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2007 | archive.
06.02.07 – Witbe basks in history at Thunder Mountain Speedway on Ted Musgrave night. Eric Witbe hasn't had the season he dreamed of... until now. Before the Hoosier Tires 600 Modified Series visited Thunder Mountain Speedway Saturday night, Witbe has had mechanical woes, been knocked out of races and has usually had to start deep in the pack. This night would be different. Tonight Witbe parked his own car to drive the Richie Everitt entry. Everitt is no stranger to victory lane as over the years drivers such as Frank Cozze, Buzzie Reutimann, Frankie Snyder and Rags Carter have all found first place glory in the legendary owner's mounts. Dave Lewis, driving in the Kindberg racing stable scored his first heat race victory in heat number 1. He had to hold off Mike Keppler to do it. Dave Balwin, Sr. also become a new heat race winner by convincingly beating Nick Mady and the rest of the heat race competition in the second qualifying race. Lewis flipped the coin which resulted in an inversion of the top ten qualifiers. This placed Witbe on the pole. At the drop of the green Witbe outdragged former Thunder Mountain feature winner Bruce Kindberg into turn one. Kindberg wasn't going to let Witbe have an easy time as he put his nose under Witbe several times over the next four laps. Witbe didn't rattle and eventually began putting some distance as his car began to work better. Kindberg had to change his focus to Kyle Gardner who was now dogging Bruce for second. Gardner was persistent as it took until the eighteenth circuit to get by Kindberg. While this heated battle raged, Mike Keppler was storming up through the ranks. The racing action was so tight that you could put a blanket over second through eighth for much of the race. Despite a heavy and very rough track, the 600 Modifieds ran caution free until Dave Lewis brought his mount to a stop on the speedway on lap 19. This set up a green-white-checkered finish. Witbe was starting hear all kinds of noises and feel vibrations he didn't notice before. Putting that aside, he punched the gas and roared to his first victory. Gardner crossed the stripe second with Keppler edging Kindberg for third by six inches at the flag. Ryan Higgs put another impressive run together to finish fifth. After the main event, Ted Musgrave climbed into the Rental Car while Thunder Mountain Speedway owner/promoter Dick Stark put on a match race. Stark was no match for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck star as Musgrave smoked Stark to the thrill of the crowd. Afterwards, Musgrave was tickled with the 600 Modifieds as they were "the coolest things I ever saw."
Heat 1: 1. Dave Lewis, 2. Mike Keppler, 3. Travis Hallabura, 4. Kyle Gardner, 5. Eric Witbe
Heat 2: 1. Dave Baldwin, Sr., 2. Nick Mady, 3. Chris Stockholm, 4. Dave Baldwin, Jr., 5. Bruce Kindberg
Feature: 1. Eric Witbe, 2. KJ Gardner, 3. Mike Keppler, 4. Bruce Kindberg, 5. Ryan Higgs, 6. Chris Stockholm, 7. Dave Baldwin, Jr., 8. JJ Newman, 9. Brian Mady, 10. Chuck Miller, 11. Dave Baldwin, 12. Rich McGeady, 13. Joe Fanelli, 14. Nathan Dibble, 15. Junior, 16. George Loux, 17. Travis Halabura, 18. Bucky Buczafusca, 19. Dave Lewis, 20. Bob Skoniecki, 21. Taylor Bartik, 22. Nick Mady
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