Esky gives a strong showing at UPIR
ESCANABA — It was nearly a clean sweep for track champions in Escanaba Sunday as the Upper Peninsula International Raceway finished up its season at the State Fair.
Tyler DeMars of Green Bay, Wis. kicked off the features with a first-place finish in the Riverside Auto Group Youth Micro Sprints.
Ethan Manninen of Cornell finished second, ensuring track champion honors after entering the final race with a 12-point lead. Manninen was particularly successful considering it was his first year racing.
Brett Labre of Escanaba secured track champion honors in the UPIR Sportsman Micro Sprints class thanks to a nine-point advantage and a third-place finish in the feature race.
“(Winning) felt pretty good,” he said. “(I just wanted to say) thank you for all the sponsors for (helping) me, my mom and my dad.”
Trevor Denome of Escanaba took first in both the feature and heat races.
With only a three-point gap coming into the last race, the Getchell Builders 600cc Winged Micro Sprints class could have been decided with the flip of the coin. Matt Peterson of Escanaba finished third, but more importantly, ahead of Kyle Getchell, the points leader.
“There were a lot of nerves coming in three points behind,” Peterson said. “After last week, having a couple wrecks, a broken car and finishing tenth really had me concerned. Kyle’s raced a fantastic year. What his grandpa and his family has done for this class is unbelievable. It’s been a year of ups and downs, blowing motors, and crashes. It’s kind of emotional, that’s all I’ve got to say.”
Josh Bartel of Bark River took first place in the final race but couldn’t make up the 24-point deficit he entered with.
The U.P. Vintage Modifieds’ final race was mostly about pride as the point gap between the leader and second place was an impressive 33 points. Don Benoit of Escanaba took the race, and Scott Degnan of Escanaba simply finished to polish off the track championship in his second year of Vintage racing.
“(The track) was real dry and slick, but we made a few adjustments,” Degnan said. “I probably should’ve went a bit more. I just enjoy running these cars, and I enjoy racing at home.”
Seemingly paradoxically, the large margin just added to Degnan’s anxiety during the race.
“Actually, it was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been gunning for a championship because boy, you could really give this one away, you know?” he said.
Billy Bowden of Escanaba pulled off a twofer in the A&L Iron and Metal Street Stocks, taking both the race and the track championship. Coming into the final two laps, it looked as if Eric Mathieson might take the race, but he failed to capitalize on an advantage on the inside. Bowden then pulled away and stayed ahead.
“We looked for the wet spots on the outside of the track, and those were the only places we found any traction,” he said. “It worked for us. (Winning is) so phenomenal. We worked so hard for it. We never expected it this year, and it just fell into place and worked perfect.”
Bowden has raced for three years but just started hitting his groove this year.
“This is our first year with success, racing, and to go from never winning races to winning races and the championship, you can’t ask for more than that,” he said. “We’ve raced a lot of different tracks this year, and we’ve had pretty good luck wherever we’ve went. It’s just been phenomenal.”
Chris Pepin of Escanaba finished the night with track champion honors in the Binks Coca-Cola Sport Modifieds, and Jamie Iverson of Escanaba took the final race. Iverson took over the race halfway through, gaining ground on the outside and finally passing Russ Franks of Octono, Wis.
Matt Adams of Escanaba won the feature race and the track championship in Sport Compacts to finish off the night after a race stoppage.
The UPIR will hold one more non-points race on Sept. 19 during the Border Battle.