7/9/2016
Lee Grosz Doubles Up At Cedar Lake Speedway
Racing for the third time this season with the UMSS, Lee Grosz made it two wins in three attempts when he completed his weekend sweep of feature races at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday night July 9 during the very popular two-day WoO weekend. The Harwood, North Dakota racer once again led the entire distance in the UMSS winged sprint car feature in a race that was shortened to 20 laps due to numerous incidents causing it to exceed the allotted time limit. Grosz celebrated his ninth career UMSS win in Rock Auto Victory Lane with a wing wave before posing for the traditional post-race photos. In a crowd-pleasing gesture, Grosz gave his trophy to an excited young race fan following the Victory Lane celebration. Grosz earned $1,000 for his victory thanks to some help from GRP Motorsports, giving him a tidy sum of $3,000 for his two night effort.
The UMSS winged sprints drew a decent field of (18) cars for the second night of the all sprint car racing weekend at the track. Jared Goerges had some engine issues during hot laps and was forced to park his car for the remainder of the evening. Two more cars suffered engine woes in the heats and Challenge races, reducing the number of starters in the feature to fifteen cars. Two heats were run with wins going to Mark Toews, driving for the second night in the Anna Hippe car, and Chris Graf who made a quick trip back to Glencoe overnight in order to pick up his second car with a fresh power-plant bolted in. The two Challenge races were won by defending UMSS champion Ryan Bowers behind the wheel of the DR #2 sprinter for the third time this season and three-time champion Jerry Richert, Jr. driving the other DDR 34DD team car. The top four drivers in passing and finishing points drew for their starting positions in the first two rows of the feature event. Graf and Grosz would go from the front row while Bowers and Thomas Kennedy comprised the second row. For the second straight night all five previous UMSS Champions were on hand, although 2010 champion Cody Hahn blew a motor in his Challenge race and was unable to start the feature.
Grosz shot into the lead up on the cushion and had to survive three yellows and two red flags for a variety of problems. The first caution flew when Dean Brown spun in turn 2 with four laps scored and tagged the tail of the field for the restart. One lap later the red flag waved when Bob McVitty bounced off the turn 3 wall and flipped over. Two laps later the red light was back on when Cam Schafer got sideways in turn 4 and collected Jamey Ogston. Ogston flipped over and both cars were out of action. An eight lap run under green ended when Leigh Thomas and Troy Manteufel tangled in turn 1. Manteufel required wrecker assistance while 2009 champion Thomas restarted behind the lead lap cars. At this point, the distance was reduced to 20 laps due to time limit. A final yellow was necessary when 2015 Rookie of the Year Jake Lempelius spun in turn 4. Grosz continued to lead throughout the mayhem and zipped off two quick laps to the checkers. Graf turned in a solid performance for his best finish of the season in the runner-up spot. Thomas Kennedy finished third and after he crossed the scales and passed post-race tech, he headed to his pits to jump into his 410 WoO sprinter for their feature race. Richert rode home in fourth with Leigh Thomas recovering for a top five finish. Toews, Jeff Pellersels, Brown, Lempelius and Reed Allex completed the top ten as they were the only remaining cars to finish in what turned out to be kind of a marathon instead of sprint race.
The UMSS winged sprints make their second-ever appearance next Saturday night July 16 at the Viking Speedway in Alexandria, Minnesota. Racers and fans can keep track of all the UMSS action on our website at www.umsprints.com by clicking on the red logo or on the UMSS Facebook page.
UMSS Race Results - Cedar Lake Speedway July 9, 2016 (Race #6)
GRP Motorsports A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4J-Lee Grosz[2]; 2. 20G-Chris Graf[1]; 3. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[4]; 4. 34DD-Jerry Richert Jr[8]; 5. 29-Leigh Thomas[10]; 6. 5T-Mark Toews[5]; 7. 1-Jeff Pellersels[11]; 8. 1D-Dean Brown[12]; 9. 52-Jake Lempelius[13]; 10. 91A-Reed Allex[14]; 11. (DNF) 5M-Troy Manteufel[9]; 12. (DNF) 2-Ryan Bowers[3]; 13. (DNF) 03-Jamey Ogston[7]; 14. (DNF) 5C-Cam Schafer[6]; 15. (DNF) 7M-Bob McVitty[15]; (DNS) 34-Cody Hahn; (DNS) 74-Roger McVitty; (DNS) 9-Jared Goerges.
Lap Leader: Grosz 1-25. Cautions: (3) yellows & (2) reds. Yellow with 4 laps in for 1D spin turn 2. Red with 5 laps in for 7M flip turn 3 after contact with wall. Red with 7 laps in for 5c & 03 contact turn 4 with 03 upside down. Yellow with 15 laps scored for 29 & 5M contact turn 1. Yellow with 18 laps in for 52 spin turn 4. Race reduced to 20 laps due to time limit.
Hoosier Racing Tire Challenge Race 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Ryan Bowers[4]; 2. 03-Jamey Ogston[2]; 3. 20G-Chris Graf[6]; 4. 5M-Troy Manteufel[1]; 5. 5C-Cam Schafer[5]; 6. 29-Leigh Thomas[3]; 7. 91A-Reed Allex[7]; (DNS) 7M-Bob McVitty; (DNS) 9-Jared Goerges.
Lap Leader: Bowers 1-8. No cautions.
Hoosier Racing Tire Challenge Race 2 (8 Laps): 1. 34DD-Jerry Richert Jr[1]; 2. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[4]; 3. 4J-Lee Grosz[5]; 4. 5T-Mark Toews[6]; 5. 1-Jeff Pellersels[2]; 6. 1D-Dean Brown[7]; 7. 52-Jake Lempelius[8]; 8. (DNF) 34-Cody Hahn[3]; (DNS) 74-Roger McVitty.
Lap Leader: Richert 1-8. No cautions. 34 blew an engine and was done for the night.
Meeks Video Heat 1 (9 Laps): 1. 5T-Mark Toews[1]; 2. 5C-Cam Schafer[5]; 3. 21K-Thomas Kennedy[7]; 4. 29-Leigh Thomas[3]; 5. 1-Jeff Pellersels[2]; 6. 5M-Troy Manteufel[6]; 7. 91A-Reed Allex[4]; 8. 52-Jake Lempelius[8]; 9. (DNF) 7M-Bob McVitty[9].
Lap Leader: Toews 1-9. No cautions.
Track Rat Photos Heat 2 (9 Laps): 1. 20G-Chris Graf[3]; 2. 4J-Lee Grosz[4]; 3. 2-Ryan Bowers[2]; 4. 34-Cody Hahn[5]; 5. 03-Jamey Ogston[7]; 6. 34DD-Jerry Richert Jr[6]; 7. 1D-Dean Brown[1]; 8. (DNF) 74-Roger McVitty[8]; (DNS) 9-Jared Goerges.
Lap Leader: Graf 1-9. No cautions. 74 blew up big time and was done for the night. 9 injured a motor in hot laps and scratched for the evening.
Victory Lane Photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
