Three New National Records Certified

Thursday, September, 27, 2012

Three new NHRA national records were established during the NHRA Division 5 National Open last weekend. 

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Picking up the action in the quarterfinals, Bill Wittstruck (H/SA) , of Mitchell, SD, ran the better package to defeat Bob Swan (N/SA), of Belle Fourche, SD.  Jim Blair, of Pierre, SD, got by Bryan Dixon, of Mitchell, SD, on a closer to dial run.  John McLaughlin, of Watertown, SD, having purchased his '70 Road Runner just 12 days prior, gained  a semifinal berth when David Reuland, of White Lake, SD, turned  on the red light.  The final pair of the round found Stan Kopetjka (EF/S, Atkinson. NE, taking a hole shot win over Rick Ryan (N/SA), of Aberdeen, SD.  

Kopetjka and McLaughlin met in the first semifinal matchup, with Kopetjka taking the win on McLaughlin's breakout .003 breakout.   Wittstruck continued his winning ways against a breakout by Blair to complete the round.  

The final saw Wittstruck take a .014 advantage at the starting line and chase down Kopetjka for the win.   Wittstruck is the 2012 Oahe Speedway  NHRA Division 5 National Open Stock / Super Stock champion.  Watertown Ford Chrysler add bonus money pushed the winners check to $$1750  with $650 going to the runner up.

NHRA Super Comp quarterfinals started off with Joe Wolf, of Pierre, SD, and Dan Mohr, of Mitchell, SD, facing each other.  Mohr took a .049 second  advantage off the line in the heads up 9.00 index race, but pushed just a bit too hard, breaking out by .008 at the stripe.   In an almost identical scenario, Jessi Buer , of Lake Preston, SD, broke out by .050 against Dele Garber, of Pierre, SD.  Rory Haar, of Aberdeen, SD, and Mark Potts, of Gillette, WY, ran a double break out race, with Potts getting the short end of the stick.  Scott Driscoll, of Watertown, SD, fouled at the start, affording Cal Belden, of Aberdeen, SD, a pass into the semis. 

A break out pass by Garber, against Belden, would send the Aberdeen driver to the finals. An uncharacteristically slow reaction time by Haar gave Wolf a chance to stay ahead and win the balance of the semi round.

Belden beat Wolf off the line, but gave up a bit to much at the finish line in the final.  Wolf's .035 reaction time and a closer to dial (9.00) 9.045 run against Belden's .026 RT at 9.079 proved  to be the difference.  Joe Wolf is the 2012 Oahe Speedway NHRA Division 5 National Open Super Comp champion.

Jim Duchsherer, o Minot, ND, lead off the NHRA Super Gas quarterfinals with a   win over David Senkow, of Regina SK.  Senkow lost a heartbreaker by .001 seconds at the stripe, running 9.999 on his 10.00 dial in.  Ron Starkey, of Rapid City, SD, had the better package over Daren Keller, of Regina, SK, in their matchup. Doug Legner, of Pierre, saw Bill Cawsey, of Regina, SK, leave too early, moving on to the semis.  

Starkey drew the bye in the semis with Legner and Duchsherer squaring off.  Legner had the advantage off the line, but broke out by .016 at the stripe.

Starkey claimed a big starting  line advantage ,with Duchsherer trying too hard to make up the deficit, breaking out by .020 in the process. 

Ron Starkey is  the 2012 Oahe Speedway NHRA Division 5 National Open Super Gas champion.

In a short field of NHRA Super Street competitors, Bobi Legner, of Pierre, SD,  and David Rae, of Gillette, WY, were the t first pair up, with Legner taking the win on a better package.  Rae had the better reaction time by .010, but ran further off the 11.00 index at 11.055, with Legner pulling a .038 RT and running11.021.  Cha Fergen, of Brookings,  SD, made a single pass in his 'immaculate '59 Corvette roadster, to finish out the semis.  

Fergen had Legner off the line and won the race when Legner broke out by .017 at the stripe.  Chad Fergen, first time competitor at Oahe, is the 2012 Oahe Speedway NHRA Division 5 National Open Super Street champion.

Oahe Speedway classes filled out the balance of the race day.  Todd Herman, of Presho, SD, challenged the Super Pro field, and emerged as the winner.  Herman, usually competing in the non -electronics Pro ET class, doubled up for Sunday's races.   Herman beat Rory Haar, of Aberdeen, SD,  in the final, pulling a very quick .009 light and running closer to his dial (10.15) at 10.197 to Haar's .060 RT and 9.051 on a 9.00 dial in. Haar ran a dead on 9.000 dial in round two, to advance around a red light by Gary Buer, of Lake Preston, SD.  Buer was the number one qualifier, with a perfect light.

The outcome of the Pro final was not a shocker, as Todd Herman claimed his second trophy and winner's check, of the day.  Herman had his '63 Nova set on kill, as he chased down Jarrod Feucht, of Canton, SD for the win.  Tommy Dale Vines, of Eagle Butte, number one qualifier, met Lawrence Campbell, of Moose Jaw, SK, in the quarterfinals.  Campbell ran closer to his dial to take the win. Herman sent Campbell to the trailer in the semis with Feucht drawing the bye into the finals.

Diesel Services Inc Bike finals paired Don Gurnon, of Huron, SD and Mark Schiffner, of Audubon, MN,   Schiffner has a great .018 light but broke out by .027 at the finish line against Gurnon.  Gurnon also went a bit too fast , but broke out by only .014  to take the win.  Schiffner had qualified number one.

Ashley Holm. of Pierre, SD, defeated Ray Royer, of Rapid City, SD, in the Sportsman final.  Royer had the starting line advantage by a good margin, but gave it all up at the finish line, in the double break out run.  Holm broke out by only .003 at the stripe.  Mike Haraldson, of Pierre, SD,  qualified number one with a perfect light.  Brian Anderson, of Clark, SD, took out Haraldson in the quarters. 

Charles Serbousek, of Pierre SD, won grabbed  second Street Trophy class win of the 2012 season, on Sunday.  Serbousek won the final when Duane Soper, of Gettysburg, SD,  lost fire in his 2011 Street Trophy championship '72 Pinto. Soper was the number one qualifier.

Stevie Ellingson, of Rapid City, SD,  and Jason Carroll, of Pierre, SD, paired up in the SnapOn High School final, with the Rapid City Central High School student taking the win.   Jason Carroll, Pierre Riggs High School, is the 2012  Coca Cola SnapOn High School champion. 

Alec McLaughlin, of Watertown, SD, Saturday's Junior Shootout winner,

outran April Wetzstein, of Mott, ND in the BankWest Junior Major final.

McLaughlin turned back number one qualifier, Kali Driscoll, of Watertown, SD, in the semis. 

Miranda Vines, of Eagle Butte, SD, qualified number one in the Dakota Supply Group Junior Minor class and worked her way through the field to meet up with Chelsey Mohr, Of Mitchell, in then final.  Mohr, in her rookie season, had claimed her third perfect light of the year in the semifinals.

The final was over at the line, as Mohr went .076 red against Vines.   

CHS

Midwest Cooperatives / Cenex Lubricants

NHRA Division 5 National Open

Shootouts

w/Koppien / Christensen Memorial

Stock / Super Stock Combo

and

Super Group Shootout

Saturday, September 22, 2012

The weather man offered up some of the best weather and arguably, the best track conditions of the 2012 season.  Several new Stock / Super Stock national records were set and new ET records were set in the door  car and motorcycle classes.

With thirty of the upper Midwest's best Stock and Super Stock racers in attendance, only Don Anderson, of Duluth, MN opted out of the Koppien / Christenson Memorial  Combo, on Saturday afternoon.  Anderson, a first time visitor to Oahe, picked up the M/S national record on Saturday morning, and chose to go through the tear down process for record certification.  Verification of the record will be made available Wednesday morning. 

The balance of the field worked through eliminations.

Quarterfinal action saw David McGaugh (J/SA), of Cresbard, SD, go red by .094 against Stan Kopetjka (EF/S), of Atkinson, NE.  Curt Hieb(D/SA),  of Chamberlain, SD, and Bob Swan (N/SA) , of Belle Fourche, SD, ran a double breakout pairing, with Hieb running closer to his dial, to advance to the semis.  John Hladky (G/S), of Stuart, NE ran  11.144

on his 11.14 to take a win over Jim Blair (C/SA), of Pierre.  Blair went red by just .008 to toss the win to Hladky. Rod Neugebauer (D/SA), of Mitchell,  treed Gene Bichelmeier (GT/I), of Norfolk, NE,  to close out the quarterfinals.  Bichelmeier ran 10.136 on his 10.15 dial in his attempt to chase down Neugebauer.   Bichelmeier could take  satisfaction in setting the GT/I provisional record earlier in the day.  He would wait until after eliminations on Sunday for his tear down.

Semifinal matchups pitted Hieb against Kopetjka, with Heib taking the win.  Neugebauer watched Hladky foul away his chances at the  starting line, taking the win and advancing to the finals. 

In a heads up (11.70 dial)  final, Hieb bested Neugebauer 10.778 to 10.832, to take the win.  Hieb gained a .020 advantage at the start and never looked back.  Watertown Ford Chrysler and Midwest Class Racers along  with H&H Repair, DePoy Farms, Fort Pierre Body Shop, Chase Auto Connection, Rees Communication and Quality Construction teamed up to award the winner$2250 with $1000 going the runner up.

The Super Group Shootout paired Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street in a combo bracket.  Following Saturday morning qualifying in their respective classes, the group was laddered according to their closest to index run. Dale Garber (S/C), of Pierre, SD,  ran 9.003 on his 9.00 index to claim the number one position in the 14 car field.  Scott Driscoll (S/C), of Watertown, claimed the number two position, with Cal Belden (S/C), of Aberdeen, SD, rounding out the top three.

Quarterfinal pairings found Mark Potts S/C), of Gillette, WY, taking a win over Bill Cawsey (S/G), Regina, SK, on a red light by the Canadian.   Bobi Legner, or Pierre, (S/St), put together a .02 package with a great .019 light and an 11.001 run on her 11.00 index to win over Scott Driscoll.  David Rae (S/St), of Gillette, WY, drew the red bulb against Belden in their matchup. Garber drew the bye in the balance of the quarters.

Potts had the better reaction time, .007, against Garber in the semis, but could only muster a 9.053 top end run to lose to a better package by Garber. Garber's package, .058, negated Potts effort by just .002 seconds.  Belden took the other semifinal pair when Bobi Legner fouled at the line.  Belden ran a dead on 9.00, on his 9.00 index.  

The Super Group final was decided at the starting line when Belden red lit against Garber.   The 2012 Super Group Shootout was sponsored by Dave's Scrap Metal, Pacific Steel, both of Gillette, WY, and Chandler's , of Pierre. 

The 2012 Drag Bike/Sled "Run for the Money" offered up $1000 to win, with Mark Schiffner, of Marshall, MN, making his first return visit since his 2005 "King of the Track" win.  Schiffner put together a wicked set of runs, including a perfect reaction  time  against Robbie Klinger, of Rapid City, SD, in round one.    Schiffner followed that run with a .012 in round two,  .006 in round three, and saving his worst, .017, for the finals. Through four  rounds of competition, Schiffner averaged an .0875 reaction time per round.   Dylan Klinghagen, of Lennox, SD, snared a .001 reaction time, but ran way off the dial in, to send Schiffner to the winners circle.  Charles Snyder, of Selfridge, ND, number one qualifier, met up with Randy Nixon,. of Huron, SD, in the quarterfinals, losing on a red light.  Nixon would suffer a similar fate in his run against Klinghagen in the semis. 

Jack Pahl, Lead, SD,  a regular at Sturgis Dragway, ran his '80 Suzuki street bike all the way to the finals, defeating another West River bike rider, Pete Johnson, of Rapid City, SD, in the Street Bike "Run for the Money"  finals. Pahl utilized a better package to send Johnson to the trailer.   Rob Klinger, doubling up in the bike classes, qualified number one, and lost to Pahl in round one. 

Todd Herman, of Presho, SD, normally running the No Box class, jumped in the Box Shootout and took all the marbles.  Herman put together the better package to defeat Dale Garber, a regular Box class runner.  Eric Feucht, of Canton, SD, qualified number one and fell to Carl Stickney, of Watertown, SD, in the opening round. Stickney lasted until the semis, fouling away his chances against Garber. 

Joel Lensegrav, of Rapid City, SD, had to run five rounds of competition to claim the No Box Shootout title.  Toni Vetter suffered a transmission line leak and was forced to shut off before her burnout. Todd Herman's plan to take two winners checks home was short circuited by Darcy Madsen, of Rapid City, SD, in round one.  Madsen ran the better package to take the win.  Number one qualifier, Jarrod Feucht, of Canton, SD, lost in round two to Ann Hirsch, of Pierre.  

Lee Anderson, of Grand Junction, CO, a first time visitor to Oahe, and number one qualifier, drove his John McLaughlin (Watertown Ford Chrysler) prepped '71 Duster,  to a Trophy Shootout win, on break out by Mike Haraldson, of Pierre,

Alec McLaughlin, of Watertown, won the Junior Shootout, over Carter Wetzstein, of Mott, ND.  Wetzstein went red in the final. 

Tucker  Driscoll, of Watertown, lost to Ally Schenecker, also of Watertown, in round one

sets another

Personal Best MPH

and

 Speedway Track ET Record

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Ray Fuchs claimed a new personal best MPH record for doorslammers on Sunday afternoon. The Bowman, ND, driver hooked up and ran straight down Milton Morris Boulevard, in his big block Chevy powered 1953 Studebaker,  to claim a personal best  MPH mark at 208.04 in the quarter mile.  Fuchs made two passes on Saturday afternoon over 205 MPH.