6/4/2025
Escanaba Motor Speedway
Valiquette Earns Redemption Victory
ESCANABA — Redemption was sweet for sport mod driver Matt Valiquette as he picked up his first win of the season after last week’s DNF.
“Redemption is the perfect word to describe tonight after last week’s disappointment,” Valiquette said. “We had a very strange mechanical failure that led to the DNF last week and you really hate to see that first night out.”
Valiquette found himself in the best spot possible going into the feature as he started on the pole for the 20-lap A-Main. Valiquette also picked up a win in heat race action.
“We had a great starting position on the starting grid,” Valiquette said. “There were a lot of fast cars behind us and these cars don’t have mirrors so you have to feel and sense the competition behind you. I knew they were there, and I know they race aggressive, but they also race clean and respectful. These are great guys to race with.”
Rick Gustavson, who also walked away with a DNF last week, earned a second place finish.
“I thought we were pretty good tonight,” Gustavson said. “I thought we had the stuff to get him but he was just a little bit better than us tonight. Brad Seppanen ran a good race, everyone was right there in the mix tonight.”
Seppanen finished third and Jesse Denome came home fourth and won the other heat race. Evin Gagne followed up last week’s top five as he finished fifth.
In the super modified class, Rick Ness picked up the heat and feature sweep. Drake Degnan came in second and Paul Hosking came in third. Scott Degnan and Seppanen rounded out the top five. Gunnar Hansen won the other heat race.
In the youth micro sprints Amelia Hart picked up her second-straight feature win. Wyatt Ammel finished second and won a heat race. Tanner Rae finished third and Julia Maki finished fourth. Easton Winling led three laps of the feature but finished fifth on the night. Nathan Winling Jr. won the other heat race. Abbie Lantagne started on the pole but a nasty flip between turns one and two ended her night.
In the street stock class, Brayden Lundquist picked up the heat and feature sweep. Lundquist was another driver to find success on Sunday night after car problems on opening night.
“It was definitely a good weekend for us after having six cars in the shop this week,” Lundquist said. “We came out swinging on Sunday and we had the car right where we needed it to be for the heat and feature races. Track was good except for the dust and we still have some bugs to work out on the sprint cars. But we are getting there.”
Qwentin Johnsen came in second and won the other heat race. Carter Gustavson came in third after a DNF last week and Drake Degnan and Jimmy Reath rounded out the top five.
In the sport compacts, Jared Demeuse picked up the feature win. Andrew VanDrese came in second and won the heat race. Brian VanDrese finished third and Logan Reiffers and Ron Borchert rounded out the top five.
In the sportsman sprint class, Chase Richer picked up the feature win. Tanner Hanson came in second and Braxton Lundquist finished third. Nathan Viau and Kristy Harl rounded out the top five. Andrew Karl and Kristy Karl were your heat race winners.
In the 600cc sprints Logan Getzloff picked up the heat and feature sweep. Ethan Manninen came in second and Griffin Iverson finished third. Chase Richer and Jayger Quinn rounded out the top five.
The vintage mod results are not available at this time due to scoring issues.
Article Credit: Adam Hinch, Daily Press
Submitted By: Escanaba Motor Speedway