By: Dave Noelke
(West Salem, WI – August 22, 2015) It was the final night of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly racing at LaCrosse Speedway, and visiting Victory Lane was a name synonymous with short track racing: Carlson. Twice.
The Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Models were in action with two feature races on the night’s schedule. Last week, Mike Carlson led most of the feature, looking for his first feature win of 2015, but his plans were spoiled with a late race yellow.
This week the results were better, as he started on the outside pole and jumped to an early lead and never looked back. That late-race yellow flag never flew, and he was able to bring the car to the winner’s circle, ahead of Brent Kirchner, Brad Powell, Shawn Pfaff and Father Steve Carlson.
“I was hoping that a yellow wouldn’t come out, but I also didn’t want to mess up the car for the second feature,” commented Carlson. “Starting up front definitely helped (Carlson started outside the front row), and I always enjoy a win,” concluded Carlson.
The second main event of the evening for the Late Models got underway with Matthew Henderson and Adam Degenhardt on the front row. Three laps after Degenhardt took the lead, Shawn Pfaff, fourth place starter, challenged Degenhardt for several laps until he took the lead. Point leader Steve Carlson followed through but it was just a matter of time until the blue number 66 took the lead. He never looked back.
Carlson held on for a family sweep of the features. At the finish, it was Pfaff, Ty Majeski, Degenhardt and Henderson completing the top five.
“The car was out of control during the first race, and we changed some shocks and springs before the second one,” commented Carlson after his win. “It ran really well, and I saw that Ingersoll-Rand had a really fancy power tool up for grabs for the winner. I set my sights on that and ended up winning,” concluded Carlson.
The Dean’s Satellite Sportsmen feature began with a yellow taking place on the first lap, as Brian Hesselberg spun on the backstretch. That set up a complete race restart, putting Justin Mullikin and Jeff Thompson to bring the field back to green. Bachman restarted fourth and was able to jump to the lead by the fourth lap. Although point leader Nick Clements caught Bachman, he was unable to pass and Bachman won his second feature of the year. Third went to Tony Leis, while Brad Warthan and Mullikin completed the top five.
“It’s been a really fun comeback,” commented Bachman after the main event. Bachman, was referring to sitting out the first half of the season with a broken wrist, and returning to the track mid-July. “I’m really looking forward to racing at Oktoberfest, as my car runs really good in cool weather,” concluded Bachman.
In what may have been the most exciting race of the night, Kyle Lockington marched down the leader Scott Mahlum in the Auto Value Thunderstox feature, and after two laps running the outside groove, managed to muscle his way around to take the lead and win. With two laps remaining, both point leaders had trouble, as Andy Moore spun in turn two and Charles Vian Jr. went to the pits. Mahlum was disqualified in post-race technical inspection, and the top five was completed by Kaleb Hardy, Jacinda Pfaff, Nathan White and Melissa Rusch.
Jason Stark went from the back to the lead in two laps of the Mountain Dew Outlawz Feature. Stark held on to win the race, followed by Ron Lockington, Jason Bolster and Cole Scholze.
The next event on the Speedway calendar is the Enduro 200 (for 4 & 6 cylinder cars) on September 5th. In addition, the Street Stocks will race in their championship night. The following week features Street Drags on Friday, September 11th and the Western Technical College Eve of Destruction on Saturday, September 12th, featuring the Green Mamba Jet Car, Trailer Race, Monster Trucks, Benny The Bomb and much more.
For more information please call the Speedway office at (608) 786-1525 or visit www.lacrossespeedway.com.
LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway is a proud NASCAR Hometrack, part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series – www.hometracks.nascar.com.
Click here for the full results.