Levi Rouster Takes Dixie’s Eve of Destruction

By: Dave DeHem

It was Eve of destruction time at the Dixie Motor speedway this past Saturday night and Levi Rouster came ready for the challenge when the Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Michigan legends Series took part in the holiday show at Dixie.

21 cars qualified for the night’s races with Matt Todd posting the fastest lap around the 1/3 mile oval. Qualifying was a first for this group as starting line-ups are normally done by drawing a numbered pill to determine the line ups for the heat races. Feature line-ups are then set according to how the drivers finish in the heat races with the inversion being set by the winner of the first heat race drawing a another numbered pill to determine how far the field is inverted. So for the time being, Matt Todd will hold the distinction of being the fastest qualifier ever in the Michigan Legends series.

Three heat races were run with heat number one going to first time winner Tony Monge over Kenton Taylor and Skip Krassa. The win meant the first ever checkered flag in a Legends Car for Monge in a race that had been dominated by Skip Krassa and Dr. Ron Semlow.

Heat two went to Chance Rice over Brandon Mahoney and Jerry Warden. Rice has been dominating the series this year and is leading in series points.

Heat three was won by longtime series competitor Levi Rouster over Tyler Rycenga and Christopher Porco.

The feature would be slowed a few times for harmless spins which kept the field tightened up for the distance. Rookie contender Brandon Mahoney turned his best performance of the year by leading the feature for the first 20 laps before eventual winner Levi Rouster got by for the lead. Both Rouster and Mahoney had excellent nights as Rouster won both of his races and Mahoney was second in both of his races. Third through fifth in the feature were Chris Perry, Rick Kilbourn, and a strong finishing Kenton Taylor.



Jerry Warden, Matt Todd, Tyler Rycenga, Chris Brunet, and Dr. Ron Semlow rounded out the top ten. Brunet and Semlow have been infrequent competitors in the series this year and the strong top ten finishes for each of these two veteran drivers was sweet for them. Missing from the top ten is chance Rice due to mechanical failure. Rice currently leads the points but tonight’s dnf will tighten up the point’s race and put Rice on his game as the series moves into the mid point of the year.

The Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends Series moves to the Spartan Speedway this Friday night where they will take part in the 75 lap Charlie Ryan Jr. Memorial for Super Late Models. The Modifieds and the VROA Modifieds will share the bill along with it being “Old Timers Night” complete with an antique race car display. This Friday should prove to be a stellar night of racing at the little Lansing area speed plant so come on out to Spartan Speedway and see some great racing in action with the Legends Cars. We’ll see “You” at the races.

Thanks for posting the article Dave. I try to keep up with whats happening in the Auto Value Legends Series while I'm hurt. I got good news from the Doc this past week. He said he would clear me to get back into the patrol car in early Aug. That means I can get back in the Legends car.

Congratulations Levi!, I knew you still had it in ya. good to see you and Kilbourn aren't rolling over for all the fast young guns out there

Nice job guys
Bill

Now that I learned how to do this I will more than likely post my article every week like this. Remember though, you can get it in the Michigan Racing Scene, it is in Legends Nation (Speed51), and many older articles can be found on the Michigan Legends website under "Hot Laps".

Jeremy, It is good to hear you are recovering well, hope it continues to go well for you and it will be good to see you back at the races. Bring your Dad too cause I like talking to the old guy. If you bring him to Auto City he can hang out with his old friend Terry Bogusz Sr.

Bill, I was at Berlin a week ago (AVSS) but didn't buy a pit pass. Ryan looked pretty smooth and solid although he wasn't able to make his way to far forward as he usually does. Everybody did a good job avoiding trouble on the initial start of the feature.

If you haven't subscribed to the Michigan Racing Scene you need to because with losing the Marc Times we only have one source of printed word, make sure we don't lose our friend Terry Fitzwater too.