Troy A. Bruzewski, Leader Correspondent
Contributed Photo Lucas Lamberies, 16, of Clintonville won the IMCA Northern SportMods feature April 1 at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. He is one of the young drivers to watch again this season at Shawano Speedway.
The winner is usually easy to determine. As the checkered flag waves, the first to cross the line takes the trophy. However, some winners are determined in post-race inspection.
At Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Clintonville’s Lucas Lamberies discovered he won the IMCA Northern SportMods feature well after the engines had cooled April 1.
“Right after tech (inspection) started, I was told the winner was getting disqualified,” Lamberies said.
Though not in the traditional fashion, Lamberies claimed the win he seemed to be headed toward early in the race. Lamberies took an early lead, pacing the field for the first five laps until Brayton Carter took the point. Carter maintained the lead while Lamberies remained among the frontrunners.
A late caution worked in the 16-year-old’s favor, setting-up a shootout in the final laps. The restart dissipated Lamberies’ deficit to the car ahead of him and he took advantage, passing his way to second before Carter crossed the finish line for the apparent win.
“We were running about fourth the whole race and when the cautions came out, I was able to pass a few cars and it opened-up for me,” Lamberies said. “I could see I was gaining, but it was tough to pass. The track was slick, but on the restart, I thought I had an advantage.”
Lamberies didn’t have the advantage in the final standings, until inspectors examined the cars in post-race inspection. There, the initial winner was removed from atop the leaderboard.
“We basically have to run a stock ignition and (Carter) basically had a computerized chip ignition,” said Terry Lamberies, Lucas’ father. “It’s a very simple thing and I almost can’t believe he knew it was there, because it’s such an easy thing to find.
“We’d rather not win that way, but it’s as simple as one driver being legal and the other driver not being legal.”
Terry Lamberies said the success from this trip to Iowa was partially due to their first experience on the national scene, which wasn’t nearly as fruitful.
“In our first national event in Iowa, we kind of got our butt kicked,” Terry Lamberies said. “We learned a lot and got out of the hole.”
The 2014 IMCA champion for Wisconsin had his first win of 2015.
Terry Lamberies said the family race team is planning to run another full season in 2015, including Shawano Speedway, of course, and additional events outside Wisconsin.
“This is a family hobby and maybe Lucas will go one more step up to IMCA modified,” Terry Lamberies said. “We’re just having fun.”