9/21/2017
WISSOTA
Becker bests WISSOTA 100 Late Model field
By Scott Hughes
All The Dirt!? Racing News
HURON, SD (September 13) - A field of 33 Late Models assembled in search of a $10,000 payday Saturday as the 2017 Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 came to a roaring conclusion in front of a full grandstand of hardy race fans. The cool conditions didn’t stop South Dakota race fans from coming out in big numbers for Championship Saturday at Dakota State Fair Speedway.
Chad Becker put his car in the trailer afterward as the event’s 2017 Late Model champion.
Championship Feature
Lance Matthees, Becker and Jeff Provinzino had the front row with 30 top WISSOTA runners right behind, and they were ready for 40 laps of throttle-down action on a very tacky track.
Becker and Provinzino blasted out front on the start while Matthees didn’t come up to speed as quickly. Becker lead-footed his way to a 10-length lead in just a couple laps and Provinzino had the same margin on Ricky Weiss, who ran third in the early going. Chad Olsen was fourth with Matthees, Jeff Wildung, Scott Ward and David McDonald behind on lap six. Becker made contact with the lapped car of Trevor Walsh on lap seven but raced on undeterred.
Provinzino gained some ground before Becker gathered it back up and charged away. Weiss and Olsen, along with Matthees, then closed the gap slightly on Provinzino as he navigated slower cars.
With 10 laps complete, Becker had one lapped car between his #12 and Provinzino. Matthees got past Olsen in traffic and Wildung threatened to do the same on the 12th circuit.
Wildung completed the pass a lap later and Ward rushed in on Olsen as well.
Becker passed two more lapped cars, which put three between he and Provinzino by the 15th lap. Weiss closed to a couple lengths of Provinzino with Matthees and Wildung about 15 lengths back as well.
Weiss pulled to Provinzino’s inside on lap 16 and they had five lapped cars right ahead. Wildung had just gone by Matthees for fourth and he quickly gained on Weiss. He was right on Weiss’ bumper at the halfway mark and Provinzino was just ahead. Matthees closed to Wildung’s bumper as well. Becker had half a straight on Provinzino just past halfway and four lapped machines. Weiss continued trying to shake Wildung and Matthees, who stayed right with him. Olsen tucked in behind Matthees as he ran in sixth.
The order was Becker, Provinzino, Weiss, Wildung, Matthees and Olsen, then Arment and Ward, McDonald and Mikkelson.
Becker stretched his lead to a full straight past halfway but Weiss caught up to Provinzino in traffic and as they worked lapped cars together, Wildung pulled alongside Weiss. Matthees snuck by Wildung when he got tied up behind a lapped car with 10 to go.
Provinzino got a little clear track in front and pushed hard. Weiss was tight to him in third with Matthees next, then Arment and Wildung followed by Olsen, Ward and Eric Mass.
Becker had totally checked out when the lap counter hit five remaining. Weiss continued to pressure Provinzino as the laps clicked off, but he couldn’t get past. Matthees was fourth but Arment was all over him for that spot with three laps remaining.
With two left, and in heavy traffic, Provinzino fought hard to keep Weiss at bay, but as Becker drove to the dominating win, Weiss zipped past Provinzino on the last lap for second place. Behind podium finishers Becker, Weiss and Provinzino, Matthees finished fourth and Arment was fifth.
Ward, Wildung, Olsen, McDonald and Gary Brown, Jr. rounded out the top 10.
Last Chance Race
Earlier Saturday evening, 11 competitors lined up for the Late Model Last Chance Race, and the top six had spots waiting for them in the Championship Feature.
Casey Skyberg took the early lead with Curt Gelling and Mark Rose close behind followed by Dustin Arthur, Tyler Lambert and Chris Dunn. Skyberg pulled away easily from Gelling, while Rose fought off Arthur to retain third in the first three laps. Travis Saurer came from the back row and moved to sixth when he passed Curt Kranz with four laps down.
With seven laps in the books, Skyberg led Gelling, and the two had almost half a track on Rose, Arthur, Lambert and Saurer. Kranz, Dunn, John Hoefert and Tyler Reagle were ninth and 10th.
With three laps remaining, Skyberg dove hard under Reagle and Hoefert, but a yellow flag cleared the deck for him again with two laps remaining. Lambert suffered mechanical problems and that moved Kranz to the magical sixth position.
Saurer threaded through to third on the restart as Skyberg pulled away from Gelling a bit. Kranz went around in turn two and Reagle ended up stalled backwards on the track, so the yellow blinked on. Kranz went to the rear. That put Dunn in the sixth spot with three laps remaining.
Dunn got shuffled out on the green and it was a dogfight for sixth between Kranz, Hoefert and Reagle that went to the white flag.
Skyberg drove away from Gelling for the win. Gelling got second followed by Saurer, Arthur, Rose and Kranz got the final qualifying spot for the big show.
SUMMARY
WISSOTA Late Models
Championship Feature (40 Laps): 1. 12-Chad Becker, 13:02.291[2]; 2. 7-Ricky Weiss, 13:11.465[5]; 3. 28-Jeff Provinzino, 13:11.782[3]; 4. 90-Lance Matthees, 13:14.565[1]; 5. 9-Kent Arment, 13:14.689[7]; 6. 37-Scott Ward, 13:14.970[4]; 7. 50-Jeff Wildung, 13:15.034[9]; 8. 10C-Chad Olsen, 13:15.437[6]; 9. 52X-David McDonald, 13:15.496[8]; 10. 22-Gary Brown Jr, 13:15.906[16]; 11. 44-Eric Mass, 13:16.493[10]; 12. 1S-Travis Saurer, 13:18.140[27]; 13. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson, 13:18.896[11]; 14. 73-Zach Johnson, 13:19.284[12]; 15. 76-Dustin Bluhm, 01:28.295[15]; 16. 38-Jordan Heiman, 13:20.087[14]; 17. 1QT-Brian Diede, 13:20.430[13]; 18. 28D-Kelly Duffy, 13:20.807[24]; 19. 3X-Casey Skyberg, 13:21.302[25]; 20. 18-Curt Gelling, 13:22.043[26]; 21. 4-Shane Edginton, 13:03.104[23]; 22. 44S-Cole Schill, 13:03.868[21]; 23. 18X-Shawn Meyer, 13:04.403[19]; 24. 17-Jim Harris, 13:10.072[17]; 25. 87-Curt Kranz, 13:10.774[30]; 26. 3M-Casey Meyer, 13:11.179[22]; 27. R0SE-Mark Rose, 13:14.240[29]; 28. 20T-Trevor Walsh, 13:17.455[32]; 29. 21X-Dustin Arthur, 13:13.805[28]; 30. 1B-Scott Borkowski, 13:07.724[33]; 31. (DNF) 1-Ryan Engels, 04:32.845[20]; 32. (DNF) 55K-Kinzer McCord, 02:01.673[31]; 33. (DNF) 57-Chad Williamson, 01:28.295[18]
Last Chance Race (15 Laps): 1. 3X-Casey Skyberg, 11:03.973[2]; 2. 18-Curt Gelling, 11:05.381[1]; 3. 1S-Travis Saurer, 11:07.018[12]; 4. 21X-Dustin Arthur, 11:07.816[3]; 5. R0SE-Mark Rose, 11:08.252[4]; 6. 87-Curt Kranz, 11:10.632[11]; 7. 21-Tyler Reagle, 11:11.555[7]; 8. 10TOO-John Hoefert, 11:12.591[8]; 9. 0-Chris Dunn, 11:15.156[5]; 10. (DNF) 17L-Tyler Lambert, 04:25.578[6]; 11. (DNF) T3-Richard Thomas, 02:52.137[10]; (DNS) 42S-Don Shaw
Submitted By: Scott Hughes