LEAPLEY GETS FIRST FEATURE FOR 2007; HIPNAR TAKES FIRST CAREER POINT CHAMPIONSHIP

Jim Brennan

(Greenwood, Ne., 09/09/07) The NASCAR Whelen All American Series
Chase for the Championship continued Sunday night with Gary Leapley taking his first Grand National feature win of the year and Todd Hipnar getting his first career point title.

The Grand National feature event was one of the best races of the year as Curt Drake won a 3 car battle for the first lead of the night. But Andrew Kosiski and Gary Leapley were up for the task at hand as the 3 battled 3 abreast for much of the race. Right behind them in a 2 car battle were Dave Cook and point leader Todd Hipnar. Leapley was running the high groove, Kosiski the middle groove and Drake the low groove. With 3 laps left Leapley took control of the race and with 2 laps left Cook shot up to 2nd. At the finish line it was Leapley, Cook, Kosiski, Dwane Pospisil, Drake and Hipnar. For Hipnar the 6th place finish sewed up his first track title in 18 years of racing.

In the Modified class a spinout in his heat race, sent point leader J.C. Wyman to the pits and cost him a top 12 inverted start in the feature. He started 21st and it was just too much ground to make up. The feature started with Jeremy Leiting grabbing the early lead. By lap 3 Reece Coffee took command of the race and went on to record his 5th win of the year. Robert Brinkman was 2nd ahead of Matt Richards, Mike Johnson, Jeremy Leiting and Wyman. Richards 3rd place finish gave him the point title over Wyman and Coffee.

The Pro-am feature saw Jeff Atkins grab the early lead. But on lap 2 Thad Thomson took the lead and went on to record his 3rd win of the year over a fast closing Rick Negrete, Joe Feyen, Shawn Bulin, Jason Cieslik and Marty Steinbach. Bulin’s 4th place finish earned him the Pro-am track title.

The Hobby Stock feature saw Rick Munson take the early lead only to lose it on lap 2 to Josh True. But True’s lead was short lived as on lap 3 Josh Sink passed him and went on to record his first feature win of the year. Track champion Jesse Sobbing finished 2nd ahead of Tom Myers, True and Munson.

The next event scheduled at I-80 is the Cornhusker Classic, September 21st thru 23rd featuring the NCRA/TORA Super Late Models, the IMCA/USRA/I-80 Type Late Models, Modifieds, Grand Nationals, Pro-ams/IMCA Stocks, B-Modifieds and Hobby Stocks.
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I-80 Speedway is located off I-80 at exit 420 between Omaha and Lincoln and is part of the Nebraska Raceway Park complex, which also includes the Little Sunset Speedway go-kart track and Soaring Edge Motocross Park. I-80 Speedway is home to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series (NWAAS) on Saturday and Sunday nights; the ONLY track in the United States to hold two nights of NASCAR-sanctioned weekly racing. The Speedway hosts events from April through September. For track information contact the Omaha general office during normal business hours Monday thru Friday, 9am-5pm at 402-342-3453 or the track phone on race days at 402-944-2233. Check out the official I-80 Speedway website at www.neracewaypark.com.


I-80 NASCAR/Whelen All American Series Results for 9/09/07

City Weekly Grand Nationals

A-Feature: 1) T3 Gary Leapley, 2) 9 Dave Cook, 3) 2x Andrew Kosiski, 4) 2 Dwane Pospisil, 5) 55d Curt Drake, 6) 12 Todd Hipnar, 7) 56x Jeff Tilley, 8) 50 Brad Soll, 9) 8x Ron Tex Jr., 10) 97d Dave Doll, 11) Matt Buller, 12) Shawn Harker, 13) Kevin Hamele, 14) Lennie Pospisil, 15) Kortney Kosiski, 16) Matt McAtee, 17) Brent Baker, 18) Don Droud Jr., 19) Kenny Bartram, 20) Jacob Brown, 21) Cory Hutchison, 22) Tony Leonardo, 23) Kenny Darnold (DNS)

Modifieds

A-Feature: 1) 16 Reese Coffee, 2) 1m Robert Brinkman, 3) 1r Matt Richards, 4) 3x Mike Johnson,
5) 21j Jeremy Leiting, 6) 4 J.C. Wyman, 7) 55d Nick Deal, 8) 8 Larry Goertz, 9) 3r Rodney Stopak, 10) 1s Scott Carlson, 11) Bill Bader Jr., 12) Brad Tuttle, 13) Mark Leiting, 14) Lowell Holland, 15) Jeff Stephens, 16) Melvin Densberger, 17) Lacey Tuttle, 18) Tim Thomas, 19) Michael Anderson (DNS), 20) Stacey Wilhelm (DNS), 21) Randy Foote (DNS)

Pro-ams

A-Feature: 1) T72 Thad Thomson, 2) 72 Rick Negrete, 3) 25x Joe Feyen, 4) 36 Shawn Bulin, 5) 16j Jason Cieslik, 6) 5 Marty Steinbach, 7) 49x Chad Sanders, 8) 8 Nick Steier, 9) 49 Jeff Atkins,
10) 24 Don Mohr, 11) Scotty Hartman, 12) Denny Berghahn Jr., 13) Tim Podraza, 14) Jeff Joldersma, 15) Jim Kruse, 16) Alan Schmitt, 17) John Allensworth, 18) Doug Stevenson, 19) Rich Steier, 20) Nick Hermsen, 21) Larry Robinson Jr. (DNS), 22) Denny Berghahn Sr. (DNS)

Hobby Stocks
A-Feature: 1) 10 Josh Sink, 2) 99 Jesse Sobbing, 3) 7 Tom Myers, 4) 2T Josh True, 5) M70 Rick Munson, 6) 86j Jerod Weston, 7) 6 Jimmy Nichols, 8) 4w Joe Wollenhaupt, 9) 4x Chad Bassinger, 10) 52 Roger Timperly, 11) George Whitmore, 12) Kenny Darnold, 13) Kurt Hansen, 14) Mike Mass

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