Beyer Leads A Tight Battle to Jefferson
By Kevin Ramsell
September 15, 2005; Jefferson WI – The Big 8 Series returns to competition this weekend at the 25th Annual Wisconsin State Championship at Jefferson Speedway in Jefferson, WI. The Series returns after a near two and a half month hiatus, with its last event on June 28th.
The Series will be competing in a Twin 50-lap event on Saturday, September 17th. Qualifying and preliminary races will take place on Friday, September 16th.
Mike Beyer captured the opening event at the Spring Classic, at the Rockford Speedway, back in April. He currently holds a nine-point lead over Tony Bagstad and Jon Reynolds Jr.
But those are not the only competitors that Beyer has to worry about. Ricky Bilderback and Bobby Wilberg are only 12-points behind while Ryan Carlson is only 15-points behind.
Bagstad is a regular at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. So far, he has two fifth place finishes in the two previous Big 8 Series events.
Reynolds Jr. is having a banner 2005 season. He captured nine feature wins at the Rockford Speedway and finished second in the point standings. He has picked up a third and seventh place finish in Big 8 competition so far.
Bilderback recently captured his fifth straight Late Model Championship at the Rockford Speedway. He finished second at the opening event at Rockford and scored a ninth-place finish at the Miller Classic event at Madison International Speedway.
Wilberg will have a busy schedule on Friday night at Jefferson. He will qualify his Jon Reynold’s owned Dodge then head over to MIS to attempt to capture both the Super Late Model and ASA Late Model championships. So far, he has a fourth and seventh-place finish in the two previous Big 8 events.
Carlson recently captured his first ASA Late Model Series win at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, IA. His fourth and eighth place finishes in the two previous Big 8 events have kept him within close range of Beyer.
The Jefferson Speedway event is the first of four events in four weeks for the Big 8 Series. They will be competing at the National Short Track Championships on Friday, September 23rd at the Rockford Speedway, the Fall Classic at Lake Geneva Speedway on October 2-3rd, and the finale will take place on Sunday, October 8th at Oktoberfest at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
Jefferson Speedway is located off of Hwy 18 between Cambridge and Jefferson, Wisconsin. The quarter-mile “Action Track” will not only feature the Big 8 Series, but the Sportsman, Hobby Stocks, International Class and Bandit divisions will be competing for a $25,000 purse. For more information, please visit the track’s website at www.jeffersonspeedway.com.
The Big 8 Series is a Limited Late Model Series utilizing the rules from Jefferson, Rockford, La Crosse and Columbus Speedways. For more information, please visit the Series website at www.big8series.com.