TOP 10 Finish for Team 55!

By: Todd Ridgeway

The Midwest Supermodified Association (MSA) made their third appearence of the season to Sandusky Speedway on Saturday night. Defending MSA champion Tim Jedrzejek stopped the clocks with a qualifying time of 14.797. MSA heat race winners were Jim Paller which was his first career MSA win and former Buckeye Super Sprint standout Trent Stephens won the second heat race. In the thirty lap MSA feature it was a race of attrition. When the checkered flag waved it was Trent Stephens, who earlier picked up a heat race win, holding off a hard charging Tim Jedrzejek to take the win. 

The Midwest Supermodified Association were up next for their thirty lap feature. Jim Paller and Charlie Schultz paced the nineteen car field to the green flag. The red flag was out almost as soon as the green flag dropped. Joe Armbruster made hard contact with the inside wall. Kyle Edwards tapped the front straight wall and was not injured. Mark Sammut went off of turn one after tangling with Armbruster. Matt Palmer went pitside in a shower of sparks under the red flag. None of the drivers were injured but all would be out except Sammut. On the restart Charlie Schultz rocketed into the lead with Paller, Jon Henes, Rich Reid and Trent Stephens the top five. Henes moved into second just before Rich Reid, Bob Dawson and Kyle Reed all spun on the front stretch to bring out the caution on lap three. Dawson was hooked and taken to the pit area as Reed and Reid were able to rejoin the race. Schultz again opened up a sizeable lead. Stephens ran second folowed by Henes, Cicconi and Jedrzejek. Stephens had closed the gap between himself and Schultz and took the lead on the inside on the back straight before another caution on lap ten. Mark Sammut slowed on the back straight which brought out the yellow. Once again it was Schultz in the lead but Stephens took the lead again on the backstraight. The race was red flagged on lap eleven when Zack Gibson got nearly upside down on the front straight after making hard contact with the wall. Gibsons car was close to being totalled, but Zack was able to walk away without any injuries. Following the clean up the race resumed. It was Stephens followed by Schultz, Henes, Jedrzejek and Cicconi. Stephens opened up a half straight lead by the halfway mark as Jedrzejek advanced to second and began giving chase to Stephens. Jedrzejek was beginning to whittle away at Stephens lead as the laps counted down. With two laps to go Sammut spun in turn two. The battle between Stephens and Jedrzejek was on and and Stephens took Jedrzejek up high to keep his lead and held on for his first MSA feature win of the season. 


MSA Supermodifieds 
Fast Qualifier - Tim Jedrzejek (Independence) 14.797 

Heat # 1 - Jim Paller (Amherst); Charlie Schultz (Lorain); Rich Reid (New London); Matt Palmer (N.Olmsted); Randy Burch (Middleburg Hts.); Joe Armbruster (Vermilion); Jack Smith (Sandusky); Mark Sammut (London Ont. Canada); Kyle Reed (Grafton); Denny Fisher (Amherst) 

Heat # 2 - Trent Stephens (Ravenna); Lou Cicconi (Aston, Pa.); Jon Henes (Lagrange); Zach Gibson (Belle Center); Gene Lee Gibson (Sandusky); Kyle Edwards(Memphis, Tn.); Jedrzejek; Tim Ice (Seville); Bob Dawson (S.Amherst) 

Feature (30 laps) - Stephens; Jedrzejek; Schultz; Henes; Cicconi; Ice; Paller; G.L. Gibson; Sammut; Reid; Z.Gibson; Burch; Reed; Smith; Dawson. D.Fisher; Edwards; Palmer; Armbruster