By: Ashley Iwanski
(West Salem, WI – July 11, 2009) - The fans were out full force Saturday to see Kevin Nuttleman win his first feature win of the season and his 105th career feature win at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
On the first lap Travis Christenson hit the wall in turn one, bringing out a caution. On the restart Adam Degenhardt and Bill Niles were running one and two. Meanwhile the rest of the field was nose to tail, including Nuttleman and rookie Thor Anderson. The two were battling side by side for 4th. It didn’t last long. Anderson surged forward to take the 3rd position from Todd Oliver. Just as Anderson was about to take 2nd another caution came out causing Anderson to lose his momentum.
The restart marked the beginning of Nuttleman’s race. For the first half of the race he was able to stay in the top five, but at the half way point Nuttleman began to pick off cars one by one. He stuck to the outside line as he passed first Anderson (6th), then Niles (7th) and Degenhardt (5th).
Nuttleman had to work to get past J. Herbst (2nd), but he eventually did and took the win.
The North Country Contractors Sportsmen division presented John Olson with his first feature win of the season also; on his birthday no less. When the green flag waved Olson was quick to put a gap between him and the war that was being fought behind him. For fifteen laps Keaton Hilby and Matt Inglett were passing the 2nd position back and forth between them. Neither were able to get the edge over the other. When it came time to cross the finish line, Hilby pushed his car as hard as he could to take 2nd; Inglett was left to take 3rd.
Adam Moore walked away from an eventful United Auto Supply Thunderstox feature with a win. The chaos started when both Chris Weber and Wayne Smith spun on lap one collecting most of the field. Four laps later Thomas Farra hit the tire exiting turn four and flew across the track collecting a few more cars. By lap ten, a quarter of the field was missing from the track.
Moore was then in a battle for the lead with Joey Johnson. Moore was looking high and low to find any opportunity to pass Johnson. When he found one, he dove to the inside of Johnson taking the lead and the win. Ray Hardy took 2nd and Johnson finished 3rd.
The Thunderstox Novelty drivers participated in an Outhouse race. One by one the drivers drove around the track to stop in front of an outhouse. They then jumped out of their cars, ran into the outhouse to grab a handful of toilet paper and then jumped back into their cars to drive across the finish line. Kaleb Miller did it in style, taking a magazine and air freshener into the outhouse with him, but Brad Warthan did it the fastest taking the win.
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 July 11th, 2009
