5/7/2017
Wisconsin wingLESS Sprints
Wilmot Season Opener
22 Wisconsin wingLESS Sprints presented by the IRA cars signed in for opening night at Wilmot Raceway, the home track of the wingLESS series. Qualifying saw Chris Klemko pick up fast time honors, followed by inaugural season champion Doug Schenck. Jordan Mattson would qualify 3rd, Nick Petska and Tim Cox would be 4th and 5th respectively.
Heat race 1 would see series new comer Nathan Crane use his pole starting position to take the early lead, a lead which he would hold all the way to the checkered and his first heat race win. Matt White would bring his 27 home 2nd followed by C. Klemko. Dan Wade would cross the line in 4th followed by Ryan Zielski in 5th.
Heat 2 saw the Minnesota native Jimmy Kouba pick up the win over Schenck’s 71s. A pair of 91’s would finish 3rd and 4th as Derek Crane brought his Pea Pod sponsored 91 home ahead of Jimmy Sivia’s 91s. The top 5 was rounded out by Beaver Dam winner Tim Cox.
In heat 3 Jake Kouba would pick up the win, just as his father did one heat earlier. Jordan Mattson would follow Kouba across the line, and Allen Hafford would bring his 38 machine home 3rd. George Gaertner would finish 4th followed by another Minnesotan, Anna Hippe in 5th.
The A main would see the Crane brother bring the field to green on the front row. Derek would take the lead, as Nathan settled into 2nd. Jake Kouba would quickly pass Nathan Crane’s 97 for 2nd and just a few laps later the 97 would loop around and bring out a caution. On the restart 8th starting Mattson would wrestle 2nd away from Kouba. Lap 15 would see another caution as Rod Colburn and James Walldan got together and came to a stop in turns 3 and 4. The closing 5 laps saw Cox move past a pair of cars and into 4th place, but would lose one back to C. Klemko. When the checkered flag fell, Derek Crane would be victorious. Mattson would bring his Behling Racing Products 2 home 2nd followed by Jake Kouba and C. Klemko. Park City Illinois’ Tim Cox would bring his 48 home 5th.
Submitted By: Kim Tennyson