April 30, 2011 Highlights

Crystal, MI - The 2011 racing season at Crystal Motor Speedway started out right where 2010 left off with Cheney Newland victorious in the Pro Stock event. While nobody had anything for the defending Port City Pro Stock champion, the racing action was fast and furious behind him.

 

A mid race incident really shuffled the deck as the 44 machine of Blake Hollenbeck went up in one of the biggest clouds of smoke seen at CMS in a long time which brought out a caution. With so much smoke in the air, drivers had to take evasive action but Don Rohn ended up in the trees off of turn one. The man on the move was Vern Buskirk as he came from the very back of the pack to finish second after a furious battle with the 26 of Barry Rinard who would eventually settle for third in a very beat up race car. Heat races went to Cheney Newland and Jeremie Raby.

The winged warriors of the ASCS Sprints on Dirt Presented by Engine Pro and Victor Reinz Gaskets attacked the 3/8th mile next. 21 sprint cars came out and took the green in what ended up being a very rare caution filled race. It was a tough night for the 46 of Robert Huisken as he was the first guy to flip it over at the track in 2011 as he went flipping nose over gas tank after some wheel to wheel contact entering turn number one but he emerged unhurt. Mike Daggett started on the front row and was able to lead the first 17 laps until his son Dustin was able to overtake him. Dustin, riding the momentum of eight straight wins at the Crystal Motor Speedway, checked out after that to raise the streak to nine. The elder Daggett was able to hold on to second over Greg Dalman, the defending SOD champion Ryan Grubaugh, and Brett Mann. Heat races went to Grubaugh, Dalman, and Horstman. We look forward to welcoming Mike Streval and the Sprints on Dirt back on July 16th.

Although lower in car count than normal, the field of Kentucky Fried Chicken Late Models was not lacking in talent as they rolled out for their feature event. Dean Huizenga was the class of the field for the majority of the caution free race until a problem on the number 9 eventually forced him to the infield and handed the lead over the the 72 of Kyle Borgman. Borgman was able to hang on for his first feature event of the season. Heat races were won by Jeff Kohn and Keith Gentz.

The Engine Pro Pro Trucks rolled out next for their 20 lap feature. A couple of early spins involving Richard Melton on one occasion and Ashlee Scott in a separate incidents slowed the field a couple of times. Kevin Deal, in the 24d machine lead the majority of the race until the handling on that machine started to go away. Deal was not able to keep the speed and momentum up through the corners and that allowed the 45 truck of Dave Verhaar to over take him with only a handful of laps left to put the 45 back into the Engine Pro Crystal Motor Speedway victory lane. Heat race wins were picked up by Scott Neiman and Deal.

The Engine Pro IMCA Modifieds were up next. It took a little while for the filed to get a good clean lap in and once they did it didn't take long for another incident to happen. A big caution on lap six involving Jason Borton, Mike Shanteau, Raby, Wernette, and Wiggins brought the field to a stop as the Blake Hollenbeck Safety First crew had to untangle the cars. Wernette and Borton were ultimately unable to continue. Everyone was able to settle down and the race made it caution free finish with former IMCA champion Greg Wiles coming out victorious over defending track champion AJ Ward, Dan Minikey Jr, and Shanteau.

The final event of the night was the Racesontheweb.com Flinn Stocks were the final event of the night. The racers were able to run a very good clean race and it was a three car battle up front that raged for about ten laps before Taylor Daniels came out victorious over Austin Bean and Taylor Wiles.

 The Crystal high banks will ring again with the song of engines next week as we will have a full show of all six divisions plus Side by Side races. Pit gates open at 4:30, grandstand gates open at 5PM and racing action starts at 7:30 pm. Adults admission to the grandstands are $10, kids 5-11 are $4 while pit passes are $25.

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