From Terry Lenhertz
SUPERIOR, Wisc. (June 25, 2021) — The winged Pirtek Renegades made their annual solstice trek to the Gondik Law Speedway in Superior on Friday, joining the traditional sprints of the Northern Renegades off the southern shores of gichi-gami. Chase Viebrock and Caley Emerson snared wins in the qualifiers, while Patrick Heikkinen amassed the most passing points.
For the 20-lap main event, it was Duluth’s Lance Solem and Heikkinen pacing the field to green with Heikkinen squirting to the point followed by Viebrock and Solem through the first set of turns. With Viebrock on a dominating 5-race winning streak, Heikkinen was going to have to be perfect if he had any hopes of denying Viebrock a victory for the first time in nearly two months. And perfect he was. Even a mid-race caution couldn’t rattle the Eveleth, Minnesota chauffeur in what turned out to be a flag to flag win for Heikkinen, the first of his Pirtek Renegade career. The win was especially sweet in that the previous summer, Heikkinen lead all but the last 200 feet of the Superior race, and the euphoria was abundantly evident as the #13 team celebrated in Rock Auto victory lane. Viebrock had to settle for second, with Solem, Mark Chevalier and Emerson rounding out the top five.
For the Northern Renegades, the traditional heat race wins went to Jori Hughes and “The Joker” Chris Lewis, while Ken Hron scored his second Renegade win in as many weeks with a victory in the 20-lap finale. Lewis crossed the stripe second, in front of Hughes, Emerson and Zach Olson.
The traditional Pirtek Renegades are back in action on Saturday, June 26, at Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday, and again next Friday, July 2 joining the World of Outlaw sprints at Cedar Lake. The winged sprints’ next event is night two of Outlaw weekend, teaming up with them on Saturday, July 3.