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Only two laps later, Kromschroeder was under fire, with Sabraski passing on the low side. But Koch was much faster than both and blew by on the outside to take over the lead.

After that, despite a pair of yellows to bunch the field, no one could catch Koch and scored an impressive win.

The Modified feature was all Clayton Wagamon, as he started on the outside pole, powered into the early lead and then gradually pulled away from the pack. He was never challenged for the top spot, despite a pair of yellows during the first half of the race.

There was a good battle for second though, as J.T. Johnson, Dave Cain, Adam Bohlman and Eric Lamm battled back and forth. They traded spots several times during the race but Lamm ultimately got the spot as he was strong on the outside and fought off Cain for the position.

Dustin Holtquist used a fast car and a bit of luck to come from the fifth row and win the Mod Four feature race that rounded out the evening's entertainment. A good field of 18 drivers started this feature race but they had their share of troubles, triggering six yellows before the race was done.

All these slowdowns helped Holtquist work his way forward after starting on the inside of row five as it was amazing just how fast Holtquist got to the front.

His father Bob led lap one before being passed by Connor Bruss one lap later and then Bob triggerd the yellow when he tried to get the lead back, only to spin in turn one.

On the restart, Bruss and Tyler Larson locked up and nearly spun each other off turn four and Dustin Holtquist, who was already up inside the top five, drove under both drivers when the door opened and blew into the lead. Three laps and the lead was his.

Several more yellows slowed things down, but Dustin was in control of the lead and never was pressured the rest of the way, driving on for the win. Rowan Tramm made a nice charge, as he raced up to second and beat Larson for that spot.

All racing was done a little before 11 p.m. but with the Late Models running early in the program, if someone had come to see that class, they had the option of leaving by an early hour. There was some good racing throughout the classes and was an entertaining evening.

Saturday, August 15

After more than 10 years of the Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame night, two of the last three years have struggled with rainy race nights. A surprise shower just as the Super Stocks were getting ready for their heats stopped the action Saturday night. It didn't rain hard, but just enough to slicken up the track and send everyone running for cover.

But things worked out and after the rain stopped, and while the track crew was redoing the track, the Hall of Fame ceremonies were held. Truly, it was the best use of time. The ceremony was held and the races still got done by just after 9:30 p.m.

The turnout by existing members of the HoF was the best in the last three years. It is a fun night but a real stressor for me and while I like it, I'm also glad when it's over.

Some health issues plaguing members of our racing family of late. “Mr. Saturday Night”, Bob Thompson has been battling some health problems and we wish him the best.

Also, Hall of Famer Buddy Mayala is scheduled for a serious operation the first part of September and we also wish him the best. Buddy says he's feeling good and the 91-year-old is still at the races every Saturday and also drives the transporter with son Dave's car in it. Hard to believe that Dave has been racing for 45 years himself.

A decal for Flying Squirrels was on the sail panels of the cars of Travis and Mickey Anderson in honor of their father Mike being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Flying Squirrel story is a good one but can't be repeated here.

Kennedy Swan has certainly made quite a remarkable turnaround with her Modified racing program in the last month or so. Early on this year, she was struggling with a lot of breakdowns and back luck. She won another feature at Rice Lake Saturday, her third of the year there. I would guess that is a high water mark for her Modified career. She also won at Grand Rapids on Thursday. With better circumstances she could also have won last week at Rice Lake, so she definitely is rolling right now. Too bad no one in the area is racing Mods on Sunday.

Bad luck was plentiful for Austin Fencl Saturday night. He has been traveling considerably this year as he chases WISSOTA points as his national ranking gets higher and higher. However, Saturday night he got clobbered by another driver who was racing for the first time ever I believe and the collision tore the rear end loose in the car. He was done for the night, just one night after he had won at Gondik.

On the other side of the coin, Alex Myers made it to victory lane, just seven days after he was sitting in a wrecked car after flipping on the frontstretch at Rice Lake last week. Lots of work and lots of help put him back on the track and made for a successful weekend after having clinched the point title at Red Cedar on Friday night.

Speaking of track points, there is only one more night for track points here and while most of the battles are settled, the Modified race remains unbelievably tight with Blake Adams and Matt Leer tied for the point lead with one night to go. Leer made up two points on Saturday to send the battle to the final week tied.

Speaking of Leer, he participated in a tire test for Hoosier following the conclusion of the racing program. A Hoosier representative was on hand and they ran a 20-lap simulated feature for Leer following the last race of the night, with tires being monitored as Leer took laps. I don't ever remember that happening here before and it was surprising the number of folks that stuck around to watch.

The track was shaping up to be another good one as it has been for most of the season here. Unfortunately, the rain that hit kind of messed that up. The track was still as smooth as could be, that wasn't the problem. But the rain plus humidity made the track so fast that it was tough for passing.

There were some new drivers up front on Saturday. Best runs of the year were turned in by Rich Bishop, Travis Anderson (Dallas), Joe Swearingen, Lance Schilling, Carsyn Olson and Alyson Karshbaum, all in the top five in feature racing action.

The Blake Adams and Nick Koehler battles in the Midwest Mods have been epic here all year and Saturday was another one. Koehler came out on top this time.

Sunday, August 16

A successful weekend was completed on Sunday, August 16th with the running of Super Hero Night at Granite City Motor Park. The featured event was an appearance of the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series for the third night of their extended racing weekend. After they got deluged out at Ogilvie on Saturday night, a nice field of 22 drivers signed in to race on Sunday. For once, Granite City was not the track with the lowest car count of the weekend and in fact, actually topped both the Thursday and Friday night venues in race cars. It probably didn't hurt that no one got to race feature races on Saturday and after the good show put on Sunday, they'll probably be more likely to return again in the future.

Along with the Late Models, WISSOTA Street Stocks and Midwest Modifieds were also racing along with the Crown Vics, making a much more workable four-class program to ensure the Late Models raced early enough in the night and to allow their long distance travelers to get on the road at a reasonable hour. The other classes had enough racers to provide for two heats apiece, although some of the Street Stocks signed in so late that the lineups had already been formulated and they ended up in one big heat.

Late Model qualifying found Ryan Mikkelson with the quickest time at 14.184 seconds. Mikkelson had a good run going in the feature race later until he hit the turn four outside wall so many times that the car body was nearly falling off the car. During one yellow we had to wait while the track crew used a grinder to remove part of the body, something many thought should have been a work area project, not one that required the whole race to wait for him.

Fields in the other classes were not large but did contain many of the toughest competitors in WISSOTA with point chasers starting to flock to available events like bees to sugar once we get to mid August.

All 22 drivers on hand were able to take the green flag for the 40-lap feature, which turned out to be an entertaining and interesting race. The track was such that two distinct grooves were available with one right up next to wall, and occasionally right against the wall and a second groove right down on the inside tires. What was most interesting was how the drivers were going back and forth, trying high and trying low and from time to time, switching lines and competely abandoning the groove they had planned to run.

It was very interesting to watch this chess match that continued through most of the race. Even at the end, with a couple very important restarts that happened in the last five laps, drivers were still changing things up.

Dave Mass was in charge on Sunday, leading all 40 laps but still close enough to the field that it didn't feel like he ran away with the show. And he had to work for it; with a couple of long green flag stretches of racing, he had much lapped traffic to worry about and one false move or mistake by the car being overtaken could be very serious.

Billy Kendall and Kevin Burdick both held the runner-up slot at various times during the race until the last, two lap shootout finish where Shane Sabraski came from nowhere to steal the spot, using the putt putt line right on the inside tires, but it worked.

Sabraski was one of those who had fallen back initially and I think was out of the top 10 at one point but fought his way back into contention, at times being the only driver running the low line. Mikkelson was battling among the leaders for most of the race until his body issues slowed him down.

Kevin Burdick had fallen back early but as seems to be his pattern, then fought his way back into contention over the course of the race. His points leader spoiler took a beating however, as did many others that were dangling by a thread by the end of the race.

Dexton Koch didn't show in the top five until the last few laps when he made a surge and Jeff Massingill was languishing near the back of the pack until suddenly at the end he made a charge and got all the way up to sixth.

There was much more moving forward and backward then at many Late Model specials as drivers picked up the pace while others struggled and then in some cases, reappeared back toward the front. It made for an interesting race if you were paying attention and not just watching the leader. It was also a smooth race with four yellows, but none for any kind of serious collisions. Probably the worst was when Massingill and Chris Mensen got together on lap two, triggering the first yellow but they both were able to continue.

Both the support class features on Sunday were excellent and entertaining in their own right. Especially the MidMod feature, which saw a classic battle between Blake Adams and Shane Sabraski. Sabraski, of course, is in his first weekend of running a MidMod again and if that race was half as much fun as it looked from the stands, his daughter may have a tough time convincing Dad that he should not be driving it full time.

What a race as Adams got the lead from the outside pole from Sabraski but they then went at it for twenty laps, unimpeded by any yellows that made it even better. I wore out a pencil trying to keep track of how many times the lead was exchanged and how many sliders were thrown but it had the full house of fans in awe.

Late in the going, Adams was able to gain a slight lead which in this case meant that Sabraski was nailed to his rear bumper, not beside him.

And while we were dazzled by the battle for the lead, Joey Jensen also made a charge that was noteworthy. While the leaders were slipping and sliding past each other, Jensen was running the Shane Sabraski Late Model line and making it work.

Running only fifth at the halfway point of the race, he continued to charge and with only a couple laps left, slipped past Sabraski for second and if the race would have been any longer, the battle for the lead would have been a close on too.

It was just a very fun race to watch.

And then there were the Street Stocks. They only had ten but it only takes a pair to make a great race. Kaden Woodie is getting better each week in the Streets and he took the early lead with Levi Randt and Justin Vogel chasing him. Randt was working to his inside while Vogel was the only driver to go up on the cushion and he made it work as he came from row three to push the top two.

Off turn four, they made it three wide for the lead with Randt inside Woodie but somehow Vogel found room between the outside wall and the right side of Woodie's car to slip past both drivers and take over the lead. Not an easy thing to do, especially when your left front is up in the air and you are three wheeling around the track.

Vogel never gave up that line, although he did drop down perhaps one lane late in the race but he continued to three wheels around the track and as hard as he pushed, Randt was not able to catch him.

This was another nonstop main event and I love it when the drivers are able to race without those annoying stoppages.

Late in the race Woodie pulled off with a badly missing engine and Braedyn Fleck came on to get the third spot over Tommy Pogones and Kyle Howland.

Layla Chaplin missed her first night of the year at Granite City after the family decided to take a night off after having to endure a tough night after Layla's sister Alaina took a tough, tough roll at Rice Lake on Saturday night and was a bit beaten up, just one night after Layla won the feature at Princeton. The highs and lows of this sport are incredible for both individuals and families involved.

Having caught two races in this region over the weekend, I noted that Mike Swanson, a new Street Stock driver to me, has really been struggling, having mechanical issues shut him down early both on Friday night and again tonight. Hopefully he can keep that car running soon.

It was a good night of racing across the board. The four class program that got done at an early hour on a Sunday was refreshing. I would have to say that given the tight racing achieved by the support classes and the way the drivers were able to move around on the track during the Late Model feature that Sunday night's track was the best I have seen at Granite City for the races that I have attended there.

I also noted that James Trantina III must be feeling better because he was taking stints driving the tractor as they packed and refreshed the racing surface after the heat races.