Elward wins points title at Huron speedway

The points championship that Mitchell resident Corey Elward won Saturday at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron wasn’t the first of his career, but it was certainly the most impressive.

Elward also won a title in Mitchell during the early days of his racing career in the mid 1990s, but Saturday’s title in Huron came against a strong field of drivers from throughout the region.

“Winning up in Huron, that’s a pretty big deal,” Elward said. “The competition is so much better up there. They’re pulling in cars from all over, so you definitely have to be on top of your game to do well there.”

Elward won his only race of the summer early in the season, setting the stage for a season in which he regularly finished in the top five and generally avoided wrecks. It all added up to a narrow two-point win over veteran driver Lorin Johnson of Miller, a six-time points champion at Dakota Speedway who won his first title in 1983.

“It feels pretty good,” Elward said. “It’s kind of a nice accomplishment after a summer of really good runs. It’s really good to finish out the year that way.”

Elward finished with 672 points in Midwest Modifieds, beating Johnson’s 670. Johnson actually began to pull away midway through the season after Elward failed to finish a race. But in the second-to-last week of the season, Elward reclaimed a four-point lead going into the final week when Johnson blew a motor.

Elward extended his lead to five points by winning his heat, and then needed only to hold off Johnson in Saturday’s feature race. He did that after Johnson finished fourth and Elward was seventh.

“It was a nail-biter,” Elward said. “Going into the feature I told myself that I just had to stay with him.”

Several other area drivers also had strong seasons in Huron, resulting in top-10 finishes. Jeremy Sengelmann of Gregory was fourth in street stocks with 558 points, only 47 points out of first. Jordan Raterman of Mitchell was sixth with 541, Brock Stout of Winner was seventh with 539 and Casey Carstens of Mitchell was 10th with 436.

In Super Stocks, Kip Myers of Ethan was fourth with 579 points, only 39 behind the leader.

Tags: corey elward, sports, racing