Jerry Brickner made the most of his first-ever start in the Midwest Truck Series by winning the 30 lap feature at Madison International Speedway.
The twenty-seven truck field was paced to the green flag by Jerry Brickner and Ross Christiansen.
Fast time in qualifying went to Mike Corvo with a lap of 18.662 (96.453 mph). James Swan, Levon VanDerGeest, John Ovadal Jr., and Joe Valento rounded out the top five. Brickner took a slight advantage after the pair raced side by side for the first three laps.
By lap 5 the field was starting to spread out with Brickner and Christiansen still showing the way with Jeremy Lepak, Dave Edwards, and Jeff Holtz completing the top five. On lap 7 Christiansen took the lead from Brickner and opened up a two truck length advantage.
On lap 10 Christiansen got loose on the backstretch nearly making contact with the wall, but he was able to keep his truck under control and maintain the lead. Two laps later things got dicey. Just as Chester Ace was about to move into the fifth position past Holtz while coming out of turn three, several trucks stacked up behind the top five. Fast qualifier Mike Corvo, Levon VanDerGeest, and Joe Valento all wound up in the turn four wall bringing out the caution. Corvo was able to continue with Valento coming out several laps later, but the truck of VanDerGeest was done for the day.
Brickner won the race on the restart and opened up a three length lead. Lepak worked his way to the inside of Christiansen and took the second position on lap 14. The trucks of Kevin Knuese and Edwards were battling it out for fourth. Knuese would get the fourth spot and quickly move up to third with James Swan moving up to fourth and John Ovadal Jr. in fifth with ten laps to go.
Out front Brickner continued to lead but Lepak kept closing the gap as the top four pulled away from the field. Swan moved into third with five laps to go while Brickner and Lepak continued to battle it out for the lead.
On the final lap, despite the best efforts of Lepak, Brickner was able to hold him off to pick up the win. Swan, Knuese, and Ovadal Jr. completed the top five. Rounding out the top ten were Ace, Edwards, Kenny Joosten, Christiansen, and Jeff Watters.
“We had a good battle going there with Ross and then Jeremy,” said Brickner from victory lane as he looked back over his first race.
Fast qualifier was Mike Corvo with a mark of 18.662 (96.453 mph). The twenty-seven trucks was the largest in the 183 race history at Madison for the Midwest Truck Series.
30 Lap Feature: (1-10) Jerry Brickner, Jeremy Lepak, James Swan, Kevin Knuese, John Ovadal Jr., Chester Ace, Dave Edwards, Kenny Joosten, Ross Christiansen, Jeff Watters
(11-20) Jerry Wood, Thayron Rezin, Brandon Riedner, Mike Corvo, Rock Christiansen, Michael Raskovic, Jason Stark, Brad Gajewski, AJ Kreager, Tyler Schley
(21-27) Dan Calhoun, Kyle Melton, Joe Valento, Danielle Behn, Jeff Holtz, Levon VanDerGeest, Dan Church
Qualifying: (1-10) Mike Corvo, James Swan, Levon VanDerGeest, John Ovadal Jr., Joe Valento, Kevin Knuese, Chester Ace, Kenny Joosten, Jeff Holtz, Jeremy Lepak
(11-20) Dave Edwards, Ross Christiansen, Jerry Brickner, Thayron Rezin, Jerry Wood, Michael Raskovic, Danielle Behn, Jeff Watters, Rock Christiansen, Brandon Riedner
(21-27) Dan Church, Jason Stark, Rick Corso, Tyler Schley, Brad Gajewski, Kyle Melton, AJ Kreager
Jason Thoma Picks Up Mid American Win at Madison
Jason Thoma brought his Sportsman car to Madison and took home the checkered flag in the rain shortened feature for the Mid American Stock Car Series (MASCS).
Jay Kalbus and Bill Prietzel brought the fifteen car field to the green flag for the MASCS 20 lap feature. Prietzel took the early lead over Kalbus with Jason Thoma up to second followed by Bobby Gutknecht, Ron Vandemeier Jr., and Brian Holtz.
Thoma vaulted his way into the lead and wasted no time building up an eight car length advantage over Gutknecht. By the half-way mark Gutknecht had cut the lead in half, but Thoma was cruising out front. Vandemeier Jr. and Holtz both moved past Gutknecht before the caution came out on lap 15 negating Thoma’s sizeable lead.
But it didn’t matter as the rain started falling bringing out the checkered flag and the win for Thoma. Vandemeier Jr., Brian Holtz, Bobby Gutknecht, and Ryan Gutknecht completed the top five.
Brian Holtz set fast time with a lap of 19.229 (93.609 mph).
Feature (1-10) Jason Thoma, Ron Vandemeier Jr., Brian Holtz, Bobby Gutknecht, Ryan Gutknecht, Mark Pluer, Bill Prietzel, Cody Clubb, Jeff McClintock, Matt Clemens
(11-15) Ken Calhoun, Jay Kalbus, Mitch Haver, Natalie Haver, Dale Lecus
Qualifying (1-10) Brian Holtz, Ryan Gutknecht, Ron Vandemeier Jr., Matt Clemens, Bobby Gutknecht, Mark Pluer, Jason Thoma, Rick Corso, Cody Clubb, Jeff McClintock
(11-15) Bill Prietzel, Jay Kalbus, Andrew Meyerhofer, Natalie Haver, Mitch Haver
Jim Kulseth Wins Vintage Feature
Jim Kulseth of Lakeville, Minnesota, won the 12 lap feature for the Upper Midwest Vintage Series.
Scott Tiedt and Tom Haffer led the field of seven to the green flag. The Chevrolet Chevelle of Haffer took the top spot after the first lap before Justin Jessop worked his way to the inside coming out of turn four on lap 3 to take the lead.
Jessop opened up a four car length lead over Jim Kulseth, but Kulseth was not about to let him out of his sights. By the half-way mark Kulseth was able to pull alongside Jessop and the two raced side by side before the caution flag came out with four laps to go.
After the green flag waved following the caution, Kulseth and Jessop continued their side by side battle down to the final turn when Jessop got a little loose allowing Kulseth to take the checkered flag. Jessop finished second with Kenny Baum, Tom Haffer, and Gene Pennington rounding out the top five.
Feature: (1-7) Jim Kulseth, Justin Jessop, Kenny Baum, Tom Haffer, Gene Pennington, Scott Tiedt, Chris Matz