Wiesz Gets Win #56 at Marysville
Marysville, CA (May 14, 2016)…Nothing was going to deny Colfax driver Colby Wiesz his 56th feature event win at Marysville, not even a blackout. Around 8 pm the fourth turn lights would not come on. The staff worked for an hour to get the lights back on. For Wiesz, thankfully they did because he thrilled the fans at Marysville Raceway Saturday when he passed Jeremy Burt in the final turn on the final lap. Burt had been the driver to beat for the majority of the race but lapped traffic proved to be his downfall. Going into the final turn Burt chose the bottom of three and four and followed a slower car. Wiesz had a good run down the back straight and used the momentum he gathered to shoot around the top of Burt and take the lead coming out of turn four. Wiesz led the final 100 yards and stole the win. Burt should be commended for his composure and steady performance this year at Marysville. Nights like this can build a champion and Burt will leave the track as the continued point leader. Tyler Seavey continues to impress and drove the #18 into a third place finish. He is a driver that should start getting some recognition in the winged sprint car racing community. Courtney Dozier continued to be a dominant force at Marysville and finished fourth. Cody Lamar earned his second fast time award of the year and ended up fifth in the main event. A total of 20 cars attended the Saturday night show.
Buddy Olschowka led the first 10 laps of the dwarf car main event and was a top driver all night. However, Shawn Jones took the lead just past the half-way point and went on to secure the popular win. Olschowka never gave up and finished less than a second behind Jones at the finish line. Mike Grenert has always been one of the best dwarf car drivers. He was on point during the main event and finished third. Kevin Bender has been the most consistent dwarf car driver at Marysville and finished fourth tonight. Scott Dahlgren is also a veteran of this division and finished fifth. Tonight was another stout field of cars and drivers as a total of 22 dwarf cars entertained the fans.
Todd Cooper led all 20 laps to win the IMCA Sport Mods main event. The race was a testament to his tenacity and holding off two drivers on the prowl including Phillip Shelby and Brian Cooper. Shelby was all over Cooper during the first half of the race. Brain Cooper got around Shelby with about six laps to go and tried to close in on his brother for the win. At the end, Todd held over a one second advantage over Brian. Shelby finished in the third spot. Raymond Benkowski drove a smart race and finished fourth. Jim Waller continued his solid performance to start 2016 and finished fifth.
Peter Paulson won his second wingless spec main event in a row and he did so in dominant fashion. Paulson held a three second lead at the checkered flag over Johnny Burns. Josh Vieira did all he could do but was never able to pass Burns for second. Timmy Sherman Jr. crossed the line in fourth spot while Misty Castleberry rounded out the top five.
Greg Rayl won the 15 lap hobby stock main event. The race was the final of the night and the sparse crowd that remained saw a good race. While Rayl had a decent lead at the finish the real race was for second on back. Shannon Collins had it for a while but soon Cameron Hammett worked his way up through the field and with three laps to go moved into second. Hammett finished in the second spot while Collins finished third. Jim Speck came home in fourth and Ethan Benzel came home fifth. Anthony Doubledee was the sixth place finisher.
Full results can be found at https://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1265754
