by Ashley Iwanski
Steve Carlson is tough to beat at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway – especially when the veteran driver is leading a race. In fact, race fans – or competitors – would be hard-pressed to remember the last time the West Salem, Wis., driver had the lead taken away from him.
It didn’t happen Saturday night, although Rockland’s Mike Koeneke gave Carlson one of the toughest battles he has faced all season. Carlson won his sixth Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Model feature of the season by holding off a hard-charging Koeneke in front of large La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
Carlson, a two-time Fairgrounds Speedway track champion, started fourth with Jeff Baker on the pole. He quickly got around the second-place car of Tim Nelson to chase down the leader. On the second lap, Carlson jumped to the outside and got around Baker and grabbed the lead.
Nelson spun in between Turns 3 and 4, collecting five cars in the process. The caution flag came out as well as track official Don Snellner put out the lane cone for the restart.
Carlson took the inside groove while Koeneke opted for the outside, restarting second. Koeneke was soon riding the back bumper of Carlson, looking high and low to get around the No. 66 car.
“I saw him (Koeneke) trying to get to the bottom side,” said Carlson, who took over the Kwik Trip Late Model points lead from defending track champion J. Herbst. “Then he went to the top (groove). It’s hard to pass on the top (side)… very few guys can do that.”
Koeneke gave it a good shot, and got underneath Carlson on the final turn of the last lap, but couldn’t hold onto the momentum. Carlson powered his way to victory by a car length. Mike Carlson, J. Herbst and Brent Kirchner rounded out the top five.
In the North Country Contractors Sportsmen Division, Greg Scheck won his first feature race of the season an took over the division points lead in the process. Jason Dummer and Matt Inglett finished second and third.
Scheck leads the division by a single point over Rick Schermerhorn.
Andy Moore won the United Auto Supply Thunderstox Division feature race, beating Jason Bolster and Chris Weber across the line.
John Olson set a track record in the R.A.Y.S. Division, and won the feature race, too. Olson’s time was 14.093 seconds.
Friday, August 13 is another exciting Friday Night Street Drags. There are over 10 brackets to enter with a Burnout Contest and Shine ‘n Show. Then on Saturday, August 14 the Sportsmen and Thunderstox will run, along with a 30-lap main feature for the Late Models. For more information about LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway and the 2010 schedule of events, call the Speedway office at (608) 786-1525 or visit the speedway on the web at www.lacrossespeedway.com.
This article was posted to the website on August 7th, 2010
