Frogs serenading in the water hole out back, birds chirping nearby and even a killdeer nest with eggs ready to hatch in the grass. Ah yes, spring is upon us here in the great, wooded, North…But wait, what was that sound? That was undoubtedly the roar of a racing engine as spring is also kick off time for short track racing here in Wisconsin.
Hard to believe, but all these sights and sounds were a part of opening day at Madison International Speedway Sunday May 3, as the ASA Midwest Tour held their first event of the 2009 season while the Big 8 Series cars also got their season kicked off. As you may have already guessed it was a great day for racing and race teams nearly 100 strong in the two Series arrived to do battle on the big ½ mile paved oval near Madison, Wisconsin.
As incentive this year, teams were hoping to take home the trophy and bragging rights in an event being held in memory of longtime superstar short tracker Joe Shear. The Joe Shear Memorial Classic featured a 136 lap main event in honor of the car #36 Joe raced with throughout his entire career. Nathan Haseleu who has been in a bit of a slump the last year or so picked a great time to come out of it as he won the feature event holding off a determined Jeremy Lepak. Although never having raced with Joe Shear Haseleu has fond memories like so many of us do of Little Joe racing near the front at tracks everywhere. “This win means a lot to me, Joe was a heckuva racer!”
The way the event started you wouldn’t have thought Haseleu was the man to beat as Steve Carlson and Tim Schendel took early dominating leads. By the time the 100 lap break occurred they were already slipping back through the field though, their cars not up to the full 136 lap task. Haseleu meanwhile was saving his equipment for the 36 lap stretch run and it paid off as he took the checkered flag 6 car lengths in front of Lepak. Travis Sauter as seems to be customary for him, secured a spot in the main through a qualifying race but steadily worked his way from the back of the pack to 3rd place at the finish. Rounding out the top 10 at the stripe were visiting NASCAR driver Kelly Bires, Dan Fredrickson, Dave Feiler, Jacob Goede, Jeff Storm, Schendel and Andy Monday.
The Big 8 Series 38 lap feature found a familiar name in victory lane as a Kenseth once again won here at MIS. No, not Matt who dominated this track back in the ‘90s but his 15 year old son Ross who captured his 3rd series win. The young Kenseth appears to have much of the coolness under fire his Dad possesses as he fought off a number of competitors’ challenges to win by a car length.
Fast tracks… Today’s race program was also the debut of many time track and series champion Bryan Reffner to the Tour as he has agreed to run 10 of the ASAMT events in 2009. After a less than stellar time trial performance and a bad shock slowing his effort in his last chance qualifier Reffner failed to make the main much to the surprise of the nearly 4,000 fans in attendance. After years off from the short track scene Reffner will definitely have his work cut out for him running the Tour in 2009. His luck may change in a hurry though, as the next event is at Iowa Speedway May 16th where he runs very well…Thinking about the namesake of the ASAMT event I can’t recall when Joe Shear ever had a really bad racing season. You look at the great ones that have passed through here, Trickle, Reffner, Marzofka, Ziegler, Watson, Reimer, to name a small portion, they all had at least one poor season. Joe always seemed to be racing near the front. He definitely had an amazing career…La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway got it’s opener in here Saturday May 2 with a great four division field of cars on hand and an excellent crowd. So often heading into a new season the doom and gloomers predict small fields and bad attendance. If the opener here is any indication we are looking at a banner season at the 5/8 mile NASCAR sanctioned paved oval…Good to see Jeff Baker get his first ever feature win in the NASCAR Late Model Division at Lax by capturing the 25 lap headliner…J. Herbst in his Crate engined LM set a new track record in qualifying on the night with a 19:617 lap…Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Fountain City, WI., got their second race program in with similar results as Brad Waits took the Modified feature win in convincing fashion and Kyle Jumbeck followed up his week one triumph with another in the Midwest Modified Feature. Danny Hansen who demolished two cars already this year came back tonight with a rebuilt one to win the Street Stock main. The Superstock field has increased and Jon Duffy held off 12 others to win that divisions top attraction. The Hornets cars are competing here on a weekly basis and John Severson in his 2009 debut made short work of the field in taking the win…Photo Caption. #25 Ross Kenseth on his way to the Big 8 Series feature win.
Pic from the past. #36 Joe Shear posing next to his Camaro at Wisconsin International Raceway in 1973. Guess who on the day won the Spring Sizzler event held at the track? Joe Shear of course.
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