NELSON WINS NON STOP 30 LAP COMO MODIFIED SERIES OPENER

Posted under Headlines, Press, Results by admin on May 30th, 2010

Hermantown’s Darrell Nelson won a hard fought flag to flag 30 lap Modified main event Sunday night at the Proctor Speedway. It was theopening salvo for the 2010 Como Oil & Propane Modified Series and drew 50 WISSOTA AMSOIL Dirt Track Series Modifieds. They were greeted with as perfect a dirt track as is possible as there was plenty of traction and multiple racing grooves.

Perhaps the most important preliminary event was the Pole Dash that pitted the top two finishers in each of the five ten car heat races in an eight lap race to determine the first five rows for the feature. When the dash was done a pair of familiar faces graced the front row with Kelly Estey on the pole and Darrell Nelson to his outside. Lurking behind this pair were the likes of Craig Thatcher, Ryan Aho, Jeff Spacek and a very fast Gavin Paul. Buried deep in the field was Joey Jensen starting seventeenth and Keith Tourville in twenty-third.

At the initial green flag Estey got the jump off turn two with Nelson challenging on the outside. Aho and Thatcher skated away from the pack in the early going and joined Estey and Nelson to make it a thrilling four car battle. A bit further back Spacek and Andy Jones skirmished for the fifth spot. Spacek captured the spot leaving Jones to fight off Paul and Jason Grimes for sixth. With the long green flag stretch, it was not very long before the lead pack encountered traffic. The halfway point was quickly reached and Thatcher began to lag back several car lengths behind the lead trio. Try as he might Estey could not shake the dogged Nelson as the pair, just ahead of Aho, flew through traffic putting car after car a lap down. Thatcher continued to fall back by as much as ten car lengths, but he was not finished by any means as he began to slowly gain back the lost territory. Meanwhile almost unnoticed, Joey Jensen mounted a charge toward the front arriving to battle with Jones and Grimes for the fifth spot. Nelson finally gained the upper hand as Estey began to fade a bit. Aho swooped in to grab second from Estey and Thatcher rebounded to rejoin the fray making it once again a four car race as the laps wound down headlong toward that white flag signal for the final circuit. The final order at the checkered flag in the lead five was Nelson, Aho and Estey while Jones charged past Jensen for fifth. It was a sweep for Nelson who won the fifth heat race.

Proctor Speedway Results 5-30-10 Como Modified Series Race #1

WISSOTA Modifieds (50 cars)

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 1: Andy Jones, Gavin Paull, Dale Mathison, Dean Yrjanainen, JamieDavis, Ken Hron, Mark Damjanovich, Jeremy Grosse, Cory Sersha, TimAlexander (WATCH HERE)

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 2: Craig Thatcher, Kelly Estey, Paul Knauf, Joey Jensen, Jeff Hart, JeffProvinzino, Justin Jones, Paul Schultz, Jeff Broking, Rick Rivord (WATCH HERE)

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 3: Ryan Aho, Jeff Spacek, Jason Grimes, Bill Byholm, Jayme Lautigar,Steve Stuart, Al Uotinen, Jeff Wood, Jason Miller, Jad Carlson (WATCH HERE)

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 4: Nick Lavato, Wayne Stricker, Trent Follmer, Robbie Bunkelman,Duane Dale, Mike Truscott, Brent Larson, Ricky Roche, John Carpenter,Scott Heikkinen (WATCH HERE)

Rick Gondik Law Office Heat 5: Darrell Nelson, Rick Kobs, Bryan Dyrdahl, Bob Broking, KeithTourville, Jody Bellefeuille, Greg Chesley, Doug Gustafson, KellyCheckalski, Tridell Champlin (WATCH HERE)

Mirror Images Day Spa B Feature #1: (Top two Advance) Provinzino, Tourville, Chesley, Uotinen,Truscott, Miller, Damjanovich, Davis, Sersha, Roche, Rivord, Schultz,Lautigar, Checkalski, Heikkinen (WATCH HERE)

Mirror Images Day Spa B Feature #2: (Top Two Advance) Hart, Bellefeuille, Jones, J Broking,Wood, Gustafson, Larson, Alexander, Hron, J Carlson, Carpenter, Champlin,Dale, Grosse, Stuart (WATCH HERE)

Tim’s Automotive Pole Dash: Estey, Nelson, Thatcher, Aho, Spacek, Paull, Stricker, Jones, Lavato (WATCH HERE)

Subway Feature: (30 Laps) Nelson, Aho, Estey, Thatcher, Jones, Jensen, Grimes,Knauf, Spacek, Kobs, Bunkelman, Provinzino, Follmer, Stricker, Byholm,Tourville, Bellefeuille, Lavato, Hart, B Broking, Yrjanainen, Dyrdahl, Wood, Paul, Mathison (WATCH HERE)

By Jerry O’Brien
5-30-10
Proctor, MN

Click for full: Results | Points