Uotinen Upsets Field From Row 7 For Como Mod Win

Posted under Headlines, Results by admin on July 22nd, 2008

Prepared By Chris Stepan ~ FYE Motorsports Promotions for Superior Speedway
(July 22nd 2008 – Superior, WI)

The annual mid-July Tuesday event was held at the Superior Speedway during the Head of the Lakes Fair in Superior, WI with the featured division being the Como Oil & Propane Modified Series along with WISSOTA Super Stocks, Midwest Modifieds and Pure Stocks. A swelled pit area filled with 117 cars in the four classes greeted race fans and fair goers as well with bright blue skies above.

Don Eischens and Brad Hanson sat on the front row for the Fortune Bay Casino 30-lap a-main and immediately at the drop of the green Eischens took the lead with Hanson and Ryan Aho beginning a heated battle for second. A lap 2 caution flew when Como Mod Series point leader Kelly Estey and Joey Galloway got together on the bottom of turn two and became hooked together, necessitating a caution and sending Estey to the tail. On the restart, Eischens took back off into the lead, but Hanson dove to the inside of him and momentarily took it away. Eischens came right back on the high side and took it back and raced off with the top spot before a second caution flew just two laps later for a Dave Cain / Jason Miller altercation in turn four, breaking up several amazing battles throughout the field.

On the second restart, Hanson again dove to the bottom of the track and pulled even with Eischens for the race lead, but only held it for a moment until Eischens came roaring back around to re-assume the lead. Suddenly Bill Byholm came to life and began to pressure Hanson for second, while Aho had his hands full with Rich Lofthus for fourth. Byholm screamed by Hanson into second and set his sights on Eischens while 14th starting Al Uotinen marched through the field and appeared in the top three just before the half way point. Eischens commanding lead went by the wayside when Byholm suffered a mechanical failure while running second and brought out the third and final caution of the event with just 14 laps to go, bunching up the field for the final time.

This time on the restart, Eischens took back off as the race leader, but Uotinen dove to the inside of him and began to work on taking the lead for himself. The duo ran side by side for four circuits until Uotinen was able to clear Eischens and assume the top spot, while 21st starting Jayme Lautigar was tearing around the extreme top side of the track and flew by Nelson into third with just a few to go.

Once Uotinen got the lead, he remained smooth right around the bottom of the Superior Speedway and raced to one of the most dramatic feature wins of his 28 year storied racing career. On the final corner of the final lap, Eischens tried to make a last ditch move to steal the win, but ended up spun in turn four, ending his great run a bit early and handing second to hard charging Lautigar. Aho, Nelson and 22nd starting Jason Miller rounded out the top five finishers tonight in one of the most amazing Modified races of the season.

SUMMARY:

WISSOTA Modifieds Fortune Bay Casino Feature: Uotinen, Lautigar, Aho, Nelson, Miller, Kreyer, Hanson, Spacek, Jensen, Dale, Cain, Estey, Wood, Broking, Yrjanainen, Schultz, Eischens, Lofthus, Byholm, Galloway, Roche, Checkalski, Olson, Lavato

Castrol Syntec Pole Dash: Eischens, Hanson, Aho, Roche, Galloway, Schultz, Broking, Byholm

Mirror Images Day Spa B-feature 1: Lautigar, Copp, Hron, Rivord, Gavel, Hudack, Paull, Sersha, Massingill

Mirror Images Day Spa B-feature 2: Miller, Jensen, Lavasseur, Jacobson, Damjanovich, Dale, Sellung, Bellefeuille

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 1: Brad Hanson, Paul Schultz, Rich Lofthus, Jeff Wood, Kelly Checkalski, Scott Hudack, John Massingill, Rick Rivord, Rick Jacobson, Cory Sersha

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 2: Ryan Aho, Bob Broking, Kelly Estey, Al Uotinen, Dave Cain, Marc Damjanovich, Jason Miller, Steve Lavasseur, Gavin Paul

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 3: Don Eischens, Bill Byholm, Shaun Kreyer, Jeff Spacek, Jodi Olson, Don Copp, Jodi Bellefeuille, Kyle Gavel

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 4: Ricky Roche, Joey Galloway, Dean Yrjanainen, Darrell Nelson, Nick Lavato, Duane Dale, Joey Jensen, Ken Hron, Dan Sellung