'Deerwood boys' capture wins over weekend

Deerwood's Danny Vang, who won his first Wissota Midwest Modified feature at North Central Speedway in three years of racing the class, wasn't the only Crosby area racer to have a good Saturday night of racing.

Ironton's Trent Snyder in his 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo started from the pole and led from start to finish in the Midwest Allstar Racing Series Super Late Model Minnesota Governor's Cup 100 at the I-94 Raceway in Sauk Centre. Former Brainerd resident Nate Thiesse won his heat race and finished 11th in the 100-lap feature.

"Good weekend for the Deerwood boys," Snyder, who won his first MARS feature and $2,000, said. "We've been trying a bunch of setups and finally hit one that was awesome."

This event has an awesome list of past winners, including NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racers Michael Waltrip and Matt Kenseth.

An inverted line up put the No. 12-qualifying Snyder, who finished ninth in his heat race, at the pole. The top qualifier rolled a dice to see how many racers besides the top eight would be in the inverted line up. He rolled a four which meant that Snyder earned the pole position. From there on back, the order was flip flopped.

Snyder said he was challenged by Jon Lemke, the Elko Speedway track champion, for the first 17 laps. On lap 18, Lemke's challenge was over as he crashed into the wall creating a red flag delay for several minutes, Snyder said.

Thiesse said by the 17th lap, he was up to third after starting eighth. "When we re-started the engines and got rolling again, I did the usual back and forth swerve to clean any loose rubber off the tires when my steering locked up," he said. "I had to pull as hard as I could with both arms just to get the car to turn left. The car was getting looser as the race progressed and damage to the steering kept me from staying up on the wheel."

Thiesse said he fell back to fifth and eventually got spun. "We felt we had a car to win the race but it just wasn't our day," he said.

Snyder said after the delay, his next challenger was 16-year old Andy Hanson who won a MARS race at I-94. Snyder said Hanson would attempt to go low to pass him. "Every time someone would go low I would speed up a little bit," he said.

Hanson's challenge lasted until lap 70, Snyder said. He said in the closing laps, Jeff VanOudenhoven, two-time MARS Series points champion, pressured him.

Snyder, who was fifth in MARS season points as of Friday, also started from the pole in the Wally Jors Memorial Cup Tuesday at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wis., but didn't finish among the top 10.

He said he led for the first three or four laps before another racer spun him out. Both racers were sent to the back of the field.

He said this race was an invitational. The racers included the top five in MARS season points and the top five in WIR's season points.

VanOudenhoven won the race.

clint wood can be reached at clint.wood@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5869.