Rain Shortens Great Race Night at TNT Speedway By Jeremy Mayo

June 21, 2008; Three Lakes, WI - After some exciting heat races, things were setting up for some great racing in the features. Mother Nature, however, had different ideas. A brief, heavy rain shower passed over the track shortly before 9:30 PM, ending racing for the evening. 

The ASCI Trucks, making their second appearance at TNT for the year, had just completed their feature and the WISSOTA Street Stocks were working lap four of their main event when the skies opened up.
 

The rain stopped and track officials held out hope that the racing surface could be worked back into shape. Five minutes later, another pushed over the track, officially putting the nail in the coffin.

Before the rain, Birnamwood’s Scott Van Prooyen, piloting the 43 truck picked up a dominating clean sweep in the Trucks. Van Prooyen led every lap of the 10-lap heat and the 15-lap feature.

The Trucks got settled in very early Van Prooyen took command of the feature from the pole while the biggest move came from the middle of the pack as Jeff Becker moved from fifth to third on the start.

After that it was single file the rest of the way in a race that went caution-free. How they crossed the line on the first lap was exactly how they cross the line on the final lap. Van Prooyen finished first, followed by Forrest Crandall, Becker, Robin Procknow and Harold Harvey. Dusty Brandt finished sixth, one lap down.

TNT’s own classes put on the most exciting shows in the heat races, beginning with the Bombers. Ben Hendricksen spun and brought out the caution on lap three of the first Bomber heat. He restarted fourth, but made an amazing four-wide pass exiting turn two to take a lead he would not relinquish. Todd Brass followed closely, but could never recover from getting overtaken in spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile the luck of the draw put the top two in the TNT Stinger points on the front row for heat race number one. Nick Visser and Bill Martin did not disappoint, putting on a great race at the front of the pack. Visser led the first nine laps as Martin tried to pass high and low with no success.

Finally, coming to the white flag, Martin got a run to the outside of Visser. The two stayed side-by-side for the final third of a mile and when they came to the line, Martin edged out Visser by roughly one foot. The result puts Visser and Martin in a tie for the point lead for the second time in three weeks.

Jason Isaacson moved to within 11 points of the Stinger lead by winning the second heat. That race saw a hard wreck near the halfway point. Rookie Shane Johnson punted Randy Charbarneau at the exit of turn two. Charbarneau’s car spun and slammed tail-first into the outside guardrail. Charbarneau was checked over by EMT’s after the incident and was okay, except for needing an ice pack.

John Johnson expanded his point lead to seven in the TNT Bombers with a heat race win. Chad Bottcher, making his second start of the season at TNT in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods took won a heat and Jordan Kurtti continued his stranglehold in the WISSOTA Street Stocks, with another heat race win.

Kurrti started fifth in the feature, but quickly roared to second. He passed Ron Van Dusen for the lead on lap four, but a caution came out negating the pass. On the restart, the drivers got to turn two when the skies opened, ending the race.

That race will be taken from the top next Saturday night at TNT. It will be a jam-packed night of action on the high banks, featuring two features in all four classes. Next Saturday night is also Midseason Championship night, presented by the Auto Value Part Stores of Eagle River and Rhinelander.

With each class having to run an extra race, even the large point leads Bruce Belland and Kurtti have built in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods and Street Stocks are not safe. The fun begins with Hot Laps at 7:00 PM, and racing at 7:45 PM.

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RESULTS: TNT Speedway – Saturday, June 21, 2008

ASCI Trucks

Heat: 1^st 43-Scott Van Proyen; 2^nd 88-Jeff Becker; 3^rd 15-Forrest Crandall; 4^th 99-Robin Procknow; 5^th 21-Dusty Brandt; 6^th 44-Harold Harvey

Feature: 1^st 43-Van Prooyen; 2^nd 15-Crandall; 3^rd 88-Becker; 4^th 99-Procknow; 5^th 44-Harvey; 6^th 21-Brandt

Heat Race Resutls

WISSOTA Midwest Mods: 1^st 8-Chad Boettcher; 2^nd 7M-Jeff McDonald; 3^rd 22B-Bruce Belland; 4^th 13R-Will Roffers; 5^th 22-Charlier Jackson; 6^th 101-Leif Gunderson; 7^th 65-Larry Gasperini

WISSOTA Street Stocks: 1^st 26-Jordan Kurtti; 2^nd 8-Ron Van Dusen; 3^rd 17-Dave Williams; 4^th 11-John Johnson, Jr.; 5^th 28T-Keith Troutman; 6^th 44-Erik Scharf; 7^th 3-Jake Mullins

TNT Bombers Heat 1: 1^st 1-Ben Hendricksen; 2^nd 2T-Todd Brass; 3^rd 7-Jason Melton; 4^th 88-Michael Votis

TNT Bombers Heat 2: 1^st 11-John Johnson, Sr.; 2^nd 001-Jake Ison; 3^rd 25-Jay Wilberding; 4^th 28-Lee Bradley

TNT Stingers Heat 1: 1^st 27-Bill Martin; 2^nd 30V-Nick Visser; 3^rd 18-Bobby Sheldon; 4^th 88-Will Lundberg; 5^th 2-Brandon Ross; 6^th 13-John Barlowski; 7^th 97L-Logan Lannet

TNT Stingers Heat 2: 1^st 87-Jason Isaacson; 2^nd 44-Fred Feger; 3^rd 97-Leo Nippa; 4^th 42-James Leitl; 5^th 97J-Shane Johnson; 6^th 75-Cory Dickman; 7^th 8-Randy Charbarneau

Note: Features will be made-up as part of the June 28 program at TNT Speedway.