(July 18th 2009 – New Richmond, WI) The 2009 racing season has seen its share of firsts at the Cedar Lake Speedway, but tonight Jason Schill raced to his first career Modified feature win at the historic oval, while Steve Laursen ended a 2 ½ year winless drought at CLS in the Late Model feature event, Dan Carlson went back to back winning two features in consecutive weeks for the first time since May of 2008 in the Super Stock division and Jeff Marshall cruised to his third Midwest Mod win of the season at CLS.

A pair of previous night feature winners, Jeff Marshall and Bob Smith sat on the front row for the NASCAR Midwest Modified feature event with Marshall jumping out to the lead at the drop of the green. Marshall proceeded to drive away and disappear from the field quickly as Jason VandeKamp and Josh Bazey moved in to do battle with Smith for second. Marshall was long gone, but VandeKamp and Bazey both worked their way by Smith into second and third and then began a tremendous battle for the runner up spot, until a lap 9 caution bunched the field back up and put them back on Marshall’s rear bumper.  On the restart, Marshall once again bolted out to a sizeable lead and Bazey dove back to the inside of VandeKamp as they circled the Cedar Lake Speedway side by side for multiple laps as Mike Gibson and Andy Jones did the same thing for fourth just behind. Marshall never looked back en route to his third CLS win of the season as VandeKamp held a solid second at the line with a late surging Jeremy Houle stealing third on the final lap.

A pair of Forest Lakers, Jim Gullikson and Mike Loomis, sat on the front row for the NASCAR Pro Stock a-main, but third starting Dan Carlson stole the show as the bolted into a three-wide skirmish with Gullikson and Loomis on the opening lap and emerged with the race lead. Carlson then drove off a bit as Loomis, Gullikson, Cory Davis and Tim Borgeson began to work each other over for second.  Multiple cautions kept the action to a minimum, but kept the field close to Carlson thoughout the 20-lapper. Davis and Borgeson had the most spirited battle as they swapped third a dozen times or more throughout the event, but Carlson was up to the challenge as he raced to his second consecutive Pro Stock feature win with Loomis a solid second and Davis getting the better end of his battle with Borgeson for third at the line. 

Ron Schreiner and Jason Schill paced the field to the green flag in the NASCAR Modified a-main and Schreiner took off into the race lead at the start of the 20-lap event. Schreiner took off like a rocket and lead the first seven laps until he slowed dramatically with a broken left front ending his night and handing the lead to a close running Schill. Once Schill took the lead he looked to be on his way to an easy feature win until 10th starting Darrell Nelson glued his #44 to the speedway and began to blister the high banks on his way to the front.  Nelson began to pick off cars left and right until he was into the runner up spot and charging after leader Schill. Nelson ran down Schill with 2 laps remaining, but Schill pulled a daring move in lapped traffic as they raced into turn one on the final lap and was able to hold off Nelson off of turn four in thrilling fashion for his first career Modified feature win at Cedar Lake that had the crowd on its collective feet. Scott Splittstoesser ran a very solid third throughout the entire event with Craig Brightbill fourth and Shaun Kelley fifth at the stripe.

Lance Matthees and Steve Laursen circled the speedway out front on the opening lap of the Super Late Model feature event, but Matthees got the jump on Laursen early on and began to run his patented low groove out front, while Laursen was trying to run him back down out front. Just behind the leaders John Kaanta and 8th starting Jake Redetzke were having themselves a great battle for third, as were Adam Hensel and Darrell Nelson just behind.
 Several early-race cautions kept the field tight, and after one of the restarts, Matthees slowed dramatically with a broken rear end, ending his bid for the win and handing the lead to Laursen. Laursen then went on to withstand several more cautions and a furious charge from Redetzke to win his first CLS Late Model feature win in 2 and ½ years. Redetzke ran second with Kaanta third. Hensel held off Nelson at the line for fourth in the 30-lap affair.

Racing resumes at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday, July 25th with a action packed night of racing featuring NASCAR Late Models, Modifieds, Pro Stocks and Midwest Modifieds. Racing will begin at 6:30pm on Saturday. Check out www.cedarlakespeedway.com for more information.

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