Sabraski surpasses field to win A-Mods

On a cold, rainy, and windy Saturday evening at North Central Speedway, Shane Sabraski and Pete Hines combined to give fans a great feature race for the A-Modified class.

On the first lap of a green-white-checker finish, Sabraski went by Hines on turn two and raced to the finish for his first podium finish of the young 2009 campaign.

For Hines, an evening that started out fast ended with a broken left front brake. He got out to the lead after a five car pile up on lap two and sustained the lead through several cautions. After building a sizable lead, he ran into lapped traffic on lap 13, which allowed Sabraski to catch him.

Rain fell for the most of the Super Stock Feature, which was run just before the A-Modified Feature. It may have played a part in the early lap caution flags. Sabraski felt the track was in good shape for the feature race.

It was a little bit slimy, he said. I don't think it was too bad. The first five or six laps it was a little wet, but after that the rain let up so it was pretty good.

With the race shortened to two laps after the fifth caution flag, Hines got the pole for the restart with Sabraski running in second place. Sabraski was able to pass Hines on the second lap. Running behind Sabraski at the finish line were Brad Hanson and Eric Martini.

That's exactly what we have been looking for, Sabraski said. I have been telling my help that I feel like I have a top five car, but when I am out there I don't quite feel like I can win the race.

But tonight I felt like I had something for them so it was exciting. Pete ran a good race. I don't know if I would have got him, but his left front brake broke and we came out on top.

Sabraski took the Midwest Modified Feature event on opening night, and was the 2008 National Champion for that class. He also managed a top 10 finish for the season nationally in the A-Modified class, but felt his car hasn't been there in the start of 2009. That changed Saturday.

It's been going okay, he said. We've been top five quite often. Not in the winners circle quite as much but we are getting there. Tonight I was very happy. It's the first victory that I have had in the A-Modified in quite some time. We changed a lot of stuff today and it seems a lot better so I am happy with it.

Pure Stock Feature: Mike Smude is one of the favorites to win the Pure Stock points championship this season. He continued in that direction with his second straight victory Saturday. Dan Bartick finished in second place and Daaron Johnson finished in third.

Street Stock Feature: Kris Peterson secured his first career victory in the Street Stock class with a run from the front row to start the race. Tim Johnson provided a strong challenge to Peterson. That ended when Johnson spun out with three laps left. He did recover to finish third. Kevin Schmidt was second after winning the feature on opening night.

Midwest Modified Feature: Dan Ebert, the 2008 Wissota Rookie of the Year, won his first feature event of this season. Ebert held off Sabraski, who won last week's opening night race, on three restarts. The biggest was the first caution, which claimed the cars of John Thompson, Josh Fuhrer, and Brian Murphy. Sabraski ended up second with Ryan Kriese third.

Super Stock Feature: Derek Sweet has a top three finish in each of the first two weeks, but hasn't got that first win yet. On Saturday, he made a run at Dan Gullickson, but the 2008 NCS points champion was able to hold off Sweet for his first victory of the season. Josh Anderson finished in third.

Pure Stock

Heat 1: 1-Bradlen Nelson, 2-Dusty Paul, 3-Doug Cyrus

Heat 2: 1-Dan Bartick, 2-Jacob Jordan, 3-Dustin Joel

Heat 3: 1-Mike Smude, 2-Bill Nelson, 3-Daaron Johnson

B Feature: 1-Craig Paul, 2-Gary Ohnstad Jr., 3-Richard Holmin

Feature: 1-Mike Smude, 2-Dan Bartick, 3-Daaron Johnson

Street Stock

Heat 1: 1-Kris Peterson, 2-Kris Macko, 3-Todd Wooden

Heat 2: 1-Tim Johnson, 2-Dan Severson, 3-Wade Blumke

Feature: 1-Kris Peterson, 2-Kevin Schmidt, 3-Tim Johnson

Midwest Modified

Heat 1: Jeff Nelson, 2-Mike Kuhlman, 3-Brian Murphy

Heat 2: 1-Dustin Strand, 2-Ryan Kriese, 3-Travis Wermter

Heat 3: 1-Shane Sabraski, 2-Allen Gessell Jr., 3-Matt Weisman

Heat 4: 1-Dennis Czech, 2-Dan Ebert, 3-Josh Fuhrer

B Feature 1: 1-Bryan Lepier, 2-Al Schmidt, 3-Mark Anderson

B Feature 2: 1-Jerry Esler, 2-Bill Matzdorf, 3-Alan Bohlman

Feature: 1-Dan Ebert, 2-Shane Sabraski, 3-Ryan Kriese

Super Stock

Heat 1: 1-Mike Folik, 2-Zach Wohlers, 3-Andy Davey

Heat 2: 1-Don Eischens, 2-Derek Sweet, 3-Dave Read

Heat 3: 1-Dan Gullickson, 2-Dave Mass, 3-Josh Anderson

Feature: 1-Dan Gullickson, 2-Derek Sweet, 3-Josh Anderson

A-Modified

Heat 1: 1-Pete Hines, 2-Ryan Cannon, 3-Don Eischens

Heat 2: 1-Bob Broking, 2-Brad Hanson, 3-Dustin Nelson

Heat 3: 1-Eric Martini, 2-Shane Sabraski, 3-Luke Hines

Feature: 1-Mike Smude, 2-Dan Bartick, 3-Daaron Johnson