8/19/2016
Rapid Speedway
Korthals Takes Trophy Again
The Sportsmans class started off the night with Brian Kroon grabbing the early lead. Andy Wieczorek took the lead from Kroon and was pulling away when his engine caught fire and had to call it a night. Kroon was then handed the lead and never looked back, picking up his fifth victory of the season. The USRA Hobby Stock feature was missing something on Friday evening, caution flags. The feature went caution free, and Todd Uhl took the early lead, but after 4 laps, Blake Arends passed Uhl for the lead. Chad Lonneman got to third, but it was not enough as Arends grabbed his third victory of the year at Rapid Speedway. The USRA B-mod feature event had drama with two laps to go, as leader Cullen De Ruyter had a lapped car spin in front of him and making contact. Luckly, De Ruyter had no major damage and regained his spot for the restart. He held off Tyler Tesch on the final restart for his fourth victory of the season. Nick Vanbelle picked up a season best second place finish as well. The USRA Stock Car feature was the race of the night, started off by Eric Gaul grabbing the lead on the start. After a caution for contact between Woelber and Kracht, Roger Verdoorn raced his way by Gaul to gain the lead. Roger Verdoorn and Rich Gregoire would go on to battle side-by-side for many laps until a caution came out with two laps to go, giving seven-time feature winner, Elijah Zevenbergen, a new found hope. On the restart, Zevenbergen went from third to first, but it was all for not as a caution waved before they completed a lap. The next restart, Zevenbergen got by Gregoire, but couldn’t clear Verdoorn. Verdoorn drove a flawless final lap as he beat Zevenbergen to the finish line by three-quarters of a car length. The victory was Verdoorn’s first of the year at Rapid Speedway. The night was capped off by the Late Model Street Stock Touring Series. The feature event had a hard time staying under green flag conditions. Zach Van Voorst took the lead early but spun out a few laps into the race, giving the lead to Trent Schroeder. Schroeder would lead a few restarts but made contact with Darren Korthals after Korthals got around him for the lead. The contact caused a parking lot in turn three, but luckily, nobody had major damage, but Schoeder was sent to the infield for the night. Korthals was given his lead spot back, and was able to hold off Brett Larsen after a green-white-checkered restart to end the race. The win was Korthals third of the year in the series four trips to Rapid Speedway this season.
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