IRA Sprint Cars Invade Superior Speedway

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Sept 10

Mark Fleischer

SUPERIOR – Mother Nature again threatened the first day of the 22nd Annual Rick Gondick Law Offices Northern Nationals at the Superior Speedway. With threatening weather all around the area all night the rain held off until the last feature of the night.

Due to the impending weather the IRA Sprints decided to skip their time trail session so the night of racing actually started a few minutes early for the fans. A very nice crowd was on hand to endure the weather and see some great racing on the first day of the Rick Gondick Law Offices Northern Nationals.

The track crew put in many hours to get the race track in great racing condition and it was fast and exciting watching the IRA Sprints who had three heat races, a semi-feature and the 30 lap A-Main. Bill Balog, who finished second to Terry McCall last year at Superior, came up from the ninth starting position to capture his 6th IRA feature win of the 2010 season.

Coming into the night which would also be the final points night of the year, it was Scott Lawrence who had a seven point lead over Joe Oliver and an eight point lead over Mike Bellefeuille in the Super Stocks.

In the first heat of the night, in which the top 6 from each heat race would transfer into the A-Main, it was Bellefeuille who edged out Brian Mikkonen and Trevor Wilson. For Bellefeuille it was his third heat win of the season. In the second heat, the checkered flag went to Kevin Burdick, who made the trip from Hibbing to pick up his first heat win of the season. Burdick was followed by Nick Oreskovich and Butch Butcher.

And in the final heat, Keith Kern won his second heat race of the season with Lawrence second, Dale Gangl third and Joe Oliver in fourth.

So after the heat races, the points battle had Lawrence with a 7 point lead over Bellefeuille and 9 over Joe Oliver. In the semi-feature where another six cars transferring to the A-Main, it was Kevin Eder from Ashland, who was driving a Dave Flynn decorated car won the race, with Jeremy Fink finishing second and Rick Simpson in third. There was also a special provisional handed out to the driver who didn’t make the feature through the heats or semi-feature and ranked highest in the season points total. That went to Ronnie Malecki to put the A-Main to 25 drivers.

In the A-Main, with weather threatening and a heated points battle the racing was fast and furious. The Superior Speedway gives a 5 point bonus if a driver completes the nightly sweep by winning both a heat and the feature. With a heat win under his belt Bellefeuille started on the poll with a chance for the 5 point bonus. Bellefeuille did jump out to the early lead and there was a great battle going on behind him between Burdick, Kern and Lawrence.

Due to a number of caution flags the race prolonged. Finally it was Kern who got past Burdick into second and was threatening Bellefeuille lead, Kern actually passed Bellefeuille, but there was another caution flag and the re-start had to go back to the last completed lap which put Bellefeuille back into first. With the delay of cleaning up the accident the rain came and the track was no longer able to be raced on due to the wet conditions. The race was past the half way point, so it was called a completed race with Bellefeuille declared the winner. Bellefeuille was awarded the 5 point bonus for winning both the heat and the feature Bellefeuille giving him the season points championship over Lawrence. In the shortened feature Kern would finish second followed by Lawrence, Burdick and Butcher.

In the Midwest Mods, Scott Herrick from Proctor came into the night with a 21 point lead over Taylor Leuthner for the season points championship. Both were in the first heat of the night. It was Shawn Rivord who started on the pole and took the checkered flag for the first time of the season; he was followed by Jim Latvala and Herrick. Leuthner finished in fifth giving Herrick and extra two point cushion going into the feature.

Again in the Midwest Mods the top six finishers in the heat would transfer into the feature. In the second heat it was Jamie Smart winning for the first time of the season, he was followed by Travis Nye and Lance Solem. And in the final heat it was Jeff Marshall who won for the fourth time this season in a heat race, he was followed by Joe Olson and Cody Carlson.

The semi-feature would see the top six transferring into the feature and it was all Skeeter Estey who started on the pole and ran off with the win. He was followed by Tim Mackey, Pat Cook and Rob Weber. Just like the Super Stocks there was a special provisional given out and that was given to Deven Van House.

In the final feature race of the season it was Marshall who jumped out to the early lead but Herrick was coming strong and passed him and cruised on to win his fourth feature win of the season, he also secured himself the season track championship. Marshall finished second followed by Archer, Ogston and Estey who came from row 10 to claim the fifth spot.

Saturday night the Late Models, Modifieds and Pure Stocks will complete their season. The Como Oil and Propane Modified series will also run as part of the show.

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