ARLINGTON, Minn. (July 29, 2023) – The number 3 was unlucky Saturday night at Arlington Raceway as there were three rollovers in turn three that resulted in considerable damage to as many cars.
The first was in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock race on the first lap when Travis Manderfield’s drive shaft broke and sent him rolling off the track. He was ok, but out of the race. Then Blake Foesch had the misfortune of rolling after an axle tube broke after leading the first three laps and he, too, was out of the race.
When the race got started again, Chad Volk took the lead for two laps but undefeated for the season Cory Probst moved forward each lap from his 10th place start and took over the top spot on the sixth lap. Volk then contended with Jonathan Schroeder for second with Schroeder getting by him. Volk finished third ahead of Jed Trebelhorn.
Jason Bolte led the entire Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature. Bubba Brown was second until he encountered troubles on the sixth lap and went to the pit. That gave second to Alan Lahr and Gary Schumacher took third.
Jeff McCollum had his Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod dialed in as he took the lead right off at the start.
A yellow flag occurred on the first lap when cars got sideways in turn two, putting Jeff Lloyd in the rear on the restart. As they restarted, McCollum again took the lead with Jeff Carter trying to gain on him.
Matt Looft came up from his ninth place start and drove underneath Carter in turn two and passes him, and then the following lap does the same to McCollum to gain the lead.
The final two laps of the race were interesting behind Looft with McCollum and Carter exchanging spots and then Broddy Enter entering the equation as he moved up from his 10th place start. As the white flag came out, Enter passed Carter to take second and McCollum followed Carter to finish line.
The last rollover for the night happened on the first lap of the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature as Matt Johnson got over the top of Brandon Buysse’s car going into turn three and rolled several times, landing on the outside wall. He was ok but his car sustained a lot of damage.
When the race restarted, it went flag to flag with Chris Graf leading the way and Neal Stevens following him. The last circuits, Graf gained distance as he worked his car around lapped cars. He won with Stevens taking second and Bill Johnson third.
The IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main saw 18 cars start what would be a flag-to-flag race.
The early leader was Mason Goettl as he set the pace from his front row start. He was able to hold on for seven laps until Looft took the low side and passed for the front spot.
Looft was then the leader until the end, picking up his first feature win in The Class Too Tough To Tame of the year. Dan Mackenthun moved up from his 12th place start to take second ahead of Curt Lund.
There were three different leaders in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature.
The first was Zach Schultz, as he led the first two laps but by the third lap, Chad Porter took over with Trent Loverude and Clint Hatlestad vying for the top spot as well.
There was three- and four-wide racing going into turn two and three for several laps. In the end, Loverude won, Porter took second and Hatlestad took third ahead of Dan Menk.
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