Dave Trute and George Sparkman also Winners
Jeremy Miller won the 48 lap feature for the Big 8 Late Model Series at Madison International Speedway tonight. Dave Trute (Great Northern Sportsman Series), and George Sparkman (Midwest Dash Series) also took home checkered flags as part of Salute to America Night.
Doug Rose entertained the crowd with his Green Mamba Jet car that melted a van before Spielberg Fireworks lit up the skies over the speedway.
Two in a Row for Miller
For the second straight year, Jeremy Miller picked up the checkered flag in the 48 lap feature for the Big 8 Late Models. Miller started eleventh and took the lead on lap 27 on his way to the checkered flag.
Tyler Brown and Tim Sargent led the field of seventeen cars to the green flag. Sargent was able to gain the early advantage. On lap 3 Wilberg passed Brown for second. Three laps later Brody Willett moved past Ryan Kamish for fourth place.
One lap 7 Wilberg moved to the inside of Sargent coming out of turn four to take the lead. Moving quickly up through the field was Miller who was fifth on lap 9 after starting eleventh. On lap 11 Miller moved to the inside of Willett for the third position.
Miller moved past Sargent on lap 14 to take second and started to hunt down Wilberg. On lap 18 Wilberg’s lead was down to three car lengths over Miller as the leaders worked around lapped traffic. This allowed the pair to build a sizeable lead over the third place car of Michael Bilderback.
Miller took the lead on lap 27 when he found room on the low side coming out of turn two and worked his way past Wilberg. Miller was able to increase his lead on lap 31 when Wilberg got caught behind lapped traffic. Doing his best to dial in the top two, Bilderback was closing the gap on Wilberg.
Miller was able to increase his lead over Wilberg as the rest of the field was hoping for a caution flag, but it didn’t come out. Bildrerback finished in third followed by Sargent and Willett.
“It’s crazy. This car has just been fast lately,” said Miller who became the all-time winningest driver in the Big 8.
“I’ve got to thank everyone who helps me out and allows me to do this out here,” said Wilberg.
Bilderback added, “We just didn’t work our way through traffic like we needed to tonight.”
Heat race wins went to Jeremy Miller and John Baumeister Jr. Miller also set fast time with a lap of 18.463 ((7.492 mph) narrowly missing the Big 8 track record at Madison of 18.441.
Trute Cruises to Sportsman Victory
Dave Trute picked up his third straight win at Madison in the Great Northern Sportsman Series. Trute won both races here in 2016 and picked up where he left off.
Michael Gilomen and Jason Stark brought the field to the green flag. It took three laps before Gilomen could win he advantage over Stark. On lap 4 Stark spun in turn two bringing out the caution flag. Stark and Jason Thoma both went to the back of the field.
On the restart Trute quickly grabbed the lead from Gilomen and wasted no time building up a multi-car lead. On lap 6 Scott Luck moved up to second ahead of Gilomen as the field started to spread out.
With ten laps to go Luck was cutting into Trute’s lead but still had a difference of 1.3 seconds to make up. A caution flag was about the only thing that would allow Luck to catch the leader, but it didn’t come out and Trute easily cruised to victory.
Jason Thoma won the 8 lap heat race. Dave Trute set fast time with a lap of 19.948.
Sparkman Wins Midwest Dash Feature
George Sparkman won the 20 lap feature for the Midwest Dash Series.
Joe Cross and Jason Uttech paced the field to the green flag. The caution flag waved on lap 2 for George Seliger who spun coming out of turn two.
When the green flag waved again, Cross and Chris Gottschalk battled for the lead with Cross gaining the upper hand, but George Sparkman was the fastest car on the track as he moved up to third. On lap 5 Sparkman found room to the inside of both Cross and Gottschalk to take the lead coming down the front shoot. One lap later the caution flag came out for a spin on the backstretch.
Sparkman maintained the lead following the restart followed by Zach Rodriguez, John Handeland, Gottschalk, and Cross. Brandon DeLacy worked his way into the top five and was in fourth with ten laps to go. Rodriguez was closing in on Sparkman and with seven laps to go was only two car lengths behind. On lap 14 DeLacy worked past Handeland to take the third spot.
Sparkman was able to increase his lead over Rodriguez and hold him off to pick up the victory. DeLacy finished third followed by Handeland and Gottschalk.
“We actually found a big problem with this car after qualifying and made it faster. I built this car new back in 1988,” said Sparkman from victory lane.
Heat race victories went to Seth Green and George Seliger. Fast qualifier was George Sparkman with a lap of 21.406 which was .001 seconds off the track record set by Kyle Stark in July of 2016.
It’s a big night of racing coming up on Friday, July 7th at Madison with Round Two of the Super Late Model Triple Crown Challenge plus Whelen All American NASCAR Late Models, Dave’s White Rock Sportsman, Pellitteri Waste Systems Bandits, and Roto Rooter 6Shooters. Pit gates open at 3:30 with practice at 5:00, qualifying at 6:15 and racing at 7:30.
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Results
Big 8 Late Models
48 Lap Feature: (1-10) Jeremy Miller, Bobby Wilberg, Michael Bilderback, Tim Sargent, Brody Willett, John Baumeister Jr., Matt Lundberg, Zack Riddle, Ryan Kamish, Mike Lloyd
(11-17) Jerry Mueller, Cody Kippenhan, Jake Vanoskey, Jared Duda, Steve Vaughn, Tyler Hromadka, Tyler Brown
8 Lap Heat 1: Jeremy Miller, Zack Riddle, Bobby Wilberg, Matt Lundberg, Mike Lloyd, Tyler Brown, Steve Vaughn, Cody Kippenhan, Tyler Hromadka
8 Lap Heat 2: John Baumeister Jr., Michael Bilderback, Brody Willett, Jerry Mueller, Tim Sargent, Ryan Kamish, Jake Vanoskey, Jared Duda
Qualifying: (1-10) Jeremy Miller, Michael Bilderback, Zack Riddle, John Baumeister Jr., Matt Lundberg, Brody Willett, Bobby Wilberg, Ryan Kamish, Mike Lloyd, Tim Sargent
(11-18) Tyler Brown, Jerry Mueller, Steve Vaughn, Jake Vanoskey, Cody Kippenhan, Jared Duda, Tyler Hromadka, Jake Zellmer (DNS)
Great Northern Sportsman Series
25 Lap Feature: (1-7) Dave Trute, Scott Luck, Michael Gilomen, Jason Thoma, Jason Stark, Jamie Dummer, Shawn Evans- DNF
8 Lap Heat #1: Jason Thoma, Jason Stark, Dave Trute, Michael Gilomen, Scott Luck, Shawn Evans, Jamie Dummer
Qualifying (1-7) Dave Trute, Scott Luck, Jason Stark, Jason Thoma, Shawn Evans, Michael Gilomen, Jamie Dummer (DNS)
Midwest Dash Series
20 Lap Feature: (1-10) George Sparkman, Zach Rodriguez, Brandon DeLacy, John Handeland, Chris Gottschalk, Joe Cross, Noah Pankow, Scott Schlafke, Seth Green, Jason Uttech
(11-12) Travis Schneeberg, George Seliger
8 Lap Heat #1: Seth Green, Scott Schlafke, Joe Cross, Travis Schneeberg, Jason Uttech, Noah Pankow
8 Lap Heat #2: George Seliger, George Sparkman, Zach Rodriguez, Brandon DeLacy, Chris Gottschalk, John Handeland
Qualifying: (1-10) George Sparkman, Brandon DeLacy, George Seliger, Zach Rodriguez, John Handeland, Chris Gottschalk, Scott Schlafke, Seth Green, Noah Pankow, Jason Uttech
(11-12) Joe Cross, Travis Schneeberg