By Greg Parent

July 24, 2010 Brainerd, Minnesota: Making a nearly eight hour tow from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to North Central Speedway, young Scotty Thiel put an end to Brad Barickman's three-race win streak when he trounced the Upper Midwest Sprintcar Series (UMSS) field. Following the conclusion of the 18th annual Kouba Memorial, a full UMSS program was run on the third-mile North Central oval. Thiel regularly races with the southeastern Wisconsin MSA sprint car group and decided to make his second UMSS apperance of the season. The young hot shoe wheeled to victory from outside front row on what became a much drier surface from the first feature of the evening. Thiel's smaller MSA motor package may have benefited him under just the right conditions.

An excited Thiel stated, "This is just awesome to make a long haul over here and come away with a win. I love racing with the UMSS on their smaller tracks. I have to thank my crew, my sponsors and my parents for allowing me the opportunity to do this. This will make the long drive back home tomorrow go a little bit faster."

Hopefully it will as Thiel had some problems during the last 30 miles of his journey over on Saturday when his tow vehicle would only pull the trailer at about 30mph. At that pace, Scotty joked that they might get back home in time to race next weekend.

A competitive field of 18 UMSS sprint cars lined up for their second feature of the night sponsored by Crosslake Sheet Metal. Rookie contender Jared Goerges and Scotty Thiel brought the field to green. Three of the 21 cars were unable to race the second feature due to mechanical problems. Thiel immediately bolted to the lead after Goerges caught a rut on the low side of turn one on the opening lap and fell to fourth. Brad Barickman had won the Kouba Memorial earlier and blasted to second on the opening lap from fourth starting spot. Barickman was trying to make it four straight UMSS wins but Thiel had something to say about it. When the lone caution flew with five laps in for debris in turn two and a flat tire on Joseph Kouba, Thiel had already opened a bit of a lead. That evaporated under caution, putting Barickman, Mark Toews and Goerges behind the leader. The race ran 15 laps non-stop to the finish when the green replaced the yellow.

Thiel gradually pulled away as the battle for second heated up. Goerges recovered from his earlier miscue to race to runner-up on lap nine. One lap later, Mark Toews got by Barickman for third. A good battle for several positions behind the leaders developed. Toews swapped second a couple of times with Goerges before taking control on lap 15. Thiel worked traffic and well over a full straightaway ahead. Toews needed a yellow to close the gap.

The race stayed clean and green to the finish with Thiel winning by a very comfortable margin over Toews. Goerges turned in his best finish of the season with a solid third-place as the young rookie from Brainerd continues to get faster, run better, and impress many. Another Brainerd native, Sye Anderson also raced to his best finish of the season with a charge from tenth to fourth.

Completing the Top Five was 2009 UMSS Rookie of the Year Cody Hahn over another Brainerd driver Tim Johnson followed by 18th starter Jimmy Kouba, who jumped into teammate Mark Yetter's sprinter following rear end failure in his car. Kouba passed eleven cars. Like the earlier feature, only three cars failed to finish.

The UMSS season continues in high gear with a doubleheader weekend on Friday, July 30 at the Kopellah Speedway followed by Arlington Raceway on Saturday, July 31. Although it is not a UMSS race, the rain-delayed feature from July 5 at Arlington will conclude with 12 laps remaining prior to the full UMSS-IMCA Challenge 2 show on July 31.

Midwestracingtalk.com Ultimate Heat 1 (7 laps) Cody Hahn, Brad Barickman, Scotty Thiel, Tim Johnson, Anna Kouba, Ronnie Erickson, Shannon Eriksen

Driverwebsites.com Ultimate Heat 2 (7 laps) Jared Goerges, Jerry Richert Jr, Sye Anderson, Jack Zweber, Jimmy Kouba, Kevin Nickel, Jennifer Eriksen

Sprintsource.com Ultimate Heat 3 (6 laps) Mark Toews, Leigh Thomas, Joseph Kouba, Troy Manteufel, Mark Yetter, Brandon Allen, Andy Jones

Bryant Heating & Cooling Systems Challenge 1 (9 laps) Zweber, Thiel, Joseph Kouba, Toews, Richert, Hahn, A. Kouba, J. Eriksen, Nickel, Allen

Mastell Brothers Trailer Service Challenge 2 (9 laps) Johnson, Barickman, Anderson, Goerges, Thomas, Jimmy Kouba, S. Eriksen, J. Erickson, Manteufel, Jones, Yetter

A-main (20 laps) 1 Scotty Thiel, 2 Mark Toews, 3 Jared Goerges, 4 Sye Anderson, 5 Cody Hahn, 6 Tim Johnson, 7 Jimmy Kouba, 8 Jerry Richert Jr, 9 Brad Barickman, 10 Jack Zweber, 11 Jennifer Eriksen, 12 Anna Kouba, 13 Shannon Eriksen, 14 Kevin Nickel. DNF Troy Manteufel, Joseph Kouba, Ronnie Erickson. DNS Brandon Allen, Leigh Thomas, Andy Jones, Mark Yetter. UMSS 360w

Lap Leader: Thiel 1-20