Nieman, Longacre Share Susanville Winner's Circle

Susanville, CA...June 17...Despite the rainy weather claiming other races in Northern California, the show still went on Friday night at Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville. In the IMCA Modified division, Chris Nieman collected the victory in the 20 lap Main Event, while defending champions Richard Longacre (Strictly Stocks) and Kyle Belli (Mini Stocks) won their features.


The competitive IMCA Modified division had three different winners going into Round #4 as Duane Cleveland, Shawn Natenstedt and point leader Matt Murphy claimed the wins. Murphy carried a 5 point lead over Nieman into this race. Nieman is also second in points to brother Chase Nieman at Quincy, Chris Nieman would drive to victory in this race and became the fourth different winner. He had to battle past Susanville champion Jeff Chew to get it. Chew settled for second ahead of Steve Bejeck and Larry McCracken. Matt Murphy will maintain his point lead as he finished fifth ahead Wade DeBerg, Mitch Murphy, Dustin Sell, Joe Blackwell and Tyler Patzke.


Reigning Strictly Stock champion Richard Longacre has two second place finishes as the Main Event action so far has been dominated by three time winner Victor Richey. Longacre and Jason Emmot were the two heat race winners on the night. Longacre finally broke through for his first win of the season. Emmot settled for his second runnerup finish of the year as Nathan Howard was third for the third time in four starts. Chris Annas was fourth as Richey came back down to earth with his fifth place effort. Shayna Robertson, Fred Kresge and Steve Goss rounded out the finish.


Reigning Mini Stock champion Kyle Belli was a double winner as he won his heat race and the Main Event. The win was Belli's third of the season. Past champion Larry Whitebird was second in both races and now has three second place feature finishes and one win this season. Larry Foster and Billy Gibson rounded out the field.


Racing will return on Monday, July 4th as all three divisions will compete along with a Fireworks show. For further information, check out lassencountyfair.org/interim-events/diamond-mountain-speedway/.