By Greg Parent
The beautiful spring weather continued for the second race night of the season, as the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) winged division held its first-ever co-sanctioned event with the Midwest Sprint Touring Series (MSTS) at the Fairmont Raceway on Saturday evening May 6. At the end of the 20 lap feature race, a familiar name to both UMSS and MSTS fans found his way to Rock Auto Victory Lane. Lee Grosz of Harwood, ND took the lead from Altoona, IA driver Carson McCarl following a lap 11 restart and drove to his 10th career UMSS victory and first of the young season for both series. The win paid Grosz $1,500.
A decent field of nineteen sprints signed into the pits. Drivers drew for their heat race starting spots. The format would see three heats and a feature for the sprint cars. Heat race wins went to Ramona, SD racer Ryan Bickett, Grosz and Skylar Prochaska from Lakefield. Passing and finishing points were used to determine the feature race lineup. John Lambertz of Sioux Falls got the pole starting spot with McCarl to his outside. Bickett and Grosz would roll off from the second row.
McCarl grabbed the lead on the big, fast track and looked strong up front with Grosz and Bickett in pursuit. The first yellow blinked on when Kevin Bradwell stopped in turn 3 four laps into the race. McCarl continued to pace the field as the green replaced the yellow. Prochaska was on the move from his sixth starting spot. When the caution waved for the second time for a left rear flat tire on the Jody Rosenboom sprinter, all bets were off on the restart. Grosz and Prochaska both got by McCarl and proceeded to have a great duel up front. At one point, Prochaska passed Grosz in turns 1-2 only to see Grosz return the favor over in turns 3-4. Prochaska got high in turn 3 on lap 19 and both Bickett and fifth starter Kaley Gharst from Decatur, IL ducked under him. Lee Grosz sped on to victory over Bickett, Gharst, Prochaska and 14th starter Dylan Peterson from Sioux Falls. Rounding out the top ten finishers were McCarl, Lambertz, Harrisburg, SD driver Dusty Ballenger, Derrik Lusk from nearby Jackson and Kevin Flowers from Hartford, SD.
The UMSS winged sprints will take a couple of weekends off before a three-race Memorial Day Weekend tour through western Wisconsin sees the winged warriors race with the Traditional sprints at Red Cedar Speedway, Rice Lake Speedway and Eagle Valley Speedway on May 26-28. The following weekend will see another MSTS/UMSS co-sanctioned effort with three shows at the Jackson Nationals on June 1-3 which will also feature the popular World of Outlaws in action at the Jackson Motorplex. Keep tabs on all of the UMSS winged sprint car action by visiting our website at www.umsprints.com and clicking on the red logo or by following us on Facebook.
UMSS Race Results – Fairmont Raceway May 6, 2017 (Race #2)
MSTS/UMSS co-sanctioned event
MSTS/UMSS co-sanctioned event
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[4]; 2. 17B-Ryan Bickett[3]; 3. 7-Kaley Gharst[5]; 4. 35-Skylar Prochaska[6]; 5. 25-Dylan Peterson[14]; 6. 6-Carson McCarl[2]; 7. 12L-John Lambertz[1]; 8. 2D-Dusty Ballenger[10]; 9. 2-Derrik Lusk[13]; 10. 42-Kevin Flowers[11]; 11. 14-Jody Rosenboom[9]; 12. 20G-Chris Graf[7]; 13. 612-Isaac Schreurs[8]; 14. 101-Chuck McGillivray[12]; 15. 14K-Victoria Knutson[15]; 16. 91A-Reed Allex[16]; 17. (DNF) 10J-Justin Jacobsma[17]; 18. (DNF) 77-Kevin Bradwell[18]; 19. (DNF) 07-Derek Anderson[19].
Lap Leaders: McCarl 1-11, Grosz 12-20. Cautions: (2) Yellow with 4 laps in for 77 stopped turn 3. Yellow with 11 laps in for 14 flat tire.
Lap Leaders: McCarl 1-11, Grosz 12-20. Cautions: (2) Yellow with 4 laps in for 77 stopped turn 3. Yellow with 11 laps in for 14 flat tire.
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 17B-Ryan Bickett[2]; 2. 7-Kaley Gharst[1]; 3. 20G-Chris Graf[4]; 4. 2-Derrik Lusk[3]; 5. 101-Chuck McGillivray[7]; 6. 91A-Reed Allex[5]; 7. 07-Derek Anderson[6].
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[2]; 2. 6-Carson McCarl[1]; 3. 14-Jody Rosenboom[3]; 4. 2D-Dusty Ballenger[5]; 5. 25-Dylan Peterson[6]; 6. 10J-Justin Jacobsma[4].
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 35-Skylar Prochaska[6]; 2. 12L-John Lambertz[2]; 3. 612-Isaac Schreurs[4]; 4. 42-Kevin Flowers[5]; 5. 14K-Victoria Knutson[3]; 6. 77-Kevin Bradwell[1].