What a beautiful day to start out and have our season opener at Madison International Speedway.
The Computers-3s Double Feature Season opener was a great turn out. 22 drivers came to tackle the 1/2 mile. We had drivers from all over the state and also a couple from Minnesota and Illinois. Drivers like Karter and Kyle Stark, Time Anderson, George Sparkman, Kyle Riedner, Phil Malouf, and many others.
In Stark fashion, Karter Stark took home quick time and the only one under the 21 second mark. The kid was flying. He was followed by his dad Kyle Stark, Kyle Riedner, Mark English, and Phil Malouf in 5 in time.
There were no heat races, just features. And it was looking to shape up to be a good show. At the start of the first feature, there was a little bit of issues that brought out the caution right away, couple of cars had a little bit of damage. It does happen. The 21 of Justin got the worse of it. Coming to the green again and another little hiccup brought the caution right back out. This time the 35 of Lyle and the 28 of Mike got tangled and ended their race. The field took the green again and went all the way to checkers. But during that, it was a tough battle for everyone. Shawn Grabinger took the lead on lap 2 from Joe Koehn while the field was mixing this up, by lap 3, Justin made his way to 3rd while English made his was to 4th. But as the race went on, the battles got stronger, and Justin was catching Shawn as fast as he could and taking the lead on Lap 6. Malouf was also on the move getting into 3rd. But you have English over taking Malouf for 3rd on lap 7 then into 2nd the next lap, while you have Kyle and Karter making their way through the field also. Kyle slicing and dicing taking over 3rd on lap 8 with Karter in tow on lap 9.
Half way through we have Pearson followed by Karter and he was followed by Kyle. Pearson doing everything he can to keep the Starks behind him for many laps, but it came down to lap 17 and Karter and Pearson battling head to head. It was Karter that came out on top to take the win. He was followed by Justin, Kyle Stark, Kyle Reidner, and Phil Malouf in 5th. Then it was Mark English in 6th, followed by George, Dewey, Joe, and rounding out in 10th, Finstad.
2nd feature started out with Travis Hill and Tim Anderson in the front row leading the hungry pack behind them to the green. While the field got going, the 33 of Finstand could not and the inside row fell back allowing the outside row to get moving and moving fast. On green Anderson took the lead and Travis Hill falls off pace also in lap 2 while the field shuffles. By lap 5,Riedner is up to 2nd but 2 seconds behind Anderson with Karter in 3rd already. Karter took 2nd over and start chasing Anderson down on lap 10. Then you have Riedner, Sparkman and Malouf in tow. Lap 15 you have Karter making the bid for the lead and taking it away from Anderson all while you have a battle brewing for 5th as Pearson takes over 5th and Dewey start challenging Sparkman for 6th.
At the end of the race is was Karter Stark with the win followed by Anderson, Riedner, Pearson, and rounding out the top 5 was Dewey. They were followed by Sparkman in 6th, and on the last lap Malouf ran into trouble with his car dropping from 4th all the way down to 7th. English takes home 8th with Joe Koehn in 9th and rounding out the top 10 was Lyle Phillips.
Next race is Friday the 24th at Tomah Sparta Speedway. This is where the series started with Greg Oliver. So we will be paying homage to the track as our God Father race. This has always been a great track to race at. Just to name a few drivers expected to be there, Phil Malouf, Mark English, Mark Dewey, Justin Pearson, and Tim Anderson. I have heard rumors of a few others making the trip, but we will have to wait and see.
So make sure you spread the word to the fellow drivers and lets get them to the track. Remember, if you have not raced with us before, you will have to get teched before you can get on the track. So make sure you are there early enough so you can get your practice sessions in. Also don’t forget your paper work. It is under our forms page on our website. You will want to make sure you get them filled out. You can email your tower information sheet to midwestdashseries@gmail.com. The tax information sheet you will turn into to the lady at Phil’s trailer. This also mean, you don’t have to do paperwork at the sign in shed. Just the release form. Also, Message the Dash Facebook page and let us know if you are coming.
Again, Thank you to everyone that showed up. We hope you had a great time. Would like to thank Greg McKerns for having us, and Solutionzllc for putting up the extra money for the top spots. And thank you to all the drivers for making this a record count for this last weeks race. Lets keep things going strong and keep the car count up. See you all there.