Belland, Kurtti, Isaacson Win Before Skies Open at TNT By Jeremy Mayo

June 6, 2008; Three Lakes, WI -  There were ominous clouds off to the south on Saturday night at TNT Speedway in Three Lakes, but quick work by the track crew and fairly clean racing from the drivers allowed most of the program to finish before a torrent of rain put an abrupt and wet end to racing for the evening.

The skies opened shortly before 9:15 local time, with two laps to go in the TNT Stinger Feature. It was the next-to-last race on the card.

There was plenty of great racing before the rains came. Point leaders Bruce Belland and Jordan Kurtti extended their margins in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods and Street Stocks with clean sweeps. Jason Isaacson won the Stinger feature, and got showered in victory lane – with rain.

With dark clouds closing from the south, the WISSOTA Street Stocks began the feature program with a caution free 20-lap main event.

John Johnson, Jr. and Bill Froehlich battled for the lead in the early laps. Johnson led the first three laps. Froehlich had the lead at the line on lap four, but got loose while battling with Johnson on lap five.

That opened the door for Kurtti, who blew by Froehlich for second. Two laps later, the Bruce Crossing, Michigan driver sped past Johnson. Kurtti pulled away in the final 13 laps to take his third feature win in as many chances at TNT in 2008.

Froehlich and Johnson resumed their battle in the closing laps. Froehlich made the pass on lap 13 and finished second.

Rhinelander’s Will Roffers started second and led the first six laps of the WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature, but Belland, who needed just two laps to jump from fourth starting spot to second, finally reeled Roffers in and made the pass on lap seven.

Belland began to open a lead, but it was erased on lap 13 when the second caution of the race occurred. Belland was able to rebuild his lead on the restart and take his second feature win of the year. Roffers finished was a career-best second in the feature Jeff McDonald held off Troy Smart for third.

Merrill’s Jason Isaacson took the lead on lap thee of the TNT Stinger feature and pulled away as Bill Martin picked his way through traffic from his seventh starting spot. Martin finally got by Cory Dickman for second on lap six and began to reel in Isaacson.

The lead was down to a car length and a half as the leaders were coming to the white flag. At the line they were greeted with the yellow flag for debris setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

It never happened as moments later a heavy downpour hit the track, sending fans scrambling for the covered concessions area and rendering the track unraceable.

Rhinelander’s Travis Juedes and Argonne’s Todd Brass won the heat races in the TNT Bombers. The class will run its make-up feature as part of the first half of the program on Saturday, June 14.

It will be a full night of racing next Saturday night with the added feature. Snap-On Tools and local dealer Keith Van Doren will serve as the sponsor. In addition it will be Scout night at the track. Any scout in uniform will get in free and folks accompanying the scout will receive a dollar off admission.

As always, hot laps will begin at 7:00 PM with racing at 7:45.


RESULTS: TNT Speedway – Saturday, June 7, 2008

WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat: 1st 22B-Bruce Belland; 2nd 14-Troy Smart; 3rd 7M-Jeff McDonald; 4th 7D-Charlie Derickson; 5th 13R-Will Roffers; 6th 101-Leif Gunderson; 7th 15-Rob Rodziczak; 8th 22-Charlie Jackson; 9th 65-Larry Gasperini

Feature: 1st 22B-Belland; 2nd 13R-Roffers; 3rd 7M-McDonald; 4th 14-Smart; 5th 15-Rodziczak; 6th 101-Gunderson; 7th 22-Jackson; 8th 7D-Derickson

WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat: 1st 26-Jordan Kurtti; 2nd 11-John Johnson, Jr. 3rd A8-Bill Froehlich; 4th 04-Ron Van Dusen; 5th 17-Dave Williams

Feature: 1st 26-Kurtti; 2nd A8-Froehlich; 3rd 11-Johnson, Jr.; 4th 17-Williams; 5th 04-Van Dusen; 6th 17S-Zach Shawano

TNT Bombers

Heat 1: 1st 321-Travis Juedes; 2nd 001-Jake Ison; 3rd 11-John Johnson, Sr.; 4th 7-Jason Melton; 5th 8-Chad Rosinski

Heat 2: 1st 2T-Todd Brass; 2nd 28-Lee Bradley; 3rd 01Z-Ron Reese; DQ 1-Ben Hendricksen (Did not Scale)

Feature: Rained Out – Will be made up June 14

TNT Stingers

Heat 1: 1st 30V-Nick Visser; 2nd 75-Cory Dickman; 3rd 97-Leo Nippa; 4th 44-Fred Feger; 5th 97L-Logan Lannet; 6th 72-Chris Nylund; 7th 88-Will Lundberg

Heat 2: 1st 27-Bill Martin; 2nd 87-Jason Isaacson; 3rd 2-Brandon Ross; 4th 13-John Barlowski; DQ 41-Dennis Mikkelson (Rough Driving)

Feature: 1st 87-Isaacson; 2nd 27-Martin; 3rd 30V-Visser; 4th 75-Dickman; 5th 88-Lundberg; 6th 44-Feger; 7th 41-Mikkelson; 8th 2-Ross; 9th 72-Nylund; 10th 97L-Lannet; 11th 13-Barlowski; 12th 97-Nippa; 13th 18-Bobby Sheldon