LAKEPORT — It was good outing for Ukiah’s Kyle Tellstrom, who visited the winner’s circle twice Saturday at the Lakeport Speedway where the season opener for the North State Modified Series took place along with a midgets race on the quarter-mile paved oval.
NSMS, presented by Protect the Harvest, ran its first 2020 event after a series of cancellations and postponements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tellstrom wasted no time jumping out in front in the O’Reilly Auto Parts NSMS feature, leading 58 of the 60 and taking the checkered flag three seconds in front of runner-up Charlie Collins of Upper Lake.
Tellstrom set the fast time of 12.578 seconds over the 18-car field, which established a new Hoosier Tire track record. He then drew the No. 4 pill to set the lineup, putting local drivers Mike Sullivan and Chris Salmina in the front row for the start. Collins and Tellstrom shared row two and Darrin Sullivan and Jeremy Nowlin lined up in row three.
Mike Sullivan pulled ahead of Salmina at the drop of the green flag. When Salmina dropped into the low groove, Tellstrom began his bid for the front. Two rounds later Tellstrom inched by Mike Sullivan to take the lead. Collins also drove the high groove, pulling alongside Salmina for third place on lap six. He made the pass stick the following round.
Darrin Sullivan was next to challenge Salmina on the outside and on lap 14 he successfully took over the fourth slot while 2019 NSMS champion Scott Winters was waging a side-by-side battle with Cody Braund.
Lap 20 saw Collins power into second place as Tellstrom was pulling away. Meanwhile Winters found out his car liked the outside groove where he rapidly picked off Nowlin on lap 23 followed by Salmina on 25. At the Lucas Oil halfway mark, Tellstrom had five lapped cars between his car and Collins. Mike Sullivan was running third followed by Darrin Sullivan, Winters, Nowlin, Salmina, Ian Elliott, Braund, Mikey Snider and Rich Cobb.
The next 10 laps saw Winters challenge Darrin Sullivan, with Winters moving into fourth place with only 10 laps to go.
Tellstrom sailed to a convincing victory over Collins, Mike Sullivan, Winters, Darrin Sullivan, Nowlin, Braund, Elliott, Salmina, Keith Bloom, Cobb, Snider, Dustin DeRosier, Richard Knight, Robert Schmidt, Sal Lopez and Brian Collins.
Simi Tour’s car broke in hot laps and he was unable to start the race. Tellstrom was presented with $1,000 plus a 4-foot tall trophy in memory of Jason Belveal, who had built the trophy shortly before losing his life to cancer.
Winters won the Naake Shocks Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars. The Scriber jugs went to Winters. Brian Collins and Salmina. Robert Schmidt was the lucky winner of a new Hoosier Tire compliments of Mark and Sharon Baldwin of Fortuna.
NSMS sponsors are Protect the Harvest, Lucas Oil, Hoosier Tire West, Sunoco Race Fuels, Naake Suspension, Five Star Bodies, Racer Bling, Scribner Plastics and O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Midgets
Tellstrom was a winner even before the big 60-lap NSMS race. Earlier in the day he drove his Creevan Performance Radical Focus Midget to a victory in that class.
On their maiden voyage to Lakeport Speedway, the Radical Focus Midgets saw Austin Edwards of Mentone established a track record of 12.499 seconds. Kyle Cline of Apple Valley won the trophy dash. Tellstrom started on the pole next to Edwards in the 25-lap main event and took the early lead. Edwards snuck under Tellstrom for two rounds, but his car got loose on lap eight and he drove into the infield while leading the race.
At the same time, Cline drove by Tellstrom for the lead and held it until lap 17 when Joseph Holiday’s car stalled on the track to bring out a yellow flag. Tellstrom took the lead back on the restart and drove to his first Radical Focus Midget win. Cline finished second with Edwards third and Holiday fourth.
