High Temperatures and Hot Racing Highlight TORC Bark River
The fortieth anniversary of off-road racing at Bark River International Off-Road
Raceway saw competitors from all over North American taking part in two days of
incredible short-course off-road racing. The Sportsman Off-Road Series supported
by MORR and the TORC Series presented by AMSOIL put over 120 racers in front of
an estimated 10,000 spectators that didn’t want to leave even after the racing was
complete.
The biggest surprise of the first day of racings was the weather, the skies were
cloudless practically all day as high humidity and temperatures in the 90s really
taxed both the competitor and spectator alike. Regardless the crowds and the
competitors did their best to stay hydrated, as day one was a huge success.
The weekend of racing began with six Classix racers and ten Stock Trucks competing
for a seven-lap race. The Classix group was an early battle between Tyler Plamann
and class points leader Dale Chestnut. On lap three Chestnut took the lead for good
for the sixth team win of the season as Plamann finished second.
Meanwhile the Stock Truck saw a great race between Round 6 winner Nick Visser
and reigning Points Champion Cory Marquardt. Eventually on lap six Marquardt
made an outside–inside move to take the lead and the win. Visser didn’t give up and
finished right on the winner’s bumper as Diesel Shanak finished third.
Next up were the twenty-one racers of the Light Buggy division. The starting line-up
has the top twelve in points inverted on the starting grid. This put points leader
Greg Stingle in the sixth row. When the green flag racing began Matt Mullen quickly
took control of the race. Stingle drove like a man possessed as the orange single
seater was able to get to second place just before the checkered flag waved with
Tony Keepers taking third to complete the podium.
The combined Limited 4 and Formula 4x4 race saw each class start with five entries.
The starting grid for each class seemed small, but both groups put on some very
entertaining racing. Milan Mazenec led flag to flag in Limited 4, but he was
constantly under pressure from Jerry Conrad throughout much of the race. The final
lap saw Conrad loose the front drive and the hard charging Al Drews broke the front
suspension flying 150 feet off the Cooper Tire Hill. At the finish it was Mazenec first,
as a late charge from Gerrit Bancroft awarded the first time in the class driver
second, as Conrad was able to hold on to third.
The Formula 4x4 had a two-truck battle between Ryan Rebman and Dave Miah.
Rebman led practically the entire race, but with two turns to go Miah finally made
the pass stick to take the win.
The 1600 Buggy class saw a great race as some of the top racers in the country lined
up in Bark River. Bruce Fraley and Matt Gerald put on a great show as Gerald led his
first race since a serious accident broke his back nearly five years ago. Ultimately
Fraley edged by Gerald to take the win as points leader Mark Steinhardt finished a
close third.
The Kids Karts were next and Carter Vanden Heuvel drove his red racer to a
convincing win as Ashton Hord finished second with Paige Wirhanowicz completing
the podium.
The ten-car Super Buggy field had Herman Barnum take the early lead, but by the
second turn, greasy track conditions saw Barnum spin as the rest of the field raced
by. The first half of the race had Ryan Schwalbe hold off Rodney VanEpren to the
mandatory caution followed by Las Vegan Aaron Hawley. On the restart, Schwalbe
and VanEpren tangled with Hawley also getting gathered up in the incident. This put
Nebraska’s John Fitzgerald in the lead. Hawley returned to the fray quickly only to
have a flat front tire slow his pace. Fitzgerald continued on to the win with Jaime
Kliekamp taking second as Hawley pressed on to complete the podium.
The best Sportsman show on dirt, the Super Stock Truck class was next on the
schedule. Jay Schafer got to the corner first and quickly opened up a sizeable lead.
Then the field came back together for the mandatory caution and then the real race
was on. The final four laps you could put a blanket over the first five trucks in the
running order. The final lap began with Matt Siorek getting sideways over the finish
line jump as Mitch Dorr seized one opportunity to pass the leader and the Illinois
driver made it happen. Dorr takes the win with Jay Schafer finishing second and
Nick Byng has very close behind in third.
The final Sportsman race of the day was a great duel between Jerry Edgerton and
Eric Ruppel, but before their battle developed, Jimmy Ridderbush dominated the
first three laps of the race. Then the transmission failed on Ridderbush, which left
Edgerton and Ruppel to fight for the victory. Edgerton chased Ruppel all the way to
the checkered flag, as the black Chevy even turned the fastest lap of the race, but it
still wasn’t enough as Ruppel took the win with Edgerton right behind in second as
Tim Nelson finished third.
The fourteen PRO-Light pilots were next as the pole sitter Cam Reimers grabbed the
hole shot and early lead. By the second lap Doug Mittag made his way his into the
lead. The battle for the final two spots on the podium had Travis Dinsmore, Kyle
Hart and Luke Johnson go door-to-door right to the final lap. In the end Kyle Hart
took the runner-up spot as Travis Dinsmore finished third.
The PRO-2WD battle saw Doug Mittag end his podium hopes with a first lap
rollover. Marty Hart led the first two laps until CJ Greaves passed both Hart and
Keegan Kincaid to take control of the race. Kincaid tried his best to challenge
Greaves but when the checkered flag was waved CJ Greaves took the win followed
by Kincaid and Hart.
The final race of the day saw CJ Greaves just totally dominant the race as the twentyyear old took home is second win of the day. Behind CJ, his dad Johnny finished
second but there were plenty of fireworks behind the Greaves family. On the restart
from the mandatory caution Scott Douglas made contact with a blocking Chad Hord.
This sent Hord off the track and track officials gave Douglas a stop and go penalty.
The result of the contact put AMA motorcycle road racer Larry Pegram, driving
Mark Kvamme’s truck, in third place.
All in all the first day of racing during day one of the forty year Bark River
celebration brought great competitive racing for the large crowd on hand.
- Mike Reusche