By Jason D Searcy
June 17, 2017 - Elko, MN
Mother Nature won about half of the NASCAR Whelen All American series feature races on Saturday at Elko Speedway. Half of the races were rained out, but the other half were nothing less than pure excitement on K&N Engineering night at ELKO.
Joe Neisius #75 from Rosemount (MN) won the Hiway Federal Credit Union Late Model feature event. Neisius and #40 Michael Beamish fought side by side for over ten laps to start the race with neither racer giving an inch. Finally Neisius took over the top spot and held the lead even through the slippery conditions caused by the light persistent rain. The race was called complete when the rain was too steady to race safely. Beamish finished as the runner-up with #3 Chris Marek coming home third, #2 Kyle Kirberger fourth and #6 Owin Giles finishing fifth in the 23 car field. This was the second win out of the first three races for Neisius, he is the early season point leader by ten over #72 Jacob Goede.
Brent Kane #99 from Lonsdale (MN) won his 100th career feature event at ELKO in the Genz-Ryan Thunder Car division. Rain played a part in this race as well, Kane started up front and was the engine of a five-car freight train at the front of the 18 car field. The pack up front broke away from the rest of the cars until lap ten when rain fell and the caution was displayed. After numerous yellow flag laps the race was resumed and Kane shot back out front, he had to hold off a gaggle of cars all dueling for the lead. Kane held them all back and scored his second victory of the year and the 100th win of his career. #07 Dillon Sellner finished second, #8 Ted Reuvers was third, defending Champion #32 Jeremy Wolff was fourth and #37 Bryce Blohm took home the fifth position. Conrad Jorgenson #3 blew a tire mid-race and almost collected Wolff in the incident, Jorgenson was towed to the pits and finished 17th. Jorgenson and Wolff are now tied for the point lead and Kane is 21 points behind in third.
The Pepsi Power Stock main event saw #56 Paul Hamilton take the early lead with #54 Tim Hollen right on his tail, Hamilton pushed up in the corner and Hollen took the lead on lap six. Hamilton then fought hard to hold back #8 Taylor Goldman and #10 Dusty Mann who were charging him from all sides lap after lap. Then after a restart with three laps to go Dusty Mann shot to the front and challenged Tim Hollen for the top spot, they went side by side the last few laps but the #10 car of Mann got the win by a fender, it was his second win in a row and in this one he started way back in the 9th position and scored a lot of passing points. Tim Hollen went back to his familiar second place position with #88 Nick Oxborough taking home third, defending Champion #62 Tom Doten was fourth and #8 Taylor Goldman fifth out of the fifteen cars competing. Dusty Mann is now the point leader by 12 over Tom Doten in the race for the Championship.
The Hornet feature had fourteen cars entered, #2 Aaron Reimers had the lead for two laps until #7 Ridge Oien took over the top spot. The Hornet cars raced two-by-two all the way back to tenth position with nothing but side-by-side racing until lap seven when #3 Michael Wachs Jr from Shakopee (MN) made a hard charge on the outside and took the lead. Wachs never looked back and won by several car lengths, #55 Brandon Plekkenpol finished second, #14 Justin Schelitzche had a great battle with Ridge Oien and finished third with Oien fourth and #41 Ashley Bell in fifth.
Brandon Olson in the blue #36 has a slim two point advantage over #14 Justin Schelitzche in the point standings so far in 2017.
Eleven year old Colin Stocker #8 from Farmington (MN) was the winner of the Bando feature event, it was his second career win. Kody King #14 from Forest City (IA) finished second and #56 Kole Gurallski from Wasau (WI) finished third out of the strong field of fifteen Bandolero Cars.
The Eternity Homes Great North Legends were not able to have their feature event because of the rain. #71 Derek Lemke and #8 Cole Klein were the two heat race winners and Derek Lemke from Shakopee was the fast-timer in group qualifying. Derek Lemke has two wins to begin the 2017 season and he has a ten point lead in the standings over his father #17 Jon Lemke.
Official results and point standings will be posted later in the week on ElkoSpeedway.com
Up next at ELKO is an Eve of Destruction on Saturday June 24th with racing in the Late Models, Power Stocks, Great North Legends and Hornets plus two Monster trucks, the Green Mamba Jet car, the Drifters, School Bus Races, Mega Jump BMX stunts, Dueling Piano's in Champions bar, a huge Fireworks show and much more. Gates open at 5pm and action begins at 6pm. The movie after the races at Elko Drive-In theater is Wonder Woman. Get more information by following Elko Speedway on social media, downloading our free app, by calling (952) 461-7223 or go to ElkoSpeedway.com
Elko Speedway is a NASCAR sanctioned 3/8th mile oval track located 30 minutes South of Downtown Minneapolis just off of I-35 and county road 2 in Elko-New Market (MN).
Credits:
ELKO! Speedway