Memorable Win for Ryan Bowers at Gale Patterson Memorial

UMSS - Winged Sprint Car Series
2018 UMSS Upper Midwest Sprint Series Top Story Logo
By Greg Parent2018 UMSS Upper Midwest Sprint Series Top Story Logo
On a memorable evening at the Cedar Lake Speedway, two-time UMSS champion Ryan Bowers of Ham Lake put an exclamation mark on his season-to-date with an impressive victory in a very entertaining 25 lap UMSS POWRi Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series Gale Patterson Memorial feature race during Midwest Power Series action.  With a strong field of (26) 360 winged sprints signed into the pits for night #2 of the hugely popular World of Outlaws weekend and racing in front of a large crowd, the UMSS 360 sprints did their part to provide some great racing.  Bowers took the lead from Kaleb Johnson on lap 15 and parked the #5 Kouba sprinter in Rock Auto Victory Lane.  Bowers joined Jerry Richert, Jr. as a winner of the Gale Patterson Memorial race and earned $1,515 for his win.
Making his first-ever appearance at the Cedar Lake Speedway, young Kaleb Johnson from Sioux Falls brought the 24-car starting field to the green.  Johnson was fresh off a $200 win in the Al Parker Engines Dash for Cash which put him on the pole for the feature event.  Johnson took the early lead, as drivers swapped several positions immediately behind him in the early laps.  The first of two cautions slowed the pace with six laps scored when James Broty spun in turn two.  Johnson continued to hold off all contenders when the race returned to green flag action, as Bowers put the pressure on for a few laps.  In fact, Bowers had just passed Johnson for the lead when the yellow flag waved.
The yellow light blinked on for the final time with 12 laps in the books when Troy Manteufel stopped inside turn 4 a bit too close to the racing surface.  The battle for the lead really heated up after that.  Bowers, who started outside front row, had actually slipped back as far as fourth place, changed his line a bit and began his pursuit of the leader.  On lap 15, Bowers made the winning pass and went on to record his second UMSS win of the season and 13th career UMSS victory.  Johnson held strong for second ahead of Dominic Scelzi (who ran as high as second for several laps) in the DDR #41 car, current and defending Midwest Power Series champion Derrik Lusk and 17th starter Chase Viebrock.  Rounding out the top ten finishers was Geoff Dodge in the Seidenkranz Brothers sprinter, two-time Midwest Power Series and UMSS champion Chris Graf, Iowa racer Brayden Gaylord, James Broty with a strong recovery after his lap 6 spin, and veteran later model race turned sprint car driver Harry Hanson from Eveleth.  Twenty one cars were still running at the checkers.
Three 10-lap heats were run with Dodge, Lusk and Bowers picking up the $100 wins courtesy of Al Parker Engines on Newton, Iowa.  The top six cars in passing and finishing points from the heats redrew for starting spots in the six lap Dash for Cash.  The finishing order of the dash determined the starting order for the first three rows in the feature.  As mentioned earlier, Kaleb Johnson drove to an impressive win in the dash followed by Bowers, Dodge, Scelzi, Lusk and Graf.  Misfortune struck Midwest Power Series regular Dean Brown in the second heat race, as he flipped his sprinter on the back stretch and was out of action for the remainder of the evening.  Brown picked up the $100 Blaine Brothers Hooked Up Award administered through Donnohue Designs Racing.  With an outstanding run forward from 17th to 5th in the feature, young Chase Viebrock earned the $200 GRP Motorsports/Minnesota Mafia Hard Charger Award for his effort.
A huge thanks to Chad Patterson for his work in obtaining over $3,000 in sponsorship money for his dad’s memorial race.  Add in the Midwest Power Series money, and there was over $5,000 extra in the purse for the 360 winged sprint cars at this event.  Also a big shout out to the DDR #41 race team and their driver for the night Dominic Scelzi.  They donated their third place winnings to Bobbi Johnson and her family in honor and memory of Jason Johnson.  They received permission to use Jason’s #41 car number for the night, and coupled with a very memorable tribute from the World of Outlaws prior to their feature, just added to this great memorial evening at Cedar Lake.  Scelzi by the way finished an impressive fifth in the WoO feature following his third place run in the 360 sprint division.  Ryan Bowers was also doing double duty with a ride in the Layton #19 410 sprinter.
The UMSS POWRi Lucas Oil winged sprints will return next Saturday July 14 to the Cedar Lake Speedway for another Midwest Power Series event.  The UMSS sprints will also have a travel show point night on Friday July 13 at the Jackson Motorplex during the third Midwest Power Series race at the popular southern Minnesota track this season.  Extra bonus money for the top three finishers in the CLS July 14 feature will be in effect for cars that race at Jackson on Friday and head north to Cedar Lake on Saturday to compete.  The UMSS Traditional sprints will join the program at Cedar Lake.  Racers and fans can keep track of all the UMSS POWRi Lucas Oil winged sprint car action on our website at www.umsprints.com or on the UMSS Facebook page.
UMSS POWRi Lucas Oil Race Results – Cedar Lake Speedway July 7, 2018 (Race #8)
2nd Annual Gale Patterson Memorial Midwest Power Series Event
Midwest Power/GRP Motorsports A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 5-Ryan Bowers, [2]; 2. 22K-Kaleb Johnson, [1]; 3. 41-Dominic Scelzi, [4]; 4. 2-Derrik Lusk, [5]; 5. 50-Chase Viebrock, [17]; 6. 64-Geoff Dodge, [3]; 7. 20G-Chris Graf, [6]; 8. 13-Brayden Gaylord, [13]; 9. 33-James Broty, [10]; 10. 7-Harry Hanson, [9]; 11. 03-Jamey Ogston, [12]; 12. 13MJ-Brandon Halverson, [18]; 13. 75-Brandon Geldner, [15]; 14. 5T-Mark Toews, [21]; 15. 5C-Cam Schafer, [22]; 16. 7M-Bob McVitty, [14]; 17. 5G-Dave Glennon, [11]; 18. 5M-Troy Manteufel, [7]; 19. 00-Kyle Finnegan, [23]; 20. 74-Roger McVitty, [24]; 21. 34-Denny Stordahl, [19]; 22. (DNF) 91A-Reed Allex, [8]; 23. (DNF) 22-Jeff Pellersels, [20]; 24. (DNF) 33S-Jeremy Schultz, [16]; (DNS) 1-Dean Brown, ; (DNS) 15E-Caley Emerson,
Lap Leaders: Johnson 1-14, Bowers 15-25. (2) cautions. First yellow with 6 laps in for 33 spin turn 2. Second yellow with 12 laps scored for 5m stopped turn 4.
Al Parker Engines Dash 1 (6 Laps): 1. 22K-Kaleb Johnson, [1]; 2. 5-Ryan Bowers, [3]; 3. 64-Geoff Dodge, [2]; 4. 41-Dominic Scelzi, [4]; 5. 2-Derrik Lusk, [6]; 6. 20G-Chris Graf, [5]
Lap Leader: Johnson 1-6. No cautions.
Al Parker Engines/Rock Auto Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 64-Geoff Dodge, [1]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi, [5]; 3. 33-James Broty, [3]; 4. 03-Jamey Ogston, [4]; 5. 13-Brayden Gaylord, [7]; 6. 75-Brandon Geldner, [8]; 7. 50-Chase Viebrock, [9]; 8. 13MJ-Brandon Halverson, [6]; 9. (DNF) 5C-Cam Schafer, [2]
Lap Leaders: Johnson 1-14, Bowers 15-25. (2) cautions. First yellow with 6 laps in for 33 spin turn 2. Second yellow with 12 laps scored for 5m stopped turn 4. Hard Charger Award Viebrock +12.
Al Parker Engines/PIRTEK Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 2-Derrik Lusk, [1]; 2. 20G-Chris Graf, [3]; 3. 5M-Troy Manteufel, [5]; 4. 5G-Dave Glennon, [4]; 5. 7-Harry Hanson, [8]; 6. 34-Denny Stordahl, [2]; 7. 00-Kyle Finnegan, [9]; 8. (DNF) 1-Dean Brown, [6]; 9. (DNF) 5T-Mark Toews, [7]
Lap Leader: Lusk 1-10. One red flag with one lap scored when 1 & 5T had contact on backstretch and 1 flipped. Both cars out.
Al Parker Engines/GRP Motorsports Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 5-Ryan Bowers, [7]; 2. 22K-Kaleb Johnson, [6]; 3. 91A-Reed Allex, [5]; 4. (DNF) 7M-Bob McVitty, [4]; 5. (DNF) 33S-Jeremy Schultz, [3]; 6. (DNF) 15E-Caley Emerson, [8]; 7. (DNF) 22-Jeff Pellersels, [1]; (DNS) 74-Roger McVitty,
Lap Leaders: Schultz 1, Johnson 2-5, Bowers 6-10. Yellow with one lap in for 91A spint turn 4. Red with four laps scored when 15E tipped after contact with 33S. Lots of attrition in this race, as only three cars finished.