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Kroon, Fitzpatrick, Hess, and Korthals pick up win in front of Big Crowd on Fan Appreciation Night

Fan Appreciation Night brought free admission and a big crowd to the Rapid Speedway and the racers would not disappoint.

Point Leader Brian Kroon would garner some luck and draw the front row for the night’s first feature in the Lems Auto Recyclers Sportsman and he would take advantage of the opportunity. Kroon set sail around the top and was able to cruise to an easy victory. “Sometimes its not about the motor, or the setup, but about the best team that wins the race and I can’t thank them enough,” said the winner. The battle was for second as Marni Deboer, fresh off a crash the night before, would hold off a hard charging Bill Kroon for second while Kroon would settle for third. Brandon Jurrens and Roger Deboer would round out the top 5. Heat race wins belonged to the Kroon’s.

The Sybesma Graphics Hobby Stocks watch a great battle between two long time foes. Dylan Fitzpatrick would jump out the early lead, but it would take long for Dustin Gulbrandson to come from is 11th starting spot and jump into second on a restart on lap 4. The two past champions would then battle side by side lap after lap before the 6 would take the lead with four laps to go, but Fitzpatrick would battle right back and reclaim the lead just one lap later and go on for his first win of the season. “Whooo! I can’t believe I just held off the 6!” Gulbrandson would settle for the runner-up spot followed by Levi Vander Weide. Dawson Deboer was the hard charger as he would come from 15th to finish 4th ahead of Nick Jansen. Nick Brady, Dylan VandenTop, and Gulbrandson claimed the heat race wins.

Brock Hess picked up his 3rd win in a row in the 15 lap J&L RV Sales Bmodifieds. Hess would start in the 12th position and have to work his way through the field and made his way to 2nd with 6 laps to go. As he set his sights on race long leader Keegan Nordquist he will garner a little bit of lucky as Nordquist’s right rear tire would explode in turn 4 and take him out of the race and give the lead to Hess. The Sioux Falls driver would lead the last few laps to record his 4th win of the season at the speedway. “Hats off to the track crew, they really worked this track tonight and turned it around. There were two lanes and the track was great.” Tyler and Trevor Tesch would come home 2nd and 3rd while a couple hard chargers round out the top 5 as Cole Christensen would come from 15th to 4th and Kevin Joachim would run from 19th to finish 5th. Heat race winners were Dave Kennedy, Hess, and Tyler Tesch.

It has been a tough year so far for the 11k of Darrin Korthals as bad draws and bad luck would hamper his season, but on this night everything would fall into place. Korthals would set sail off the front row and run the high line to his first win of the season. A great battle for second saw 3 wide racing between Colby Klaassen, Roger Verdoorn, and Justin Regnerus and each of them would take their shot at Korthals, but the tracks all-time winnest driver was able to hold off every challenge for the win. “I dedicate this win to the late great Wayne Steenhoven, he was one of my heros. I thought of him on that last restart and the car went just a little faster after that,” said Korthals in victory lane. The heat winners were Justin Regnerus, Travis VandenTop, and Glen Wynia.

Next week Rapid Speedway will host their Hobby Stock Special that will also be a Summit Shootout Qualifying race for the class.

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