side, worked his way past Mueller on lap seven for second. The lone caution of the race flew when Joe Lallier spun in turn two with seven laps scored. On the restart, VanMeveren passed Stordahl entering turn three for the top spot. Mueller also got by Stordahl.
With seventh starter Blake Anderson on the move forward following the caution, Anderson moved by Mueller into second on lap 15 and began closing the gap on VanMeveren. At the white flag, VanMeveren held a slight advantage over Anderson with two cars running at the back of the field looming just in front of the leaders. An exciting final lap saw Anderson come up just about 1/10th of a second short at the finish line! Mueller, 10th starter Jake Kouba and Peterson completed the top five. Rounding out the top ten finishers was Cam Schafer, Scott Brandt, Neal Matuska, 17th starter Jimmy Kouba, and Anna Hippe. All twenty cars finished the race with all cars still on the lead lap at the end of 20 circuits around the high-banked 3/8th mile oval.
VanMeveren generally ran the high side for the majority of the race except for the lap he passed Mueller on the bottom for second. VanMeveren indicated afterwards that he slowed down a little bit in those final laps trying not to make a mistake. That almost cost him, as Anderson closed what had been a gap of nearly three seconds down to the tiny margin of victory. For Anderson, it was a career-best finish in a Traditional sprint car. Blake commented afterwards, "If we could only have gone 25 laps." Indeed, those final five laps may also have provided more thrilling moments. Denny Stordahl reported that he had "buzzed" his tires on that restart and they never refired, causing him to eventually slide back to 14th at the finish. Stordahl did turn the fastest lap in the feature during the early going when he looked strong up front. It was a confident booster for Stordahl, having led his first laps of the season in feature race action.
The Traditional sprints now take a couple of weeks off during their "traditional" midsummer break in early August. They return to action along with the UMSS winged sprints at the Granite City Speedway on Friday night August 18 before making another appearance at the Cedar Lake Speedway the following night August 19. The August 19 show is the only time during the season the sprints are part of a NASCAR Dash Series event. Keep tabs on all of the Traditional sprint car racing action by visiting our website at www.umsprints.com and clicking on the blue logo or by following us on Facebook.
UMSS TSCS Race Results - Cedar Lake Speedway July 29, 2017 (Race #15)
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 24-Brian VanMeveren, [3]; 2. 12X-Blake Anderson, [7]; 3. 87-Mike Mueller, [1]; 4. 6-Jake Kouba, [10]; 5. 93-Brad Peterson, [4]; 6. 14-Cam Schafer, [5]; 7. 7-Scott Brandt, [12]; 8. 48-Neal Matuska, [11]; 9. 2K-Jimmy Kouba, [17]; 10. 16-Anna Hippe, [16]; 11. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman, [13]; 12. 15E-Caley Emerson, [14]; 13. 1-Tony Norem, [9]; 14. 34-Denny Stordahl, [2]; 15. 99-Bryan Roach, [18]; 16. 29-Hunter Custer, [6]; 17. 33C-Cody Emmans, [15]; 18. 6L-Joe Lallier, [8]; 19. 90-Tony Klose, [19]; 20. 95-Trevor Reding, [20]
Lap Leaders: Stordahl 1-7, VanMeveren 8-20. Cautions: (1) yellow with 7 laps scored for 6L spin turn 2. Outstanding feature race! Margin of victory .101 seconds. All cars finished on lead lap.
Dash 1 (6 Laps): 1. 12X-Blake Anderson, [2]; 2. 87-Mike Mueller, [3]; 3. 34-Denny Stordahl, [1]; 4. 93-Brad Peterson, [4]; 5. 29-Hunter Custer, [5]; 6. 1-Tony Norem, [6]
Lap Leader: Anderson 1-6. No cautions.
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 34-Denny Stordahl, [1]; 2. 29-Hunter Custer, [2]; 3. 6L-Joe Lallier, [3]; 4. 6-Jake Kouba, [4]; 5. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman, [6]; 6. 16-Anna Hippe, [5]; 7. 90-Tony Klose, [7]
Lap Leaders: Custer 1, Stordahl 2-10. (1) yellow for 90 spin turn 3 with 5 laps scored.
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 93-Brad Peterson, [2]; 2. 87-Mike Mueller, [4]; 3. 1-Tony Norem, [1]; 4. 48-Neal Matuska, [3]; 5. 15E-Caley Emerson, [6]; 6. 2K-Jimmy Kouba, [5]; 7. 99-Bryan Roach, [7]
Lap Leader: Peterson 1-10. No cautions.
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 24-Brian VanMeveren, [2]; 2. 12X-Blake Anderson, [1]; 3. 14-Cam Schafer, [5]; 4. 7-Scott Brandt, [3]; 5. 33C-Cody Emmans, [4]; 6. 95-Trevor Reding, [6]
Lap Leader: VanMeveren 1-10. (1) yellow for debris turn 4 with 3 laps scored.
Rock Auto Victory Lane photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
