January 23, 2012 at 4:37 p.m.
Racing: Van Strydonk's World Championship headlines weekend of Derby winners
Racing: Van Strydonk's World Championship headlines weekend of Derby winners
The 21-year old Tomahawk native set the tone for his championship weekend right off the bat, turning a sub 18-second qualifying lap and pushing average speeds on the third-mile oval to near 75 mph.
With his hands raised and checkered flag waving behind his 440 liquid cooled Polaris snowmobile, Van Strydonk brought a close to the championship events at the Eagle River Derby Track which saw another two-week run come and go successfully.
What is being heralded this week as one of the top finishes in Derby history, Van Strydonk used a risky move in the final set of turns to push past 2010 World Champion, Matt Schultz of Wausau, and claim his first title at the famed ice oval.
"I found a line that worked with two laps to go," Van Strydonk said. "Matt was going high and washing out, so I went way low. I knew it was going to be close. I wasn't thinking anything [going to the line]. I just had tunnel vision."
Finishing behind Van Strydonk and Schultz was Dustin Wahl in third, Ryan Kniskern in fourth, And PJ Wanderschied in fifth. All top five racers finished within 2.5 seconds of one another.
A trio of racers from the Lakeland area failed to qualify for Sunday's World Championship. Brad Bettin and his Northwoods Racing team battled through a tough weekend of events with an illness that didn't even allow the series veteran a chance to qualify for the main event.
Matt Ritchie of Minocqua and Jay Ryden of Hazelhurst battled in the last chance qualifier for the TLR Cup, with Ryden grabbing the final transfer spot into Friday's heats. He would not, however, advance into the TLR Cup finals which determined the pole position for Sunday's World Championship.
Brandon Johnson of Greenbuch, Minn., tallied a win in the TLR Cub Sweet 16 race as he edged out Van Strydonk by 1.721 seconds - earning him points in the yearly race for $25,000 and an added paycheck bonus to go with it.
Friday night was still a solid night for Minocqua's Ritchie as he hopped off his pro sled, onto his SemiPro and won his second consecutive title in the Sem-Pro Champ Friday night race.
After gaining a hole shot to the first corner, a red flag in lap three had racers bunch back up - a replay in the mind of Ritchie's team who was leading the TLR cup heat race a day earlier when the same thing happened. Ritchie's second hole shot in the TLR race was one to forget, but he bounced back in the SemiPro race and claimed another checkered flag in his young career.
In the Sunday SemiPro Champ race, Mike Lehman of Minocqua had quite a run. The longtime ice oval driver, after completing another successful Vintage week, walked away with a third place trophy Sunday to complete another solid couple of weeks at one of his favorite tracks. Lehman had his brother Jim Lehman, Todd Miller and Chris Dahl to thank for their efforts in helping Lehman to another piece of Eagle River hardware.
A full list of results can be found at www.mylaps.com.
Doug Etten may be reached at [email protected].
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