FALLON, NV (Oct 10) — This weekend Rattlesnake Raceway had the official ending of its 2021 season. The Dirt Track Championships are two full days of racing, two separate programs where a driver’s combined finishes determine their standings at the end.
Sunday was the money round and the Hobby Stock class had the honor of ending the track’s official 2021 season. When the green waved to start the main Keith Marson was on point.
Soon Dan Dias moved into second and the chase was on. However in back of the two leaders Jeff Olschowka, who started at the back was on a charge through the pack.
The first caution came after Santiago Villanueva spun in Turn 5. When the green waved again Jacob Dias was second until the charging Olschowka took over second and set his sights on Marson.
Not long after that Olschowka used an outside move to take the point while Marson began fade. Eventually Jesse Gonzalez took over second while Dias sipped to third ahead of Marson but up front it was all Olschowka.
After winning Olschowka took the checkered and did a reverse victory lap, or Polish victory lap as it’s known. It honors former Winston Cup champion the late Alan Kulwicki, who did it first.
At the tech pad Olschowka said, “ The race was good, the track cleaned up nice, you could run two wide and three wide in a stock car class. It was good racing. “ We had a distributor issue in the heat race as it broke. We got it fixed, Bill Pearson gave us the parts to fix it, good to see all the racers come together and help each other.”
Then he thanked his father-in-law as the car is his, and they used his son’s motor. Then he complimented the track crew for their hard work and efforts to make it good for a race.
And he mentioned the future plans. “We have a race coming up for Halloween, the 29th and 30th of October. We’ll be putting it on as Susanville at Rattlesnake, it’s going to be a good show.”
Starting the show after heat races set the fields were the IMCA Mods. On the green Shawn LaRocque was on point while behind him Chris Nieman and Wade Lumsden were disputing second place.
Nieman soon took over second and set his sights on the fleeing leader. By now the lead duo was leaving everyone in their dust. Nieman was closing in on the leader and used an inside move to take the lead, which was the winning pass.
At the finish, LaRocque was second followed by Lumsden and fourth place Andy Freeman.
Next up were the Dwarf Cars and nine of them took the checkered flag.Up front Dan Geil was on point with the pack right behind him.
Chris Christiano brought out an early caution when he spun in Turn 5. On the restart Vuki Wilson Jr. used an outside move in Turn 4 to take the lead.
Soon Christiano moved into second while Race Shelton and Isaak Geil were disputing third. Christiano and Wilson would swap places during the race. There would be three more cautions that slowed the pace but in the end Wilson won followed by Christiano and Isaak Geil with Dan Geil ending up fourth.
Next it was time for the Gen-X or Mini Stocks however one was unable to start and Ken Knisley was kind of enough to push that car to pit in. Once everyone got in order the green waved and Travis Showe grabbed the lead.
Then Jesse Yankee used an inside move in Turn 4 to take the point. At the checkered it was Yankee and Showe followed by Knisley and fourth place Joseph Cook.
It took two attempts to get the Bootlegger main going and Logan Sage was on point when it all got going. Clayton Heflin was challenging for the lead but Sage managed to hang on.
The only caution came after Taggart Garland’s car bounced off the back stretch hall earning him a tow back to the pits. Later Jay Bradley had to retire as well.
Eventually the race came down to Sage being chased by Lumsden and they finished in that order. And they had probably the closest finish of the day but Sage scored the victory. Clayton Heflin was third ahead of fourth place Joseph Keough.
Only four Sport Mods took the green and for a while it seemed the place not to be was in the lead. So three of the four would be there and spin. Joe Pearson was able to keep it pointed in the right direction and won the day.
Rusty McMillan finished a very close second followed by Shyna Nieman and Paul Shamlian.
After the Hobby Stock main ended the day’s racing most gathered by the tech pad as the scoring crew checked all the finishes. There were several bonuses to be handed out as well as naming each class champions and that came with a nice trophy to celebrate their dirt track championship.
Wade Lumsden did the honors of handing out the trophies and checks.
First up was Travis Showe as his second place Sunday was enough to clinch the championship. “It means a lot, fifteen years of racing and I finally did it,” Showe said.
Next were the Bootleggers and Jay Bradley was driving one of the cars owned by Rusty McMillan. Although he was a DNF in Sunday’s main Bradley apparently won the Booklegger’s title. Asked about the title Bradley said, “It’s something different, I’ve never done it before and it was fun”.
Then McMillan commented, “This proves they can drive me car better than me. I’d like everybody to know that when we come to these tracks we sponsor classes and we also donate all the money back to the local racers because your local racers run every week here and we don’t. We come in, we like the trophies but the money goes back to the track and that way it helps them support it.”
The Sports Mod champion is Joe Pearson. Asked what this meant to him he said, “It’s only my second year racing and it’s pretty cool to be out here and put on a good show for people.”
Reporter’s Note: For some reason I didn’t record Hobby Stock champion’s quotes so I apologise for that. The champion was Keith Marson whose fourth place finish Sunday was enough to clinch the title.
Asked about the weekend IMCA Mod DTC champion Chris Nieman said, “I’ve run like three or four of these. It’s pretty cool, we just got the car better this weekend so we’re pretty happy about that.”
The last trophy as well as the money every champion got was Vuki Wilson Jr., who earned the Dwarf Car DTC title. Asked what this meant to him he said, “I’ve never won it before and it means a lot. I’ve been racing national races and been getting beat up on all year so it’s nice to come here and have a showing.
” The race was great, the track was awsome. I bobbled once and he got around me then I was hard on him until a got around him. It was a good race.”
Now the track is dark until the final Friday and Saturday of the month. Thanks to a generous offer the crew from Diamond Mountain Speedway will come down from Susanville to run their Halloween event. Their track is being used as a staging area for crews fighting the Dixie Fire up north.
For further information and the rules, including the required bags of candy to be in the pill draw, please check Diamond Mountain Speedway’s page of Face Book.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
• Teresa’s Garage Radio Show is on the air from 2 until 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. In northwest Nevada, it can be heard over the air at 1060 AM.
There is also a Podcast at amm.streamon.fm or it can be seen live on Face Book. The show is focused on all things automotive, trends, new developments and trivia.
The results for both Saturday and Sunday’s main events are at the end of this article.
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Owner Greg Ekins is a long time off road motorcycle racer competing in the MRANN Series as well as the AMA National Hare and Hound series. The website is www.gislandservices.com.
• Next sponsor is General Transmission and Power Train Specialists owned by former motorcycle racer Pete Attashian. The shop is located at 2515 Sutro Street in Reno, a few blocks below Hug High School.
The shop services older and new transmissions and now has a section for high performance units and those used in towing. Phone number is 775-786-5888 and the shop’s website is www.generaltransmissionreno.com.
• Racing photographer Melissa Coker is another sponsor. If you raced at Summit in Elko, Battle Mountain, Lovelock, Rattlesnake Raceway or Diamond Mountain Speedway she probably has a photograph of your car on the track.
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RESULTS:
RATTLESNAKE RACEWAY DIRT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS.
• Sunday, October10:Gen-X: + Heat Winner: 1, Travis Showe.
+ Main (25-Laps): 1. Jesse Yankee, 2.Travis Showe, 3. Kent Knisley, 4. Joseph Cook, 5. Jorden Riley, 6*. Cooper Lee.
Dwarf Cars:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Dan Geil, #2 Vuki Wilson Jr.
+ Main (25-Laps): 1. Vuki Wilson Jr., 2.Chris Christiano, 3. Isaak Geil, 4. Dan Geil, 5.Michael Sundberg, 6. Zeron Foster, 7*. Dillon Kintz, 8*. William Christiano, 9*. Race Shelton.
Hobby Stock:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Keith Marson, #2 Dan Dias.
+ Main (25-Laps): 1. Jeff Olschowka, 2. Jesse Gonzalez, 3. Jacob Dias, 4. Keith Marson, 5. Bradley Schmidt, 6.Dan Dias, 7. Shane Boyd, 8. Brayden Stepper, 9. Santiago Villanueva, 10. Victor Richey, 11.Alyssa Jones.
Bootleggers:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Wade Lumsden, #2. Jay Bradley.
+ Main (25-Laps): 1. Logan Sage, 2. Wade Lumsden, 3. Clayton Heflin, 4. Joseph Keough, 5. Robbie Schostag, 6*. Jay Bradley, 7*. Taggart Garland, 8*. Ace Green.
DNS: Kayla Baun.
Sport Mods:
+ Heat Winner: 1. Joe Pearson.
+ Main (20-Laps): 1. Joe Pearson, 2.Rusty McMillian, 3. Shayna Nieman, 4. Paul Shamlian.
IMCA Mods:
+ Heat Winner: 1. Andy Freeman.
+ Main (25-Laps): 1. Chris Nieman, 2.Shawn LaRocque, 3. Wade Lumsden, 4.Andy Freeman, 5. Josh Combs, 6. Joe Blackwell.
* – Means the driver was listed as a DNF.
• SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9:
Gen-X:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Suzi Schmitt, #2 Travis Showe.
+ Main: 1. Travis Showe, 2. Jesse Yankee, 3.Kent Knisley, 4. Cooper Lee. 5*, Joseph Cook, 6* Suzi Schmitt, 7* Kaden Beuchat, 8* Colton Blankenship.
Dwarf Cars:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Vuki Wilson Jr., #2 Dillon Kintz.
+ Main: 1. Vuki Wilson Jr., 2.Dan Geil, 3. Killon Kintz, 4. Isaak Geil, 5. Chris Christiano, 6. Zeron Foster, 7. William Christiano, 8. Michael Sundberg.
DNS: Race Shelton.
Hobby Stocks:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Bob Vaden, #2 Keith Marson.
+ Main: 1. Keith Marson, 2. Jesse Gonzalez, 3. Jeff Olschowka, 4. Dan Dias, 5. Bradley Schmidt, 6. Santiago Villanueva, 7. Brayden Stepper, 8. Madison Hood, 9. Samantha Schultz, 10. Angela Diaz, 11* Bob Vaden, 12* Jeff Marson, 13*. Jacob Dias.
Bootleggers:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Ray Blankenship, #2 Shari Hollis.
+ Main: 1. Rusty McMillan, 2. Shari Hollis, 3. Maverick Boney, 4. Robbie Schostag, 5. Stuart Satathite, 6. Clayton Heflin, 7. Logan Sage, 8. Emanuel Mello, 9. Ace Green, 10*. Taggart Garland, 11*. Wade Lumsden, 12*. Ray Blankenship, 13*. Joseph Keough, 14* Matt Cardin, 15*. Jeremy Lampley, 16*. Kayla Braun.
Sport Mods:
+ Heat Winner: 1. Rusty McMillan.
+ Main: 1. Joe Pearson, 2. Shayna Nieman, 3. Rusty McMillian, 4*. Taggart Garland.
DQ – Mark Hain.
IMCA Mods:
+ Heat Winners: #1 Josh Combs, #2 Andy Freeman.
+ Main: 1. Chris Nieman, 2. Zach Cail, 3. Andy Freeman, 4. Josh Combs, 5. Shawn LaRocque, 6. Bill Peaerson, 7. Wade Lumsden, 8. Michael Anderson, 9*. Joe Blackwell, 10*. Dave Sciarroni, 11*. Melissa Natenstedt, 12*. Dale Tatum.
DNS: Kody Belvins.
DQ: Shawn Natenstedt.
* – Means driver was listed as a DNF.
