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Hartung Hoists Hardware at Great Lakes Border Battle

SUPERIOR, Wisc. (07/2/16) - The AMSOIL Speedway was the place to be on Saturday night, July 2nd for the second and final night of the inaugural Great Lakes Border Battle for WISSOTA Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds and Pure Stocks. The FYE Motorsports promoted event was the largest payout in the history of the Superior, Wisconsin facility that has been in operation for 60+ years and proved to have packed house on the edge of its collective feet on several occasions during the Saturday night portion of the 2-day event.. The event was sponsored Propane Strategies, O’Brien Enterprises, ThermoSeal Insulation, RH Rebel Storage, RacinDirt.com, Tim’s Automotive Machine, Collins Brothers Towing of St. Cloud, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Anderson’s Pure Maple Syrup, Realtruck.com, Wehrs Machine, Steussy Investments, Schill Construction, Outpost Drive Inn and Southworth Chevrolet.

Friday night’s heat races qualified the top 15 finishers from the Modified main into the $10,500 to win 60-lap championship feature with the remainder of the field being split into 3 b-mains with the top 3 finishers transferring to the big show.

B-feature #1 saw Deerwood, MN driver Danny Vang jump from the outside pole to the lead on the start and never look back with polesitter Cory Bruggeman in tow. Bruggeman raced alone in second for several laps until Steve Lavasseur began to challenge with Jeff Tardy moving toward the front as well. The trio embarked on a great battle for second while Vang continued to stretch his advantage. Tardy was impressive in the event as he raced by both Bruggeman and Lavasseur late in the race to claim a transfer spot, with Lavasseur crossing the line in third and transferring into the 60-lap finale.

The second b-feature witnessed the front row of Tyler Peterson and Seth Brede wage a way early for the top spot with hopes of transferring into the night’s main event. Peterson wrestled the lead away from Brede early and put his #1TPO on cruise control while Brede, Billy Byholm and Tim Jackson jockeyed for positions and transfer spots. Peterson cruised to the win while Brede settled into second and was not challenged throughout the remainder of the event but Jackson snuck up on Byholm in lapped traffic on the final lap and swept by into the third and final transfer spot as the duo raced to the checkered.

The third and final b-main was the best of the night with Jody Bellefeuille jumping out front and racing to a commanding lead early, but all eyes were on a thrilling four car battle for the final 2 transfer spots in the event. Scott Greer, Mike Stearns, thirteenth starting Dave Cain and Steve Stuart battled tooth and nail for the final two spots into the main event for the entire 20-lap distance of the event with Greer holding onto second and Stearns claiming the final spot in the feature.

Five Midwest Modified heats, 3 Pure Stock heats and 2 Midwest Modified b-mains completed qualifying action before the Modifieds rolled onto the track for one last shot at getting into the final with 18 cars racing in a last chance qualifier with only the race winner transferring into the main event. Cory Bruggeman once again sat on the pole and this time did not let that prime starting position fall by the wayside as he raced to the lead early with Bill Byholm, Dave Cain, Jason VandeKamp and Jeffrey Lien Jr swapping the second through fifth spots during the 15-lapper. Byholm tried to hang close to Bruggeman but Cory ran away with the final transfer spot into the 60-lap, $10,500 to win Border Battle main event.

2 Provisionals were randomly drawn from pre-entered drivers and the lucky recipients of starting spots 26 and 27 were Chet Atkinson and Cody Wolkowski.

The first feature race of the night was the Pure Stocks, which saw Matt Deragon take command from the pole position and drive out to a sizeable advantage over Michael Blevens, Dustin Follett and Justin Madsen early. The 15-lap event went flag to flag with a fantastic battle up front during the entire distance between Follett and Blevens, who both caught leader Deragon late in the race and swept by bringing Madsen along in tow. Blevens lead the field to the white flag, but Follett was not to be denied the weekend sweep and charged under Blevens down the backstretch on the final lap and stole the lead and the win as the field raced off turn four to the checkered flag. Madsen ran third with Deragon and Andrew Hanson, who started deep in the field, rounding out the top five finishers.

26 drivers from 3 states and Canada started the 25-lap, $1,500 to win Midwest Modified main event with Justin Froemming and Dan Wheeler pacing the field to the green. Froemming jumped to the initial lead with Wheeler, Tyler Kintner and Grand Southworth sliding into the top four at the drop of the green flag. The event was slowed just twice early for minor incidents, which kept the field tight, allowing Kintner to slide by to the lead on a restart and begin to pace the field as Southworth, Wheeler, Froemming and Jason VandeKamp began to put on a show for second. Kintner kept the pace up front with a hornet’s nest of jockeying for 2nd through 5th happening corner after corner and lap after lap. Froemming again closed in on Kintner with Southworth and VandeKamp a close side by side battle for third. As the field came to the white flag, Kintner lead with Froemming just to his inside. As the leaders screamed down the backstretch, Southworth put his #35 on the cushion, drove in deep and swept to the outside of both Kintner and Froemming and the lead trio drag raced nearly three-wide off turn four to the checkered flag with Southworth winning by .065seconds in a photo finish to the delight of the standing and screaming crowd. Kintner second, Froemming third, VandeKamp fourth and Wheeler rounding out the top five at the line.
The final event of the weekend rolled onto the race track as the 27-starters for the $10,500 to win Great Lakes Border Battle Modified field began to take shape in front of the huge grandstand at the Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds in Superior. Driver introductions were completed and fireworks erupted high in the sky as the drivers paraded 4-wide around the slicked off Amsoil Speedway before the 60-lapper began. Once the festivities concluded, the field was formed back up into their traditional starting alignment and the race control instructed the drivers that it was time to kick off the first 30-lap segment of the 60-lapper.

Ashley Anderson and Jake Hartung paced the star studded field to the green with Hartung taking command early. Ashley Anderson slid into second on the start with Mike Anderson settling into third on lap one. Hartung began to drive off into the night a bit with the Andersons working hard to keep pace just behind. Darrell Nelson, Kevin Eder and Bob Broking battled early just outside the top three with Al Uotinen beginning to pressure Nelson for the top five. Hartung got into lapped traffic early and began to put lapped cars between himself and the battle for second.

The first 30-laps ripped off non-stop with no issues and then the field was stopped for the mandatory 8-minute fuel stop on the front stretch. The fans were treated to watching the crews re-fuel the cars and then the drivers were re-aligned for the lap 31 restart.

Hartung blasted back off into the lead with Mike Anderson stealing second from Ashley Anderson on the restart and the duo trying to hold off a pressuring Nelson and Uotinen. Just outside the top five, Ward Imrie, Kevin Eder, Matt Leer, Neil Balduc and Andy Jones were in a great battle for the sixth spot, while 18th starting Jody Bellefeuille was making his way through traffic as well.

After two quick cautions bunched up the field, Hartung continued to pace the field out front and began to maneuver traffic again once he reached the back of the field. Again, both Andersons tried to close in on Hartung out front but Jake had his SSR #05 up to every challenge that anyone in the field had for him.

One final caution blinked on as Matt Leer, Kevin Eder and Danny Vang got together in turn one, sending all three of them to the pits and ending their chances at the $10 grand.
Hartung raced to and impressive $10,500 paycheck and his first FYE Motorsports victory that goes along with it, Mike Anderson, Ashley Anderson, Darrell Nelson and Al Uotinen crossed the finish line in the top five with Imrie coming across the line 6th as Bellefeuille earned Wehrs Machine Hard Charger honors in his 18th to 7th run. Balduc raced to 8th with Johnny Broking ninth and Jeff Tardy charging from his 19th starting spot to finish inside the top ten.

FYE Motorsports Promotions would like to thank the staff and management of the AMSOIL Speedway, the drivers, the fans, the sponsors, the volunteers and everyone else who made the event possible and as big of a success as it was. Check out www.FYEMotorsports.com for results, photos and more information.

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