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FEATHERLITE GOPHER 50 TO FRANK
By Bill Nelson
June 14th, 2007
Spring Valley MN
A very large crowd gathered as the prestigious 28th Annual Featherlite Gopher 50 took to the high bank speedway of Deer Creek Speedway on a balmy Thursday night. The drivers were treated to a pork feed earlier in the day courtesy of Featherlite Trailers and Miner’s Outdoor and Recreation along with a very large list of additional contributors. 42 cars checked into the back gate for time trials as many local drivers attempted to make the big show.
The first feature of the night was the 25 lap $1,000 to win USRA modified event. A complete restart saw Tommy Myer jump out to the early lead with Mike Sorensen and Jacob Dahle racing for second as a three wide battle for third ensued. Sorensen quickly moved into the top spot the next lap with Dan Bohr following him into second. The track was in perfect shape with cars racing on every groove on the speedway. With three down Ron Konkel, Mark Noble and Steve Arpin were locked in a race for fourth coming to the line three wide. Noble gained control on the next lap while some noticed Brad Waits flying around the top side of the speedway making his way to the front after starting fourteenth. With seventeen to go Sorensen was slowly pulling away from the field as Myer headed to the infield with a breakdown. On the next lap Arpin and Waits had a great race going for fourth as a caution flew. The restart with fifteen to go saw Noble and Bohr touch out of four, with Noble taking over second. Waits followed Noble through to third as Bohr started to slip back. Thirteen to go and Noble was all over Sorensen up front and on the next lap took control of the point as Sorensen fought off the charges of Waits. Nine to go and Waits and Sorensen were still at it. Bob Timm took over the fourth spot with With five to go Noble pulled into a five car lead but Sorensen wasn’t going to let him get away. Coming across the line for the white flag Sorensen moved alongside of Noble and into one. Coming out of two Noble had a slight edge while Sorensen quickly made up in three. As they crossed the waving checkers of the flagman Noble won by a half car. Sorensen and Waits rounded out the top three.
Up next was the Featherlite Gopher 50 race paying $10,000 to the winner of the 50-lap event. A nasty pileup on the first lap in turn four saw Terry Casey up on his roof as his car rolled ending his night. A complete restart was all that was needed to get the feature underway minus the Casey mount. No more yellow flags waved during the rest of the feature as they ran to the checkers without a caution. Chub Frank got the jump on Chad Simpson in turn one and took the lead. Clint Smith moved into third as the field shuffled around behind him. Two down and Smith made the pass on Simpson to move into second with Darrell Lanigan moving into the third spot. The mid pack field of cars were still waging wars two and three wide for position. With ten down the field was searching for the fast line as Billy Moyer cracked the top five. Two laps later lapped traffic started to make the race up front interesting. With eighteen down the low side of the speedway seemed to be preferred with Moyer starting to reel in Lanigan for third. Ten laps later Moyer and Lanigan were still in the heated battle for third as Smith followed Frank around the speedway. With only a dozen laps remaining the top four were now running close with Smith looking under Frank in every corner. Smith was not able to make the low side work and moved higher on the speedway to try and get a momentum pass of Frank for the last five circuits. Smith was not able to make any runs pan out as Chubb Frank took home the big check and trophy for the 28th Annual Featherlite Gopher 50 late model race.
28th Annual Featherlite Gopher 50
Feature - Chub Frank, Clint Smith, Darrell Lanigan, Billy Moyer, Steve Francis, Josh Richards, Brian Shirley, Shane Clanton, Brian Birkhofer, Chad Simpson, Rick Eckert, Shannon Babb, Eddie Carrier Jr., Adam Hensel, Keith Foss, Tim Fuller, Jake Redetzke, Barry Underdahl, Nate Wasmund, Mike Prochnow, Neil Eckhart, Jacob Murray, Nick , Herrick, Roy Mitchell, Terry Casey
USRA Modifieds
Feature - Mark Noble, Mike Sorensen, Brad Waits, Bob Timm, Ron Konkel, Steve Arpin, Dan Bohr, Ryan York, Jason Cummins, Jerry King, Jacob Dahle, Doug Hillson, Tyler Rubin, Mick Glenn, Dwaine Hanson, Gary Oskerson, Greg Jensen, Brain Shaw, Jeff Rollinger, Craig Bentzin, Terry Timmerman, Tommy Myer, Steve Wetzstein, Joey Galloway
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