August 27, 2012 at 4:08 p.m.
Mullins takes Street Stock title at TNT Speedway
Klopstein Jr., Bromann, Langbecker also claim titles
Mullins takes Street Stock title at TNT Speedway
When the dust cleared Argonne's Jeff Mullins claimed a popular track championship in the WISSOTA AMSOIL Dirt Track Series Street Stocks. Tomahawk's Jeff Klopstein Jr. denied Eagle River's Bruce Belland a three-peat in the WADTS Midwest Modifieds. Rhinelander's Brit Bromann held on to claim the TNT Pure Stock championship and Gleason's Brandon Langbecker had just enough to secure the TNT Stinger title.
Birnamwood's Sean Thayer, who clinched the TNT Truck championship last week, put a bow on the most dominant single-season performance in TNT Speedway's 18-year history with his 13th feature win of the year. Phelps' Jerry Grasse claimed the feature in the WADTS Midwest Modifieds. Sugar Camp's Ben Pitlik won the Street Stock feature. Laona's Troy Larock won a wreck fest in the TNT Pure Stocks and Gleason's Kasey Gross claimed his ninth feature win of the season in the TNT Stingers.
The night began with make-up features for the WISSOTA/AMSOIL Street Stocks and Midwest Modifieds after rain prevented those races from going off as scheduled last week. Rhinelander's Paul Sowinski won the Street Stock make-up. Belland won the Midwest Modified make-up.
Mullins and Jordan Kurtti of Bruce Crossing, Mich. shared the Street Stock points lead entering the night, but the complexion of the battle changed in the make-up feature. Sowinski dominated the race, leading all 20 laps, but Mullins, Pitlik and Kurtti were engaged in a tight battle for second, third and fourth. Mullins kept Pitlik and Kurtti at bay for most of the race. Then with two laps remaining, disaster struck for Kurtti. His car slowed drastically and started smoking profusely. The engine grenaded on his No. 26 car. Afterward Kurtti said something let go in the bottom end of the engine. The damage was beyond repair at the track. He was unable to find a backup car to run the rest of the show and his title chances disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
All Mullins had to do was stay out of trouble the rest of the night. He won the heat race, and clinched the track championship by rolling onto the grid for the feature. Pitlik took the early lead in the feature. Mullins passed him on lap two, but Pitlik reclaimed the lead on lap five and led the rest of the way.
Though Mullins didn't get his first feature win, he got a track championship for car No. 3, the car his brother, Jake, drove at TNT until a fatal passenger car accident in August 2010. Jeff Mullins did donuts on the frontstretch to celebrate - to the delight of the near-capacity crowd - and admitted he got choked up when he climbed on top of the car in victory lane and when he got back to the pits to receive congratulations from his father.
Belland is accustomed to final night comebacks, after winning the 2010 and 2011 track titles despite trailing in the standings at some point on season-championship night. Starting eight points behind Klopstein, Belland tried to make one more last-night charge. He led all 20 laps of the make-up feature, but Klopstein finished second and preserved a six-point lead heading to the heats. Belland and Klopstein were paired in the same heat. Klopstein got out to the early lead and held off Belland for the win, bumping the advantage back to seven points.
Klopstein had the luxury of knowing a sixth place finish or better in the feature would clinch the title, but he had to start at the tail of the field as the inverted points standings were used to set the starting lineup for the features.
Disaster nearly struck for Klopstein and Belland as Larry Gasperini spun in the middle of the field, collecting four cars, including the two points leaders. But both received minimal damage and were able to continue without a pit stop. By lap 10, Belland had worked his way to second, but Klopstein was not far behind, settling into the third spot. The two stayed in those positions the rest of the race and Klopstein claimed the title by six points. Meanwhile Grasse, who Belland defeated for the track title on the final night each of the last two seasons, crushed the competition, leading all 25 laps from the pole.
In the Pure Stocks, Bromann entered with an eight-point lead over Rhinelander's Dan Schultz and a 14-point advantage over Lac du Flambeau's John Johnson Sr. Schultz finished second in his heat race. Johnson and Bromann were paired in the same heat and it looked as though Johnson was going to win while Bromann settled for third, but Johnson's car slowed with two laps remaining and Bromann made a three-wide pass for the lead, ending Johnson's title chances in the process.
The Pure Stock feature was a demolition derby as six cautions slowed the race, which ended after six of 20 scheduled laps after the 20-minute time limit elapsed. Bromann and Schlutz survived the early carnage and were running third and fourth on the track until Schultz spun unassisted in turn four, bringing out the final caution. Larock held off Bromann in a green-white-checkered finish, but Bromann won the title by 17 points over Schultz, who settled for 10th in the feature.
Zach Degner made headway on Langbecker in the Stingers, cutting gap to five-points thanks to a heat race win, but all Langbecker needed was a top-five finish in the feature to claim the title. He did that with a solid fourth place finish. Meanwhile Gross held off Eric LaFreniere for the feature win. Degner finished third and ended four points behind Langbecker.
Thayer passed Judd Skubal for the lead on lap five of the Truck feature and cruised to yet another feature win. In 14 starts this season at TNT, Thayer has claimed 13 feature wins and 12 heat wins.
TNT Speedway takes a break over the Labor Day weekend, but will return for a one-night grand finale Saturday, Sept. 8. All classes will be in action with state and national points on the line in the WISSOTA/AMSOIL Midwest Modifieds and Street Stocks. In addition, the track will hold its annual exhibition mechanics and powderpuff races. Action will begin 45 minutes early, with hot laps at 6 p.m. and racing at 6:30. After the races, drivers, crew members and fans are invited to stay for the year-end awards party.
Jeremy Mayo is the track announcer at Three Lakes TNT Speedway. He may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.