After making a seven hour haul up to the North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minnesota, the STM team arrived and started to prepare the car for the very eventful night of UMSS Sprint car racing. Scotty started off the night by running the make up Kouba Memorial Challenge race where he had to start at the rear of the field but managed to pick off a few spots and finish in the 7th position. Thiel had to start 19th in the 20 lap Kouba Memorial A-Main event. At the green flag, Scotty drove around the field, picking off car after car. With the help of a few cautions, Thiel found himself sitting in the top 10 with a few laps remaining. At the remaining part of the race, Scotty drove to a solid 7th place finish, and also recieved the Raleigh Sandberg Memorial Hard Charger Award.
The STM crew quickly prepared the car for the regular scheduled UMSS event. Scotty started 3rd in the heat race. At the start, Thiel tried to use the bottom grove to take over the lead but fell behind the leader of Cody Hahn. In the 8 lap heat race event, Scotty managed to finish 3rd which set him to start 4th in the Challenge Race. Again, the crew made the right adjustments to the car and Thiel drove hard to finish up 2nd in the Bryant Heating & Cooling Systems Challenge Race. The lineup for the A-Main was posted and showed that Scotty Thiel would start outside front row of the 20 lap Crosslake Sheet Metal A-main event. Thiel drove it into turn one really hard at the drop of the green and took command of the lead and never looked back. One caution with five laps in the books bunched the field back up, but that was no stop for the #64 Complete Water Sprint car as Thiel took over a large margin lead, and taking the checkered flag. An excited Thiel stated in his victory lane interview, "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 mile jaunt of his journey over on Saturday when his tow vehicle would only pull the trailer at about 30 MPH. At that pace, Scotty jokingly indicated they might get back home in time to race next weekend.
It was a tough decision to make, whether to go 10 minutes to Plymouth or 7 hours to Brainerd.....and the STM crew made the right choice and came out on top. STM would like to thank all of their sponsors: Complete Water Inc, Scott Thiel Builders, Advanced Compressor Technology, Rhey Graphics, Muehlberg's Fire Solutions, Fat Boys BBQ, Moyle Racing, Haven Bar & Grill, Kaemmer Foods, DWT Racing, and Tri-Flow Lubricants.
Next on the schedule for STM will be the start of their speedweek: July 30, 31, and August 1st at the Manitowoc Speedway, PDTR, and Peoria Raceway followed by a possible 5 nights in a row.
- administrator on Jul 25, 2010
- Article Date: 7/24/2010