CRYDERMAN TOPS FIRST AMSOIL SERIES EVENT
Former Series Champion Dominates With Sweep
By Jerry O'Brien for the Daily Telegram

Thunderbay Ontario's Joel Cryderman served notice that he wants to take his second AMSOIL Late Model Series championship with a dominating performance on the 3/8ths mile Hibbing Raceway Tuesday June 5th. Cryderman lined up in the first heat on the inside of row three and wasted little time racing to the front to take the win.

The realignment system played into Cryderman's hands as he started the 25 car 35 lap feature on the pole flanked by John Massingill. 2005 and defending series champion Pat Doar was positioned directly behind Cryderman poised to make a run for the win. After the traditional four wide pace lap salute to the fans the 25 car field was set to get down to business. At the green flag Cryderman quickly grabbed a three car length lead with Jeff Provinzino and Massingill moving past Doar to second and third. The first of only two caution flags would appear when a mob of cars all tried to enter turn one at the same time squeezing Jeff Lien off the track. At the restart Cryderman again pulled away from Provinzino while Tom Waseleski, Sr was on the move from his sixth starting slot and got by Massingill and Doar to the third spot. Meanwhile veteran Tom Nesbitt was heading toward the front and slipped by Doar and Massingill into fourth. It appeared Doar's car was not performing to his liking as he began slipping back in the field. Cryderman soon began eying the back of the field as he would quickly began to lap cars. It appeared that Cryderman had hit the setup perfectly as he was able to put the number 51 anywhere he wanted which made passing lapped traffic appear to be easy. Behind him Provinzino and Waseleski, Sr battled for the second spot with Waseleski able to take over the runner up position. Cryderman was in a large gaggle of cars at the rear of the pack but was able to put some distance on Waseleski, Sr as the laps wore away. At he half way point Cryderman led Waseleski, Sr, Provinzino, Nesbitt, Darrell Nelson, John Kaanta who had moved from 12th to sixth, Danny Yong from 15th to seventh, a struggling Doar in eighth, Steve Vesel and Massingill in the top ten.

Cryderman was carefully working his way through traffic and had a comfortable lead on Waseleski, Sr who was holding off Provinzino. Cryderman looked to be headed for an easy win if he could clear traffic when that lead disappeared due to the final caution flag with ten laps to go when Dave Esse slid off turn one. With Waseleski, Sr and Provinzino right on his tail it was Cryderman's race to win or lose. He proved equal to the task as the car was on rails for the remaining circuits and, though Waseleski, Sr was able to keep to Cryderman's pace, he was unable to mount a serious challenge. During the closing laps the track surface appeared to take rubber about a car width up from the bottom which made passing impossible. Cryderman was dominant throughout leading all 35 circuits for the win and the early AMSOIL Series point lead. Waseleski,Sr, Provinzino, Nesbitt and Nelson finished in the top five.

"I had a really good starting spot, which really helped" Cryderman said in the Victory Circle interview. "It went perfect". Second place finisher Tom Waseleski, Sr said "If I would have had an opportunity to pass Cryderman, I would have taken it, but I wasn't going to do anything dumb. I was happy with the way it went, it was our firs time out" Waseleski was driving the car usually driven by son Mike as the engine for his own car was not yet complete.

The support class for the evening was the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds who were making their first ever appearance at the Hibbing Raceway. Greg Chesley who is on a hot streak early on in the ‘07 season won the 20 lap feature for the sweep of the division. Chesley was the second heat winner. Rookie Midwest Modified driver Skeeter Estey took the lead from the pole but seemed to develop a push in the number 37 that let Chesley scoot by on the bottom. Once that pass was accomplished, Chesley then survived a couple of caution flags that kept the pack close including one just as the white flag signaling the final lap appeared. Chesley was able to pull away from second place Don Smith for the win with Mark Kangas third, Bill Matzdorf fourth and Dan Wheeler fifth.

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