HISTORY MADE FRIDAY NIGHT AT WAGNER SPEEDWAY

Door to door, wheel to wheel action is what fans were treated to on Friday night at Wagner Speedway with action presented by Namminga Hay Grinding, Bu-res and Associates, PC and Beck's Hybrids. There were exciting moments in all five classes, with two of those finishesbeing of historical proportions.

The night started off with the Hobby Stock main event, which saw Kevin Vasek (Lake Andes, SD) lead the first seven laps. On lap eight, a caution flag would wave and bunch up the field with Vasek having the restart lead, but Joey Jaton (Wagner, SD) and Derrick Scott (Geddes, SD) were right behind him. With Scott on the outside of the first full row, he would use that to his advantage to get by Jaton on the ensuing start. The very next lap would see a three car incident as Tanner Novak (Wagner, SD) would get collected with Richard Dozark (Mitchell, SD) on the front straight away. With Novak down in the infield and Dozark sitting sideways just past the flag stand, Kevin Manthey (Bonesteel, SD) would have no where to go and ran into the drivers side of the Dozark machine. Novak would have his night come to an end, but Dozark and Manthey would continue. On the following restart with seven laps to go, Vasek continued to lead, with Scott up to second and Jaton now in third. Another caution flag would wave two circuits later as Kody Roth (Spencer, NE) would come to a stop in the front stretch with broken components in the right rear wheel, causing him to retire. Following the restart with five laps to go, Scott was able to make his move. As Vasek and Scott rounded turn four, Vasek faded slightly up the track and that was the open door Scott needed to grab the lead on lap 11. Scott would not look back from there and would secure his second win of the season and his second consecutive victory. Following Scott across the finish line would be Jaton, Chris Lindquist (Gregory, SD), Matt Goth (Madison, SD) and Chad Muilenberg (Ethan, SD). Heat races were won by Matt Goth and Landon Nedved (Wagner, SD).

The B-Modifieds would take the green flag next and the only other flags this race would see is the white flag with one lap to go and the checkered flag at the end. This non-stop event had three different leaders and featured a first time winner this year. Logan Kafka (Wagner, SD) started on the pole and led until lap four when Kyle Pecena (O'Neill, NE) would shoot to the front. While the laps counted down, the cream was rising to the top. Wade Wright (Armour, SD) would move into the second spot from his fifth place starting position and Dudley Schroeder, Jr (Armour, SD) would move into third from his ninth starting spot. It would be on lap eight that the race would have a new leader and the eventual winner, as Wright found the point and went on to his first victory of the season, his fifth of his career in a B-Modified and his 16th overall in his career. Schroeder was the hard charger, coming from ninth to settle for second. Pecena took home third, with Camden Myers (Ethan, SD) in fourth and Matt Esterling (Sioux Falls, SD) rounding out the top five. Heat races were won by Matt Esterling and Wade Wright.

The Late Models would take their turn on the fast, high banks next and this feature would make fans forget they had a seat to sit in. A caution flag would wave with nine laps remaining as a potentially dangerous situation arose. Chris DeBoer (Mt Vernon, SD) got loose coming off of the fourth turn and drove into the infield. He attempted to re-enter the track in front of the flag stand right in front of the oncoming leaders. Thankfully, there was no incidents, but the caution flag waved and the pace was slowed. On the restart, Justin Havaranek (Wagner, SD) would have the restart lead, followed by Jared Jelsma (Springfield, SD), Eric Van Osdall (Norfolk, NE), Quentin Myers (Pukwana, SD) and Terry McCarthy (Springview, NE). Two laps later following the restart, another caution would wave for Jesse Kroger (Canton, SD) losing power. This restart would have Havaranek showing the way with Van Osdall now up to second and Myers up to third. The final caution of the event would wave on lap 13 and Terry McCarthy would slow on the speedway, which would set up an amazing last two laps. As the green flag waved for the final time, Myers put pressure on Havaranek, numerous times pulling up door to door, but Havaranek kept finding answers. As they came off the final turn for the checkers, Myers gave it one more shot, but Havaranek would not be denied, picking up his second win of the season and second in a row. Myers would settle for second, Van Osdall finished in third with Jared Jelsma and Jeff Kroger (Canton, SD) completing the top five. Heats were won by Jared Jelsma and Gave Vogt (Yankton, SD).

The B-Buzzer front wheel drive class would be the first event of the night that would have history making events. For the first time in track history, a female driver earned the checkered flag. It was deja vu from a week previous, when Cassy Cooper (Mitchell, SD) and Matthew Andersh (Wagner, SD) made contact with each other on the front stretch as they took the white flag. Last week, it was Andersh that was able to withstand the contact and win the feature. On this night though, Cooper would not be denied. As both cars rumbled down the front chute, it would be Cooper that would prevail, as she drove away for the history making win. As expected in the Subway Winner's Circle post race interview, Cooper was relieved and proud. "I have to thank my Dad (Cal Muilenburg) for working on this thing with me. He spends so many hours working on this thing. This was a long time coming." Cooper added, "I knew he (Andersh) was there and I knew the same thing was going to happen again that happened last week. I was not backing down and it paid off." Kevin Andersh (Wagner, SD) won the heat race.

Finally the WISSOTA Super Stocks would hit the track and this event would be something Wagner Speedway has never seen. The feature would be a qualifier for the Super Stocks at the AFCO Race of Champions during the annual WISSOTA 100 event at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, MN, September 11-15th. Coming into action Friday night, only 17 different drivers had qualified for the event at different qualifiers from Montana to Wisconsin. As the green flew on this 20 lap battle, Corey Elward (Mitchell, SD) showed the way until turn two of lap two when the car got loose, slid upthespeedwayandallowedBrandon Tingle (Mitchell, SD) and Kip Myers (Ethan, SD) to go by on the inside. On lap three, the only caution flag of the night would wave for Tanner James (Mitchell, SD). With 17 laps remaining, Tingle would have the restart lead, knowing that Myers and Elward were right behind him. As the laps counted away, Elward was able to get by Myers and move into second, but those two were unable to catch the leader, as Tingle powered his way to his second victory of the season and his 24th win of his career at Wagner, which puts him all alone in third place on the all time wins list behind Seth Fischer and David Kranig. The win also secured Tingle an automatic starting spot for the AFCO Race of Champions at the WISSOTA 100 in September. Tingle was followed by Elward, Myers, Tyler Myers (Ethan, SD) and Cody Martin (Mitchell, SD). Corey Elward won the heat race.

Racing action will continue this Friday night with the final Commercial State Bank Kid's Night of the season, the Tri-State Late Models invading the speedway for the second time and it will be twin feature night for the B-Buzzer front wheel drives. All the action will be sponsored by Commercial State Bank, Schaeffer's Specialized Lubricants and the South Dakota Lottery. Kid's Night is a chance for kids to win bicycles at intermission that are donated by race teams, local individuals and businesses. If you, or someone you know would like to put a smile on a young fan's face, bring a bike to the races on Friday night and we'll give it away. The Tri-State Late Model series will make their second stop of the season and will have an extra $100 worth of scratch off lottery tickets for the winner from the South Dakota Lottery. The final stop for the Tri-State Late Models at Wagner will be on Saturday, September 8th. The winner of that feature event will also get $100 worth of tickets. Then, the driver that has scored the most Tri-State points in the three stops at Wagner, will receive an extra $250 worth of tickets. The B-Buzzer twin features night will be a regular points race for the heats and first feature and the second feature will completely invert the cars that finish the first event. Both features will have full payout with the winner of each event picking up the $100 South Dakota Lottery ticket bonus. The driver that has the best average finish between the two will also receive an extra $100 worth of South Dakota Lottery scratch off tickets.

Get to the track and enjoy a delicious supper from Mom and Missy's Place, featuring mouth-watering chislic, grilled burgers, brats and hot dogs, polled pork sandwiches, chicken strips, walking tacos, nachos and more. Then wash it down with ice cold Coca-Cola products and ice cold Budweiser products. Gates open at 5pm, hot laps at 7pm with racing to follow at 8pm. We'll see you Friday night!

For complete results, updated point standings, the remaining schedule and more, check out WagnerSpeedway.com or follow our Facebook page at Wagner Speedway Fan Page.

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