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Ward wins Challenge Series feature after Sabraski suffers flat tire Saturday night at Madison Speedway

By Chris Stepan & ATD Staff

MADISON, MN (May 31) - The Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series headed to Madison Speedway Saturday night, supported by the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, Super Stocks and Street Stocks.

In the Late Model headliner Scott Ward inherited the lead after race-long leader Shane Sabraski suffered a right rear flat tire with just five laps to go, racing away to win the 40-lap feature.

Other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Jason Vejtruba, Sabraski, and Kolton Brauer.

Rookie Late Model contender Devin Fouquette and Sabraski earned the front row for the night’s $3,000-to-win, 40-lap feature event.

Fouquette led lap one before Sabraski raced by on the high side and took command on lap two. Once out front, Sabraski and Fouquette put on a show for 15 circuits, running side by side and battling back and forth for the top spot. Scott Ward, Don Shaw and Matt Gilbertson also raced inside the top five.

The first half of the race ran nonstop until Shaw slowed and brought out the caution on lap 20.

Back underway, Sabraski continued to lead Ward and Gilbertson until a lap 26 caution flew for Josh Zimpel, who exited the track.

On the next restart, Sabraski took back off into the lead with Ward snagging second from Fouquette. Tyler Peterson appeared inside the top five and was working toward the front until he suddenly slowed on the backstretch on lap 31, bunching the field once again.

The second half of the race got more treacherous for the field as the track began to take rubber, and the groove began to narrow. Disaster then struck Sabraski as he suffered a right-rear flat tire while leading on lap 35. Trouble then struck both Fouquette and Gilbertson on the subsequent restart when both drivers surrendered top five runs, exiting the speedway on the backstretch.

Ward took off out front as the race’s new leader with Dave Mass and Jeff Provinzino inside the top three as laps wound down. After one final caution doubled up the field, Provinzino was able to secure the runner-up spot and chased Ward the final four laps to the checkered flag. The win was Ward’s seventh-career series victory as he crossed the line ahead of Provinzino, Mass, Kevin Eder and Lee Grosz in the top five. Charlie Olsen raced forward 15 spots from 23rd to eighth to earn hard charger honors.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, Sabraski started outside row two and took the lead around lap four, jetting off to 4.5 second victory ahead of Justin Tammen, Andrew Hedtke, Josh Roggatz, and Brayden Hedtke.

Vejtruba led from flag to flag in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, garnering the win just shy of 1 second ahead of Tim Kanten, who improved three spots to second. Ryan Flaten, Onyx Johnson and Scott Tofte completed the top five.

Brauer kept his successful week of racing rolling, capturing his seventh win in seven nights of competition, taking the checkered flag Saturday at Madison ahead of Josh Long, Zachary Flickinger, Mike Jans and Dale Louwagie in the top five.

Colsten Schultz topped the track’s Pure Stock feature to close out the night’s action.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 37-Scott Ward[3]; 2. 28-Jeff Provinzino[9]; 3. 2M-Dave Mass[5]; 4. 22E-Kevin Eder[7]; 5. 4J-Lee Grosz[13]; 6. 7-Joel Bennett[14]; 7. 85G-Jayson Good[16]; 8. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[23]; 9. 73-Zach Johnson[22]; 10. 10C-Chad Olsen[21]; 11. XXX-Jon Tollakson[10]; 12. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 13. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[19]; 14. 14-Chase Alves[20]; 15. (DNF) 23-Matt Gilbertson[6]; 16. (DNF) 15-Devin Fouquette[1]; 17. (DNF) 32-Jordan Tollakson[11]; 18. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[8]; 19. (DNF) 5-Josh Zimpel[12]; 20. (DNF) 21F-Gunner Frank[15]; 21. (DNF) 44*-Cole Schill[18]; 22. (DNF) 42S-Don Shaw[4]; 23. (DNF) 2K-Rusty Kollman[17]; 24. (DNF) 71X-Cory Tammen[24]; 25. (DNF) 10-Cole Searing[26]; 26. (DNS) 21-Todd Frank

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 37-Scott Ward[2]; 2. 22E-Kevin Eder[1]; 3. 28-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 4. 32-Jordan Tollakson[4]; 5. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[9]; 6. 44*-Cole Schill[5]; 7. 10C-Chad Olsen[6]; 8. 73-Zach Johnson[7]; 9. 10CO-Charlie Olsen[8]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 15-Devin Fouquette[4]; 3. XXX-Jon Tollakson[1]; 4. 5-Josh Zimpel[3]; 5. 4J-Lee Grosz[7]; 6. 85G-Jayson Good[5]; 7. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[8]; 8. (DNF) 71X-Cory Tammen[6]; 9. (DNF) 10-Cole Searing[9]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 42S-Don Shaw[1]; 2. 2M-Dave Mass[3]; 3. 23-Matt Gilbertson[4]; 4. 7-Joel Bennett[2]; 5. 21F-Gunner Frank[5]; 6. 2K-Rusty Kollman[6]; 7. 14-Chase Alves[7]; 8. (DNS) 21-Todd Frank

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 2. 71T-Justin Tammen[3]; 3. 5*-Andrew Hedtke[5]; 4. 79M-Josh Roggatz[2]; 5. 19-Brayden Hedtke[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 19-Brayden Hedtke[1]; 3. 79M-Josh Roggatz[3]; 4. 71T-Justin Tammen[4]; 5. (DNF) 5*-Andrew Hedtke[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 38J-Jason Vejtruba[1]; 2. 16T-Tim Kanten[5]; 3. 15-Ryan Flaten[7]; 4. 73-Onyx Johnson[6]; 5. 28-Scott Tofte[2]; 6. 5C-Justin Bjorklund[8]; 7. 11S-Darren Engesser[9]; 8. 82-Sophie Anderson[11]; 9. 95-Damon Vejtruba[10]; 10. (DNF) 1-Shane Dejong[3]; 11. (DNF) 28N-Tommy Nichols[4]; 12. (DNS) M-Kevin Yeager; 13. (DNS) 8-Jason Anderson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15-Ryan Flaten[1]; 2. 28-Scott Tofte[5]; 3. 5C-Justin Bjorklund[3]; 4. 73-Onyx Johnson[2]; 5. 11S-Darren Engesser[4]; 6. (DNF) M-Kevin Yeager[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Shane Dejong[1]; 2. 28N-Tommy Nichols[2]; 3. 38J-Jason Vejtruba[3]; 4. 16T-Tim Kanten[4]; 5. 95-Damon Vejtruba[5]; 6. 82-Sophie Anderson[6]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (16 Laps): 1. 34J-Kolton Brauer[2]; 2. 71-Josh Long[4]; 3. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 4. 25-Mike Jans[6]; 5. 3D-Dale Louwagie[1]; 6. 44X-Alex Grinager[5]; 7. 3J-Tanner Freese[11]; 8. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[9]; 9. 52-Joe Arndt[7]; 10. 44-Dylan Arndt[8]; 11. 12-Levi Schellberg[12]; 12. (DNF) 43X-Chris Behrens[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 2. 44X-Alex Grinager[1]; 3. 71-Josh Long[5]; 4. 3D-Dale Louwagie[2]; 5. 16A-Coltyn Schuler[4]; 6. 3J-Tanner Freese[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 34J-Kolton Brauer[4]; 2. 25-Mike Jans[2]; 3. 52-Joe Arndt[1]; 4. 44-Dylan Arndt[3]; 5. 43X-Chris Behrens[5]; 6. 12-Levi Schellberg[6]

Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 511-Colsten Schultz[3]; 2. 7A-Landon Albertson[4]; 3. 32J-Justin Erp[1]; 4. 32-Brady Hagen[5]; 5. 87T-Ian Tjaden[6]; 6. 47-Jason Best[2]; 7. 17-Robert Wendler[7]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 7A-Landon Albertson[4]; 2. 511-Colsten Schultz[5]; 3. 32-Brady Hagen[2]; 4. 47-Jason Best[3]; 5. 32J-Justin Erp[7]; 6. 87T-Ian Tjaden[6]; 7. 17-Robert Wendler[1]