Wi Dirt Racin

Many believe that a ‘full moon’ has an impact on events, animals, fish, and people. Whether one believes that or not, what many would have thought ‘impossible’ actually happened this past Saturday night at TNT Motor Speedway.
With only this coming Saturday Night’s races left in the ‘Point” season, the only way for some of the Class point leaders to actually have a chance of losing the championship is to have the driver in 2nd place to not only win the Heat races, AND win the Features. Then the point leader has to either not finish the races or finish toward the back of the pack.

Thus the Point leaders should be able to sit back, grab the steering wheel, and cruise around the high-banked one third mile track located south of Three Lakes.
Cory “Cowboy” Allen went into Saturday Night’s races with a comfortable 26 point lead over James Koga in the TNT Pro Truck class. Koga starts off with a Heat win.
“The truck felt like it was on rails, where ever I wanted to go, the truck would go and handle flawlessly,” commented Koga after his Heat win.
While winning the Heat was important, Koga still needed help from his fellow Pro Truck racers to finish in front of Allen in that Heat race.
Allen takes a 5th in the Heat.
Hmmmm, could that ‘full moon’ be doing its magic?
Then in the Feature, Koga jumps out to an early lead, and Allen is working his way through traffic. Then with 5 laps to go, Allen get’s by Koga to take the lead. While winning the Feature would basically clinch the Year-end Championship for the Rhinelander driver, all Allen really needed was to be one position in front or even one behind Koga to prevent Eagle River’s Koga from narrowing Allen’s point lead.
“Cowboy (Cory Allen) was running such a clean race, and I knew he would be tough to beat. Then all of the sudden, he wasn’t around,” stated Koga.
As Allen is building up a big lead going into the final two laps of the race. The light of the Full Moon struck a blow to one of Allen’s Shocks. OK, maybe it wasn’t the moon that knocked Allen out of the lead, but the blown Shock did put him toward the back of the pack.
Now the race for the win was on between Koga and Pelican Lake’s, Herb Dettman.
“Myself and others saw James (Koga) stay on the high side, so I and others dropped down to the bottom side to take advantage of what happened to Cory (Allen),” explained Dettman.
Koga stayed on top, and went on for the win.
“James (Koga) would have had to make a mistake for me to get the lead, and he didn’t,” commented Dettman.
Koga did win the TNT Pro Truck Feature, but where did Allen finish? All the way back in 5th.
“This was the first time I have ever won both a Heat and a Feature. What made the night even more special was that my Grandmother got to see both wins,” Koga remarked.
Now it will come down to that final night of racing to see who will win the TNT Pro Truck Points Championship.
While those that believe that a Full Moon does have an impact on what happens here on Planet Earth, but does it have any impact on what happens on the one-third mile high banked track at TNT?
It was in the WISSOTA Street Stock Feature that Bruce Crossing, Michigan’s; Jordan Kurtti clinched the point’s championship by cruising to a win in the Heat race. Then in the Feature, Kurtti worked his magic to get around his ‘back-up’ car driven by his friend and team-mate David Blackberg mid-way through the race,
Kurtti looked to be out for a joy ride in front of all the other cars as the race was winding down. Then a caution came out. Kurtti’s lead disappeared like cookies in the cookie jar when the grandkids are around.
On the Delaware re-start, Kurtti was in front all by himself. Blackberg had choice and the remaining spot would go to Tomahawk’s Derek Eberl.
Right when the flag dropped, Eberl snuck between both Kurtti and Blackberg!
While fans and officials were already giving the win to Kurtti, they looked down at the track when the checkered flag flew and here was Eberl making the trek to the NAPA Victory Lane.
“Now I am not one that believes in this full moon stuff, but I started to think that what I thought was the impossible, may just be possible on this night,” explained TNT Track Announcer, Skip Schulz.
If you thought that the fans had seen it all, here goes the WISSOTA Midwest Modified Class.
Clinching the Class Championship is Rhinelander’s Dan Melton. This past Saturday Night, the Class Champion at Adventure Mountain Speedway in Greenland, Michigan, George Truscott made the trip south.
A few weeks before this, Truscott beat Melton in the “Border War” race at Adventure Mountain.
“I’ve chased George (Truscott) all year at Adventure Mountain and I know how good of a driver he is,” commented Melton.
Truscott easily won the Heat race, with Melton and Dennis Mikkelson in hot pursuit throughout the race.
In the Feature, Wakefield, Michigan’s Ron Lillie impressed the fans by getting a lead in his first race at TNT. Finally Truscott got the lead, with Melton and MIkellson right behind. Then for 15 of the 20 lap feature, it was Truscott and Melton racing right next to each other. Right behind them was Mikellson.
“George (Truscott) was running a low line for the entire race, and I was one ‘groove’ outside of him. It was a line that my car simply handled flawlessly…but I knew that George was still the one to beat,” explained Melton.
Then on the final turn to the finish line, Melton got his nose in front of Truscott to get the win.
“Right when everyone thought that (George) Truscott was going to do what he has done so many times, that is to pull out of corner 4 and dash to another victory, here goes Danny (Melton),” stated Jaime Pooch of TNT Motor Speedway.
To really make people wonder if the moon is playing games with the racing at TNT, here comes ‘those TNT Bombers!’
It is in the Pure Stock class that 3 drivers were all in the running for the Class Championship. Point leader, Tyler Lundberg of Rhinelander, followed by the Eagle River tandem of David Blackberg and Jason Melton.
Same scenario as in the TNT Pro Trucks. Lundberg just needed to stay in front of Blackberg and Melton in all the remaining races.
In the first heat it was ‘none of the above’ that took the checkered flag. It was the driver that has been as hot as Chili Peppers and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. That is Eagle River’s Jake Ison. However Blackberg took a second and Lundberg took a third. Cut Lundberg’s point lead by 1 point.
In the second Heat, it was ‘Racin’ Jason Melton that held ‘serve,’ with a win.
Thus setting up the very important Pure Stock Feature where all 10 drivers will be racing on the wide TNT clay track.
Early on in the race it was not Lundberg, Blackberg, and Melton that were leading the pack. It was Ison, Jason Eisel, Mike Rick, and Devon Wolf. Then a late race altercation not only brought out the Caution, but involved Lundberg who had to go to the back of the pack.
On the re-start, Blackberg quickly weaved through traffic to get on the bumper of Ison. With only a couple laps to go, Lundberg went through traffic like a hot knife through butter.
On the final lap, Ison was in the lead while Blackberg and Lundberg were tussling amongst each other. Ison won the race, and even when the race was over, Lundberg continued to ‘tussle’ with Blackberg.
We did tell you that there was a Full Moon, right?
It was determined that Lundberg would keep his 3rd place finish and the points he got in the Feature.
The Micro Sprint 600’s didn’t want to be lost in the shuffle of all the excitement going on, so the fastest cars on the track put on an amazing display of speed and handling coming right out of the box in the Heat race.
Deerbrook’s Jake Reif and Shiocton’s Denver Larson were hitting speeds of close to 80 MPH and still racing inches apart. The two would go into the turns side by side for the entire race. The two would go back and forth for the lead.
In the end it was 15 year old Denver Larson holding off 18 year old Jake Reif for the win in the Heat.
They had so much fun thrilling the crowd, it was only appropriate that they do the same thing in the Feature. The ending of the Feature was the same as the Heat. Denver Larson held off Jake Reif for the win.
Even the Stingers and Junior Sprint racers wanted to use the mystical powers of a Full Moon to put the fans on the edge of their seats.
Merrill’s Zach Degner and Rhinelander’s Bobby Sheldon were bumper to bumper in both the Heat and the Feature. Degner got the Heat win, while Sheldon took the Feature. Both races went right down to the finish line.
In the Junior Sprints, Phelps Dustin Kangas won both the Heat and the Feature, but in both races he had to work his way around Deerbrook’s Josie Rae Reif and Conover’s Dayton Rein.
“What is so good to see is how far these 5, 6, 8, and 10 year olds have come this year. Look at how well 5 year old Elliot Brownrigg-Johnson has come?” questioned Schulz.
Kangas has clinched the Junior Sprint Points Championship.
“Jerry (Grasse) told me to set some goals every night I race. From my starts to re-starts, to the lines I use, and that is what I have been working on all year,” Kangas commented.
Kangas didn’t mention what to watch out for under a Full Moon.
The final night of the Points season will be this coming Saturday Night at TNT Motor Speedway. The popular track will also hold a special race this coming Sunday Afternoon. While the point’s season will be over, TNT Motor Speedway will host Wisconsin’s version of “Border Wars,” on Saturday Night, September 26th. The”Border War” races will put racers from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula against those from Wisconsin.
At the “Border War” races held in the Upper Peninsula’s Adventure Mountain Speedway, the UP Drivers won by a score of 5-1. The lone Wisconsin win came from Cory Allen in the Pure Stock Class.
Cory Allen is one of the 5 finalists for the Bobby-0 SPIRIT Award. This special award is in honor of 30+ year racing veteran Bob Kleinschmidt who lost his life to Cancer last week. The other finalists for that award included Tomahawk’s CJ Hedges, Jr., Eagle River’s Ken Valeria, the late Mark Glembin, and long time race fan from the Upper Peninsula, Larry Grieg. The Bobby 0 Spirit Award, sponsored by Karen Brown and Jesse Aho, will be awarded this coming weekend.

TNT Motor Speedway Results, 8/29/15
WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature:
1) Dan Melton, Rhinelander
2) George Truscot, Greenland (MI)
3) Dennis MIkkelson, Rhinelander
4) Ron Lillie, Wakefield (MI)
5) Jonathon Miller, Eagle River
WISSOTA Midwest Modified Heat:
1) Truscott
2) MIkkelson
3) Melton
4) Lillie
5) Miller
WISSOTA Street Stock Feature:
1) Derek Eberl, Tomahawk
2) Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing (MI)
3) David Blackberg, Eagle River
4) Heid Karschbaum, Chetek
5) Steve Karschbaum,Chetek
WISSOTA Street Stock Heat:
1) Kurtti
2) Heidi Karschbaum
3) Derek Eberl
4) Blackberg
5) Steve Karschbaum
TNT Pro Truck Feature;
1) James Koga, Eagle River
2) Herb Dettman, Pelican Lake
3) Parker Retzlaf, Rhinelander
4) Mario Grado, Lac Du Flambeau
5) Cory Allen, Rhinelander
6) John Johnson, Sr., Lac Du Flambeau
7) Ronald Vernick, Lac Du Flambeau
TNT Pro Truck Heat:
1) Koga
2) Johnson, JR
3) Allen
4) Grado
5) Retzlaff
6) Dettman
7) Vernick
Micro Sprint 600 Feature:
1) Denver Larson, Shiocton
2) Jake Reif, Deerbrook
3) Jerry Reif, Deerbrook
4) Dylan Larson, Shiocton
Micro Sprint Heat:
1) Denver Larson
2) Jake Reif
3) Dylan Larson
4) Jerry Reif
Pure Stock Feature:
1) Jake Ison, Eagle River
2) David Blackberg, Eagle River
3) Tyler Lundberg, Rhinelander
4) Jason Eisel, Rhinelander
5) Jason Melton, Eagle River
6) Mike Rick, Irma
7) Joe Chaney, Crandon
8) John Johnson, Jr., Lac Du Flambeau
9) Ethan Holm, Crandon
10) Devin Wolf, Parrish
Pure Stock Heat 1:
1) Jason Melton
2) Rick
3) Blackberg
4) Johnson
5) Chaney
Pure Stock Heat 2:
1) Lundberg
2) Ison
3) Eisel
4) Holm
5) Wolf
Stinger Feature:
1) Bobby Sheldon, Rhinelander
2) Zach Degner, Merrill
3) Quentin Morrison, Eagle River
Stinger Heat:
1) Degner
2) Sheldon
3) Morrison
Junior Sprint Feature:
1) Dustin Kangas, Phelps
2) Josie Rae Reif, Deerbrook
3) Dayton Rein, Conover
4) Elliot Brownrigg-Johnson, Lac Du Flambeau
Junior Sprint Heat:
1) Kangas
2) Reif
3) Rein
4) Brownrigg-Johnson

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