Career Win Number One for Nienheiser at 34 Raceway

Two drivers with two substantially different outcomes were the top stories as the 2013 campaign for the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders kicked off on a cool, breezy and misty night at 34 Raceway near Burlington. For 16-year-old Paul Nienheiser the outcome was a good one as he captured his first-ever feature win in a winged sprint car while for Matt Krieger, who thrilled the crowd with his cushion pounding run from the back to the front, well his story ended with a thud.

Thirty winged sprint cars filled the pits for the early opener and with no clear cut favorites in the field, this show would be wide open to see who would establish themselves as the early point leaders for the Invaders. With the temperature hovering near fifty and a steady breeze blowing an occasional mist around, the high-banked oval was tacky fast tonight and while a couple of holes worked their way to the surface the drivers could find plenty of racing room. Brett Triplett and Jon Agan would start from the font row of the 25-lap headliner, but it was the youngster Nienheiser who would blow past both of them to take the lead on the opening lap. On lap two the red flag would wave as Triplett and Agan would tangle exiting turn for sending both cars upside down. Then, as the field tried to come to a sudden stop behind them, Dave Getchell would go for a tumble in the middle of turns three and four also ending his night.

Having already won both his heat and the Budweiser Shake Up Dash, Nienheiser drove with the confidence of a multi-time winner once back to racing despite being pressured by the second-place running Scotty Thiel. Josh Schneiderman tried to keep pace in third as nearly all of the field settled into running the less treacherous bottom line of the racetrack. One driver was working the top though and liking the results as Matt Krieger was picking off a car or two a lap after starting fourteenth on the grid.

With ten laps to go Krieger had cleared Schneiderman for third and just a few laps later he stormed past the Wisconsin drover Scotty Thiel into second. With the laps clicking off and with lapped traffic looming ahead of the leader the chilled crowd thought that the hometown hero Krieger just might have a chance. Instead though, Nienhesier negotiated the traffic like a pro and Thiel fought back pulling even with Krieger a couple of times before the white flag flew. On that final lap it was now obvious that Nienhesier would post his initial victory and Thiel charged hard to the bottom in turn three. Krieger entered that final set of turns equally as hard, but this time he caught the cushion odd, bicycled and then veered hard right into the concrete retaining wall. The race was scored complete with the Chapin, Illinois, teenager Nienheiser taking the win with Thiel making the long trip payoff in second. Josh Schneiderman would collect third-place money while Russ Hall and Alan Ambers completed the top five.

The Sprint Invaders have a busy month of April coming up as next weekend they will be at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday April 5th before moving up to the quarter-mile oval at the Davenport Speedway on Saturday night April 6th. On Wednesday April 10th the Invaders will make their inaugural appearance at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Then, on Friday night April 19th, it will be another new venue as Sprint Car racing returns to the Independence Motor Speedway for the first time in some twenty years. You can find these Sprint Invader dates and many more special events to attend on the Calendar page at Positively Racing.

The IMCA Stock Car division had the most dramatic finish of the three support classes tonight as Ray Raker paced the field for the first fourteen laps. On a restart Chris Wibbell then moved to the front, but only for a lap as Tom Bowling Jr. then established himself as the leader. John Oliver Jr. was in contention as well and as the white flag fell Bowling and Oliver crossed the stripe side-by-side with Oliver out front by inches on the outside. Both drivers drove hard into turn one with both cars going up the track and nearly off the top of turns one and two. This allowed Wibbell and Abe Huls to drive under them and suddenly those two were racing for a win into turns three and four. Huls was able to catch the bite that he was looking for in turn four and he vaulted ahead to take the win over Wibbell by a car-length at the checkers. Oliver recovered to finish third and then showed his displeasure with Bowling after the race and when Bowling's car later failed something in the tech area that moved division rookie Chad Krogmeier up to fourth.

The IMCA Modifieds were racing for a $1,000 top prize tonight and it was no surprise when Richie Gustin moved to the point after starting on the outside of row one. Brandon Rothzen was able to keep pace with Gustin throughout most of the event, but he could never mount a challenge as Richie would add to the Gustin/DeFrance family trophy case with a flag-to-flag victory. Rothzen was second, Jeff Waterman finished third followed by Dustan Fenton and Andy Krieger.

The Mod Lites settled into their positions early on and just didn't do much passing despite a late race caution when 15-year-old Devon Rouse put his car upside down in turn three, The order stayed the same following the restart with Greg Rossell taking the win over Chase Flatt, Daniel Keltner, Randy Bryan and Josh May.

Jeff and Amy Laue and their entire crew at 34 Raceway did a fantastic job of getting this facility ready for racing after a three inch snowfall here just six days earlier. The track was fast and racy and there were only a few soft spots in the parking lot. The next event here will be a practice night on Tuesday April 2nd before hosting the annual Slocum 50 for the IMCA Late Model Deery Brothers Summer Series on Saturday April 6th. This is one of the premier events on the Deery series paying $5,000-to-win and $500-to-start.