LAURSEN WINS AMSOIL SERIES CURTAIN RAISER
By Jerry O'Brien for the Daily Telegram

Three time AMSOIL Late Model Series champion Steve Laursen dominate the action at the Superior Speedway Friday night. The Cumberland, WI driver served notice on the competition that he will be force to be reckoned with in a run for his fourth AMSOIL Late Model Series championship. The crafty veteran easily won his ten lap heat race and used his pole position starting slot to the best advantage dominating the 35 lap feature.

At the green flag for the start of the feature event it was even craftier veteran Tom Nesbitt of Thunder Bay ON who is competing in his 50th season, that got the jump on Laursen but that advantage didn't last long as a three car tangle in the first turn involving the cars of Aaron Lillo and Bob Slater brought action to a halt. The next shot at a good start went the same way as the first as Jeff Provinzino spun in the first turn collecting the cars of Jake Redetzke, Kyle Peterlin, Darrell Nelson and Tim McMann. The third time was the charm as a lap was finally completed. This time it was Laursen who got the drop on Nesbitt with Steve Vesel, Joey Jensen and Jeff Broking trailing. Jensen made a bid for second but was unable to pull off the pass as the top seven cars pulled away from the pack. Laursen soon caught the back of the field and began weaving his way through lapping cars. Broking put a move on Vesel for the fourth spot an shortly thereafter the caution flag appeared when John Massingill spun in the fourth turn. This incident cleared lapped traffic from in front of the leader. Up to this point there had been some good racing further back in the field. As the green flag flew for the restart, Jensen got a run on Nesbitt and grabbed second place. While Jensen was busy with Nesbitt, Laursen was able to put some distance on him. Further back the battle was for fifth place with Vesel trying to hold off Eric Breeschoten, Brent Larson and A J Diemel. With 15 of the 35 laps remaining Laursen led Jensen, Nesbitt, Broking, and Vesel in the lead five while Larson, Breeschoten, Diemel, Pat Doar and Doug Herrick battling in the trailing five. Diemel began a charge that took him to the fifth spot with ten circuits remaining. The charge would prove to be too little too late as he fell two spots short in third place as the laps ran out. Laursen completed his sweep of the WISSOTA Late Model action holding off Jensen for the win and the early AMSOIL Series point lead. Diemel, Nesbitt and Broking finished in the top five.

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