Nelson Doubles Up During Proctor Fair Races

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July 15, 2012

By Jerry O’Brien

On a hot warm and muggy night, Darrell Nelson of Hermantown mugged the Late Model and Modified divisions at the South St. Louis County fair races Sunday night. Nelson turned his fifth spot in the Modified Feature and fourth row starting spot in the Late Model feature into a double dip win.

Nelson started the Late Model feature in the fourth row while National point leader Todd Frank started from the pole but over cooked it going into the first turn at the start. Frank shot off the top of turn one into the tire wall on pit road letting Kevin Carlson blast into the lead.

The caution appeared; Frank was retrieved and restarted at the rear. Carlson got a good start at the green ahead of Joey Ogston, Nelson, Harry Hanson and Tim McMann. Carlson extended his lead as Ogston struggled to hold back Nelson. Hanson and McMann were joined by Kyle Peterlin as they battled for third. Nelson swept past Ogston and set out to track down Carlson cutting into the lead as the laps wound down.

Carlson clung to the lead but could not hold off Nelson who took over the top spot after a spirited battle as the white flag flew. Carlson finished second, Ogston, Peterlin and Hanson finished in the top five

After so many seasons doing double duty, Nelson is adept at hopping from one car to the next. With
the Late Model and Modified features back to back Nelson wasted little time changing rides and move out to his fifth starting spot. E. J. Hietala had the early lead ahead of Paul Schultz, Jeff Tardy, Nelson and Jody Bellefeuille.

The top five ran in a roiling mass in the early going and Nelson burst out grabbing the lead from Hietala. Nelson soon changed zip codes as his lead was soon more than a straight away. With no caution flags to slow the action, laps clicked off quickly and with little fanfare the white flag flew followed by the checkered flag. Bellefeuille worked his way to second ahead of Schultz, Nick Musel and Tardy.

Rick Simpson started on the pole for the 20 lap Super Stock feature and raced out to a big lead ahead of Dan Yrjanson. Donnie Lofdahl, Kevin Salin ran in the top four as eighth starting Scott Lawrence was fifth. Lawrence picked ‘em off one by one and was soon in second.

By the half way point Lawrence had caught Simpson and the battle was on. Lawrence tried Simpson on the low side but there was nothing there. He then moved to the outside down the back stretch edged ahead and dived low past a lapped car to take over the top spot. Once Lawrence was clear of Simpson he pulled away. Last week’s winner Andy Davey finished third, Salin fourth and Andy Grymala fifth.

Dan Larsen and Andrew Inman led the charge to the green flag in the Midwest Modified 20 lap feature. Inman got the jump over Larsen, Jake Gondik was third and Deven VanHouse was close by in fifth. VanHouse was on the prowl and moved into second bringing Danny Vang and Justin Oestreich along past Inman.

The caution flag flew for a David Simpson spin in turn one. With five laps in, the top four remained the same at the restart but Gondik drove into fourth. Vang raced past VanHouse to the lead with Oestreich third, then a distance back to Gondik, Kingsley and Inman.

There was a caution period with six laps remaining and when the green flag again appeared Vang was in control. He beat Oestreich to the checkered flag with VanHouse third Kingsley fourth and Inman past Gondik for fifth.

The fifteen lap Pure Stock feature was filled with caution flags and when the smoke cleared, Justin Bassa from Hermantown stood in the winners circle. For several laps the battle for the win was between the brothers Hammitt Jon and Matt, but Bassa kept getting in between them and Esten Nelson added to the pack trying for the win.

The last of eight caution flags gave Bassa a clear shot at Matt Hammitt to the outside. He was able to take advantage of the opening and went on to take his first feature win of the season. Nelson got by for second followed by Matt and then Jon Hammitt. Jeff Engelmeier finished fifth. Ten of 22 cars that started were on the track at the finish.

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