Under sunny skies and pleasant spring temperatures, the 2017 season in the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series (UMSS) winged division got underway at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday night April 22. 2013 UMSS Champion Chris Graf of Glencoe looked like a for-sure winner, as he opened up a commanding lead in the 20 lap main event right from the start over Grand Forks, North Dakota driver Wade Nygaard. Graf built up a half lap lead by mid race and still had a large lead when he attempted to lap the third place car of Chase Viebrock. That task proved difficult and following a bobble by Graf in turn four with just a few laps remaining, Nygaard closed in and the battle for the top spot was on. Coming out of turn four on the final lap, Nygaard edged past Graf and was able to hold him off at the finish line by a mere .019 seconds for a thrilling come-from-behind photo finish! It was Nygaard’s first career UMSS victory, his third career win at Cedar Lake, and his first at the popular western Wisconsin dirt oval since 2006. The close finish brought the crowd to its feet, as it ended up being the thrill of celebrating in Rock Auto Victory Lane for Nygaard and the disappointment of letting the race slip away for Graf.
Although the field was rather thin with just eleven winged sprints on hand, their feature race proved to be the best one of the evening. Heat race wins went to Graf and Nygaard. Young Victoria (Tori) Knutson won the first Challenge Race over Graf while Nygaard swapped the lead on a couple of occasions with Brandon Geldner before winning the second Challenge Race. Nygaard and Graf earned the top points in the double round of qualifiers, and drew the front row. Jared Goerges and Viebrock made up the second row for the 20 lap feature event.
The first attempt to get the feature underway saw Goerges spin in turn 4 on the opening lap. Graf immediately pulled away from the field when the race went green on the second start attempt. Nary a caution would wave after that, as the drama unfolded late in the race leading up to the thrilling finish. Following Nygaard and Graf was Viebrock in third. Viebrock managed to unlap himself on the final lap, as only the top three cars finished on the lead lap. Geldner and Jeff Pellersels rounded out the top five. The remainder of the top ten finishers included Knutson, Goerges, Reed Allex, Kevin Bradwell and Bob McVitty. Trevor Serbus did not finish.
The UMSS winged sprints next race will see them take part in a co-sanctioned event on Saturday May 6 at the Fairmont Raceway with the MSTS sprints. Following the Fairmont race, the UMSS sprints will get ready for a three-race Memorial Day Weekend trip through western Wisconsin with races at Red Cedar Speedway, Rice Lake Speedway and Eagle Valley Speedway on May 26-28. 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.
Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series
Cedar Lake Speedway
New Richmond, WI
Saturday April 22, 2017
