Mr. Perfect

May 9, 2008 St. Croix Falls, WI –  

(May 9) St. Croix Falls, WI

After an unprecedented fourth attempt, the 2008 season at Kopellah Speedway finally got underway on Friday night, May 9. While things are first starting to heat up at the Speedway, one Allen Gessell Jr. is already smoking hot in this young WISSOTA Amsoil Dirt Track Series season. Gessell brought his historic season opening hot streak to Kopellah, looking to write another chapter for the history books.

Before the WISSOTA cars vied for their trophies, the Kopellah Hornets kicked off their sophomore season with a 15 lap feature. After coming from the fourth row to win his heat race, Ryan McKenzie picked up where he left off last season and led every lap of the feature to pick up the clean sweep. Kevin Bradwell in his Lightning McQueen painted #95, Damon Stusek, and Nate Gessell kept it interesting and battled McKenzie and each other until Gessell pulled off on lap nine. At the checkers it was McKenzie picking up the first trophy of the 2008 season, followed by Stusek, Bradwell, Dan Strobach and Jacob Christensen.

The Pure Stocks were next up and Jesse Lutgen took off like a shot from the drop of the green. After picking up a victory in the second heat race, Lutgen was looking to make his first feature victory a clean sweep. First heat race winner Shawn Willis provided the early challenge to Lutgen before Steve Baker took over second place. Last season's rookie of the year in the Pure Stocks, TJ LaMere hounded Baker for several laps before finally nabbing second place on lap nine. Meanwhile, a pair of veteran Kopellah racers were charging hard after suffering from bad luck in the heat races. Travis Jehlicka stripped an axle and limped to the finish in his heat, and Dustin Scheuer barely made it on to the track before he dropped a drive shaft prior to his qualifier. Scheuer and Jehlicka made the necessary repairs and together they passed over a dozen cars in the feature. After starting eighth, Jehlicka overtook LaMere for second on lap 14, the same lap in which last starting Scheuer cracked the top five. On the final circuit, Jehlicka caught up to Lutgen, but didn't have enough left to make the pass on the final turn. Lutgen, despite running on just seven cylinders, held on for his first career feature win with a clean sweep. Jehlicka and LaMere were second and third ahead of Hornet graduate Steven Johnson and Scheuer.

The clean-sweep theme continued for the WISSOTA features. Heat race winners Jason Miller and Tim Swanson led the Midwest Modifieds to the green for their main event. While Miller quickly took off into the night, fifth starting Frank Soucek shot up to second on the first lap. As Miller's lead grew to a straightaway, Soucek, John Remington and Bryce Johnson were involved in a heated three-way battle for second. With five laps to go, Vince Corbin joined the fray to make it a four-car skirmish for the runner-up spot. While that skirmish heated up, Miller continued to stretch his advantage, eventually to nearly a half a lap. Miller went on for the easy win, while the next four cars fought harder and harder. At the checkers, Soucek was the best of the rest followed by Remington, a sideways sliding Johnson, and Corbin crossed the line fifth.

Looking to extend one of the most dominating streaks in recent memory, Big Lake, Minnesota's Allen Gessell Jr. brought his #32x to town looking to keep alive his perfect record. Coming into the evening, Gessell had raced at four different WISSOTA tracks, and went home with four heat race victories, and four feature victories. At feature time Friday, the #32x was still perfect after picking up the win in his heat race, but the likes of Jeff Heintz, Chanda Fjorden Nord, second heat race winner Clark Swartz, and Shawn Kammerud were all eagerly looking to put the first chink in Gessell's armor. At the drop of the green, Gessell made good on his pole starting position and assumed the point. Swartz quickly tucked in behind for second. On the second lap, Kammerud slipped by Swartz for second with Fjorden Nord and Heintz in hot pursuit. Swartz was back up to second by lap five, but the hardest charger in the field was eleventh starting Trisha Nyren. Nyren cracked the top five on lap nine, and on lap eleven, she passed Fjorden Nord for fourth. But before the next lap was scored, the left front wheel on Nyren's car broke loose and the spectacular run came to an abrupt end. Heintz took over the runner-up spot on the restart, but no one had enough for Gessell as he pushed his 2008 sticker collection up to five. Five tracks, five clean sweeps. Second through fifth were Heintz, Swartz, Fjorden Nord, and Kammerud.

Only six Super Stocks checked in the back gate to do battle on opening night, and Cory Davis and Dan Gullikson started on the front row after finishing first and second in the heat race. Davis was rewarded with the pole courtesy of his jaw-dropping three-wide pass for the lead in the heat race. But in the feature, Gullikson got the jump at the start and led flag-to-flag. Davis showed some fender to the inside of Gullikson on several occasions, but was never able to find enough speed in the lower groove to complete the pass. Davis would settle for second in the feature ahead of Luke Strandlund and Ed Markel as Gullikson picked up the only non-clean sweep feature win of the night..

In the final event of the evening, heat race winners Shawn Kelley and Jason Schill brought the WISSOTA Modifieds to the green flag. Kelley quickly found the point and left Mike Mueller, Schill, Mike Kelley Jr. and Duane Dale to do battle behind him. A late race restart had the #1K of Shawn Kelley in front of big brother Mike Kelley and Jason Schill. The two lap battle for second between Kelley Jr. and Schill ensured the victory for Shawn Kelley, with the elder Kelley eventually cementing the runner-up spot ahead of Schill, Dale and Jim Cimfl.

With the first show finally in the books, fans and drivers are welcome back for the first of two scheduled visits by the Northern Vintage Stock Car Racers on Friday, May 16. Draw cot-off is 7:00 and the first green flag waves at 7:30. For more information and directions to the Speedway, please visit the track's website at www.kopellahspeedway.net.

Summary:
Hornets, Feature: Ryan McKenzie, Damon Stusek, Kevin Bradwell, Dan Strobach, Jacob Christensen, Pamela Lutgen, Nate Gessell, Jeremy Frendt, Tyler English, Kris Kaphing

Pure Stocks, Feature: Jesse Lutgen, Travis Jehlicka, TJ LaMere, Steven Johnson, Dustin Scheuer, Steve Baker, David Leaf, Michael Dyrdahl, Shawn Willis, Jason English, Sonja Ellingson, Tyler McFarland, Bruce Lutgen, Ben Johnson

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Feature: Jason Miller, Frank Soucek, John Remington, Bryce Johnson, Vince Corbin, Josh Bazey, Sam Nelson, Matt Potvin, Tim Swanson, Sampson Haseltine, Mike Gibson, Josh Amans, Jon Harer, Corey Fegloson

WISSOTA Street Stocks, Feature: Allen Gessell Jr., Jeff Heintz, Clark Swartz, Chanda Fjorden Nord, Shawn Kammerud, Eric Berg, Kyle Howland, Adam Soltis, Trisha Nyren, Joe Ott, Tim Baxter

WISSOTA Super Stocks, Feature: Dan Gullikson, Cory Davis, Luke Strandlund, Ed Markel, John Remington, Tim Baxter

WISSOTA Modifieds, Feature: Shawn Kelley, Mike Kelly Jr., Jason Schill, Duane Dale, Jim Cimfl, Steve Lavassuer, Tim VanMeter, Shaun Kreyer, Mike Mueller, Kenneth Hansen, Jason Gross