By: Ashley Iwanski
(West Salem, WI – August 1, 2009) The largest crowd of the season was out Saturday night to witness what was unarguably the most exciting night of racing all year at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. It was especially exciting for Tony Bagstad who left the track with a Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Model feature win.
The Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Models started off with a bang. For the second week in a row a large wreck collected multiple drivers. On lap three Shawn Pfaff got loose on the back stretch and was unable to bring his car back under control. The cars behind him started spinning collecting half of the field. Cole Howland, Adam Degenhardt, and Tim Nelson saw the worst of the damage; all three cars had to be towed to the pits. Steve Carlson was also caught up in the action. He was sent to the back and raced his way to a 6th place finish.
Mike Carlson was also making his way quickly through the field. He was passing cars right and left until he broke the top five. At the half way point the focused switched to the leaders. Bagstad was in the lead followed by Herbst, Todd Korish and Mike Carlson. Korish was on the bumper of Herbst until Carlson caught up to him. Korish had to hold off Carlson leaving Herbst free to pursue Bagstad. As the cars were exiting turn four to take the checkered flag Herbst tried to get around Bagstad to take the lead, but Bagstad held on and took the win. Herbst finished 2nd, Korish 3rd, Mike Carlson 4th, and Emily Sue Steck 5th.
The North Country Contractors Sportsmen feature was littered with cautions. They had six cautions total. Joe Rinartz, Rick Johnson, and Matt Inglett were involved in a crash in the entrance to turn three. They all took extremely hard hits, but walked away from the destruction. The most signification caution came out was the field was exiting turn for to come around to the checkered flag. Leader Rob Mason and Steve Bachman touched sending Mason spinning. Both Mason and Bachman were sent to the back of the field and Dan Gilster took over the lead as they repeated the final lap. Gilster was able to hold onto the lead for the last lap and walked away with his first feature win of the season.
Jesse Vian jumped into an early lead in the United Auto Supply Thunderstox feature. It wasn’t long before he had to fight off the cars on his tail and lap traffic while avoiding cars spinning across the track. Vian also had to clear three wide racing while trying to put room between him and the rest of the field. Despite it all he was able to take the checkered flag.
The 50th running of the Trailer Race of Destruction, always a fan favorite, had the entire crowd on its feet. It didn’t take long for most trailers to be piled up and stuck in turn two. In fact the smash up was so severe that the race had to be red flagged in order to make way for those who were still running. It looked as though both a tornado and hurricane had come across the quarter mile track. Surprisingly there were a few trailers left in the end. Deciding the winner was left up to the fans. Andy Moore had the fans screaming so loud that he was undoubtedly declared the winner.
The regular weekly series divisions will be out Saturday, August 9th along with Kids Box Car Races. Friday, August 14th there will be another exciting Friday Night Street Drags. Multiple brackets will be open for any drivers who wish to join in on the fun. For more information about La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway please visit www.lacrossespeedway.com or contact the office at (608) 786-1525 or lacrossespeedway@yahoo.com.
This article was posted to the website on August 1st, 2009
