Chateau Raceway Classic Dwarf Report April 28, 2007
By Matthew Grage

(visit www.speednetdirect.com for results in all classes)

Mother Nature did a nice job this week of setting things up for a great second week of racing at Husqvarna Sponsored Chateau Raceway in Lansing. Some nice rains during the week helped keep the track easily workable and a partly sunny Friday made for a perfect spring night for racing.

The rising temperatures over a week ago also lead to a rising car count and a good turn out of fans for more exciting "Thunder in the Dirt". Friday night was also one of several Kids-R-Free Nights the track has sprinkled through the schedule as part of its season long "Kids Promotions." Next weeks promotion for the Kids will require them to be at the track early. Sometime after the 6:45 driver draw cut off and pit meeting the track will load all interested youngsters onto large wagons and take them for a trip though the pits. It will be an opportunity for the youngsters to see all the drivers and crews going through there pre-race routines of prepping there cars. This week after all the Kids and Adults all got settled into there seats they were treated to some really fine racing in all six classes with the track in great shape and the drivers able to run at some great speeds.

In The Classic Dwarf class sponsored by Triple J Disposal the story line was about the same as in the WISSOTA Street Stock class where the previous week’s winner dominated again. Rick Utley of Byron has stacked together consecutive sweeps to open up the season. Rick worked out of row two to the front in just one lap to claim his feature win while he waited until the white flag lap before he was able to pass for the win in the classes only heat event. Kevin Bigalk of Austin followed him to the checkers in both races.

It’s early in the season and the track has already set a record for the number of Ladies driving this season. The tracks racing program featured four young ladies out there kicking up the dirt with "Da Boys", two each in the Hornet class and two in the Pure Stock class. With the Indy Car racing league making big news with the fact that three women will be competing in this years Indianapolis 500 (Milka Duno coming over from Formula One to join Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher), Lansing may be seeing the effects of these women inspiring some of these girls (all teenagers) to give the sport a go. At the same time there are also several young men, still in high school as well, getting into the sport this year as well with at least one thirteen year old debuting at the track this year. It was also announced that the track will have another young man joining the show next week as has been waiting for his fifteenth birthday so he meets the requirements to run in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified class. In fact the track has a very high number of rookie drivers signed in already this year with sixteen drivers not showing any previous experience of Stock Car Racing and another handful that moved up in class from last year taking there racing to another level. It’s looking like a really exciting year to see some new growth in the grass roots level of racing at the local dirt tracks.

Heat 1	Feature
1. Rick Utley 2. Kevin Bigalk 3. Corey Whalen 4. Brett Anderson 5. Dave Anderson 6. John Griffin 7. Trent Gorton 8. Jeremey Anderson 9. Tom Gandy 10. David Sikora (dns)	1. Rick Utley 2. Kevin Bigalk 3. Corey Whalen 4. John Griffin 5. Dave Anderson 6. Jeremey Anderson 7. Trent Gordon 8. David Sikora 9. Tom Gandy (dnf) 10. Brett Anderson (dnf)