Jefferson Speedway Race Report:

May 17, 2008;  Jefferson WI --  The ASA Midwest Tour made a visit to Wisconsin's Action Track, Jefferson Speedway, on a cool rainy night. Running in conjunction with the ASAMT were two of the speedway's finest divisions, the hobby stocks and bandits. Unfortunately, rain didn't allow the 20 lap bandit feature to begin, but the hobby stock division managed to put on a good show with Waterloo's Dustin Ward coming out on top in the 25 lap feature event.

Photo Highlights

Three wide racing action in the hobby stock heat race. Hobby Stock feature winner Dustin Ward (9) racing for position. Scott Pauls (18) on his way to a Bandit heat race victory.

Ward dominated the feature, starting on the front row and leading all 25 laps to the victory. Ward took the lead on lap one as the field stacked up behind him, eventually leading to the only caution period of the race on lap two. On the restart, Alan Dorn and Tim Lange waged a battle for the runner up position, racing side by side and trading a little paint. On lap 13, Lange got loose and slid back to fifth, allowing Jim Tate take over the third spot. Four laps later, Tate broke loose and dropped out of the top five. But Tate would not go away easily, reentering the top five with four laps remaining and charging into the third spot once again. But Ward had the field covered, cruising to the checkered flag for the win followed by Dorn, Tate, Jim Robinson and Lange.

The bandit division was able to complete all it's heat races and the last chance event, but the rain didn't allow the feature to get the green flag. The 20 lap bandit feature will be the first event of the program on Saturday, May 24. Next week's program will be highlighted by the B & M Electric 50 lap late model feature as well as a full program in all five divisions. Jefferson Speedway is located halfway between Jefferson and Cambridge on Hwy 18. For more information, please visit www.jeffersonspeedway.com.

 EILEN GOES WIRE-TO-WIRE TO GRAB HIS SECOND ASAMT WIN AT JEFFERSON
By: Kevin Ramsell

JEFFERSON, WI (Saturday, May 17, 2008) – It has been a tough start to the 2008 season for Jonathan Eilen and it appeared that streak would continue. But, luck would turn around for him as he would capture the Kwik Trip Stores 100 ASA Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment event at Jefferson Speedway in Cambridge, WI.

“Boy we really needed this,” a happy Eilen stated in victory lane. “We had our problems all day with the motor. We actually had the back up car out ready to go and we thought for sure we would have to go to that one, but this car was like a rocket on rails.”

Eilen started on the outside of the front row and got the lead from polesitter Adam Hensel.

ASAMT officials hurried to get the start of this race going as rain was approaching the track. The caution flew on lap 27 when precipitation started to fall on the track causing a one hour and 28 minute delay.

After the Jefferson Speedway Hobby Stocks and Bandits assisted with the drying of the track, the field of 26 cars took the green flag and was able to complete the event before the next band of showers hit the track.

Eilen would work his way through lap traffic while Jamie Iverson worked on holding off Andrew Morrissey for the second position. “I didn’t think it was going to be easy, I thought it would be a little risky out there, but it worked out,” Eilen stated.

Iverson would get his shot at Eilen when the caution flew with five laps to go after Rich Loch and Kyle Calmes made contact in turn two causing Calmes to spin. Per the ASAMT rules, the lap traffic was placed behind the lead lap cars.

With four laps to go, Iverson made his move to the inside going into turn one but bobbled in the middle of turns one and two. “I tried getting underneath Jonathan there and I got a little squirrely there and I thought I better just settle for second,” Iverson stated after the race. “I just wanted to make sure I got a finish this time.”

For Eilen, he becomes the second driver to win more than one ASAMT race. “I can’t forget to thank my crew guys and my sponsors, this is awesome.”

Morrissey would hold off Dan Fredrickson for his second third place finish three starts this season. “It was a good run, I just wanted to come out of here with all four fenders on it,” Morrissey said afterwards. “With never being here before I am very happy with how we ended up.”

Fredrickson would pick up his third consecutive top five finish with his fourth place run while fast qualifier, Blake Horstman, came home fifth.

Mark Kraus would finish sixth with defending race winner, Nathan Haseleu finishing seventh. Travis Sauter was eighth while Doug Mahlik was ninth. Donny Reuvers would recover from an earlier spin to finish tenth.

Earlier in the day, Horstman set a new track record with a lap time 13.729 seconds beating the mark set last year by Dan Lensing, who had a lap time of 13.815 seconds.
 

Feature Results

1) 9 Dustin Ward 2) 96 Alan Dorn 3) 27 Jim Tate 4) 33 Jim Robinson 5) Tim Lange 6) 42 Bobby Selsing 7) 11 Steve Sauer 8) 19 Zac Schmidt

Fast Qualifier- 92 Kyle Stark 16.612 seconds

Heat Winners- 1) 41 Nick Newton 2) 22 Chester Williams 3) 19 Zac Schmidt

Last Chance- 41 Nick Newton, 22 Chester Williams, 49 Buck Stultz, 85 Joe Edwards

Feature Results - Rained Out

Fast Qualifier- 57 Tom Pfeifer 14.533 seconds

Heat Winners- 1) 18 Scott Pauls 2)Titus Helgestad 3) 89 Chad Olds

Last Chance- 04 John Beale, 92 Andy Bauler, 4 George Bedetich, 45 Nick Balis