 BRANDON, S.D. — Parker Price-Miller climbed onto the rear of his winged sprint car, waved to the crowd, patted the top wing and capped the celebration with a couple of fist pumps in victory lane on Sunday evening at Huset’s Speedway.
Price-Miller, along with Brandon Bosma and Matt Steuerwald, emerged victorious during the Mother’s Day Opener on Window World Night. The $5,000-to-win Cressman Sanitation Shootout marked the first victory since Price-Miller started treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“It’s my first win since starting treatment,” he said. “After the checkered I was getting a little teary-eyed. I didn’t know if I was ever going to race again. This is going to mean something special in my heart forever.”
Mark Dobmeier led the first 11 laps of the 25-lap Casey’s 410 sprint cars presented main event that featured all 27 drivers who signed in. However, Dobmeier got sideways in turns one and two while running the top in thick traffic, allowing Price-Miller to drive by on the bottom groove on lap 12.
“I got a terrible start,” Price-Miller said. “My car was so good. We were really good on the bottom. I was waiting for traffic because Mark and Aaron (Reutzel) are so good in clean air. Me and Aaron had a heck of a race going on and Mark, too.”
An inadvertent caution waved as Dobmeier kept his car rolling. That gave Price-Miller a clean track for the restart, but he neared traffic before a caution on lap 15. Traffic again appeared with eight laps to go before the final caution of the race occurred with five laps remaining. Price-Miller caught traffic for the final time in the closing laps, but he was never slowed as he won by 1.280 seconds.
Ruetzel held off Austin McCarl for the second step on the podium. Cory Eliason finished fourth and Brooke Tatnell was fifth.
Eliason set quick time during qualifying before the heat races were won by J.J. Hickle, Tatnell and Dobmeier.
Bosma cruised to victory during the Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Car Series main event, leading the distance of the 20-lap A Main.
“I can’t ask for anything more,” he said. “It’s so much fun to drive. I don’t ever get to start pole typically. I knew I had to get to the front right away with Dusty (Ballenger) starting outside of me.”
Bosma did just that. He caught traffic a lap before the lone caution – a red flag on lap 11 – and on the final lap, but it never allowed an opportunity for anyone to pounce and Bosma recorded the triumph by 1.108 seconds.
Ballenger, who is the defending track champion, earned a second-place result with John Lambertz placing third. Monty Ferriera and Nick Barger rounded out the top five, respectively.
Steuerwald led all 18 laps to capture the Nordstrom’s Automotive Late Model Street Stocks feature, which had a pair of cautions that bunched the field up during the first half of the race. Steuerwald was smooth as the final 10 laps were caution-free and he pulled away to win by 1.712 seconds.
“I hate starting up front,” he said. “You just have to run like you’re scared. It’s nice to get a win to start the year off.”
Zach Olivier outdueled Tim Dann during a spirited battle for the runner-up position. Aaron Foote was fourth and Colby Klaassen maneuvered from 13th to a fifth-place finish.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11-Parker Price-Miller[2]; 2. 8-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 3. 88-Austin McCarl[4]; 4. 26-Cory Eliason[7]; 5. 16-Brooke Tatnell[9]; 6. 83JR-Kerry Madsen[14]; 7. 7-Justin Henderson[5]; 8. 3-Tim Kaeding[13]; 9. 5T-Ryan Timms[16]; 10. 09-Matt Juhl[8]; 11. 25-JJ Hickle[6]; 12. 81-Jack Dover[15]; 13. 35-Skylar Prochaska[12]; 14. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[26]; 15. 11M-Brendan Mullen[18]; 16. 4-Cody Hansen[21]; 17. 22-Riley Goodno[11]; 18. 27-Carson McCarl[17]; 19. ACE-Dusty Zomer[10]; 20. 51A-Elliot Amdahl[19]; 21. 05-Colin Smith[23]; 22. 0-Alex Schriever[25]; 23. (DNF) 13-Mark Dobmeier[1]; 24. (DNF) 8H-Jade Hastings[20];Â
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