An Eve full of Close Finishes at Elko Speedway

 A packed house was entertained by numerous close finishes on a steamy-hot night for Eve of Destruction at Elko Speedway presented by the MN Lottery and the New Prague Auto Group.

 The first MN Corn Growers Super Late Model feature went to Matt Goede from New Germany (MN) by the slightest of margins.   Matt won this 30 lap race by only .033 seconds over Paul Paine.  "It was a close finish, I was really happy to be able to pull off the win," said Goede "Paul got a little loose out of turn two and I got a good run, thankfully he left me enough room coming out of turn four and we drag raced to the finish line, I barely beat him."

Here is an audio interview with Matt https://soundcloud.com/speedtalkon1360/matt-goede-super-late-model

 This is the first win of the year for Matt Goede, he has overcome many hurdles to achieve this success including breaking his arm and wrist in May.  "I went out on the dirt bike and crashed, it was dumb on my part I lost control, hit some trees and hit the ground, I wish it wouldn't have happened, it cost me some points" said Goede.  "I'm happy that everything is healed now and back to normal."

 Matt's brother Jacob finished third in the first feature and former two time Champion Jason Schneider lead the first half of the race and finished fourth in the 16 car field.

 The second feature went to Nick Barstad of Prior Lake (MN), he lead the cautionless 30 lap NASCAR Whelen All American series race flag to flag.  "No cautions really helped out, we were on old tires, so we were hanging on and running our line and it was all she wrote," said Barstad.  Nick was the ARCA Midwest Tour Rookie of the Year last year and has raced a lot of places but a win just 15 minutes from his home is something special. "Elko is without a doubt the nicest facility in the entire Midwest, I love running here," said Barstad.

 Former I-94 Raceway Champion Bryan Roach finished 2nd and Jacob Goede scored another third place finish on the night.  Jacob Goede holds a commanding 80 point lead in the standings over his brother Matt with Paul Paine 102 points back in Third.

Here is an audio interview with Nick Barstad 

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=nick%20Barstad

 Jamie Farrell from New Prague (MN) won the first Hiway Federal Credit Union BIG 8 feature event.  Farrell took the lead on lap one and never looked back, he lead all twenty laps and finished .356 seconds ahead of Jake Ryan for his first win of the season.

   Jon Lemke from Shakopee (MN) came out on top of the 16 cars in feature number two.  Lemke had a great battle side by side with Dylan Moore for the top spot and ended up winning by only .085 seconds as the crowd roared with excitement.  It was the second win of the season for Lemke.

 Chris Marek was stuck back in the pack and finished 9th in both of the feature events.  Marek still has a sizable point lead, he leads Ryan Kamish by 45 points with Dylan Moore 49 points out of the top spot.

    Brandon Petersen from Fairbault (MN) won the first Pepsi Power Stock 20 lap main event, he got past defending Champion Nick Oxborough on the start and held off current Point Leader Tom Doten on a green-white-checkerd finish for the win by .940 seconds.  This was the first win of the season for Petersen.

 The second feature went to Grant Brown who bested all 16 cars and won his fourth feature of 2015.  Brown had to fight off Tom Doten during a furious battle to the stripe.  Brown won by an incredibly close .009 second margin as the two cars appeared to be side by side at the finish.

 The consistency of Doten helped him increase his point lead to 16 over Brown.  After some mechanical problems Taylor Goldman had to borrow a car for the second feature  and lost some ground in the point standings, she is now 50 behind the leader.

    Derek Lemke from Shakopee (MN) won his third Great North Legends feature of the year.  He finished just ahead of Matt Allen and Jaycen Brockhouse in the 21 car field to take home the trophy.

 Defending Champion Lemke increased his point lead to 42 over both Allen and Brockhouse who are tied for second place in the standings.

 Ridge Oien from Bloomington (MN) won his fourth feature of 2015 and he did it the hard way, he passed current point leader Justin Schelitzche for the top spot.  Oien won by .234 seconds with Schelitzche finishing runner up and Matt Suhl in third.  Schelitzche is still the point leader, he has a 20 point lead over Ashley Bell in the standings.

 The crowd enjoyed the close finishes but also liked the show put on by Mechanical Mischief and Alter Ego Monster Trucks.  Devin Jones in Alter Ego was declared the winner in the Duel.

Here is a video of an awesome slap wheelie performed by Jim Burns in Mechanical Mischief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Y8kI_5B7E

J J Romans and his crew performed Freestyle Motocross for the fans.

 Brian McMenomy was the Outlaw Drags winner in a 1979 Cadillac Seville and Doug Skang won the Spectator Drags in a 2000 Cadillac Seville.

Tim Brockhouse from Prior Lake (MN) beat Chris Freeland from Monroe (LA) in the Outhouse race finals.

 The School Bus Figure 8 presented by RentMyPartyBus.com ended in a rollover and was the finale of the night.

For full results and point standings go to www.ElkoSpeedway.com and Click RESULTS.

 Next up at Elko Speedway we will be celebrating our 50th year of racing on Saturday night August 1st.  Vintage race cars will be on display and many Elko Speedway Hall of Fame members will be introduced to the crowd.  Vintage races will also be shown on the video screens in Champions Entertainment Center.  A free concert by Johnny Holm will take place after the races.  For Elko Speedway racing history information go to ElkoSpeedway.com/history and Follow us on YouTube for interviews with important people from the history of Elko Speedway.

 Gates open at 5pm and action begins at 6pm at Elko Speedway located just 20 minutes South of the Twin Cities just off of I-35 and County Road 2.  Get more information by calling (952) 461-7223 or go to ElkoSpeedway.com