Charter Raceway Park
Beaver Dam, WI – May 17, 2008.
The weather Saturday night didn’t want to cooperate
with the races at Charter Raceway Park, but those fans that came out
got to see a full program and some great racing. All five divisions
competed and completed all their events for the first time in 2008.
The legends provided the scariest moment of the night when Tom
Fraser went up and over on lap one ending up on his side. Tom was
unhurt. Once restarted, the field was led by Brad Weber followed by
Phil Van Tatenhove and Eric Barth. Tatenhove started to fade as
Barth and Joel Wyttenbach dropped him several positions after some
great side by side racing. At the halfway point, Weber still held on
to the top spot but behind him the battle was between Wyttenbach and
Barth for second and third with Wyttenbach running second.
Wyttenbach brought out the yellow himself on lap 13 ending his
chance for the win and moving Barth up to second. On the restart,
Barth got a fantastic jump and went right by Weber to take control.
Barth held on for the win with Weber finishing second and Joe
Johnson third.
The modifieds, running their first A-Main of the year showed no rust
from the off-season as they treated the fans to three-wide and even
four-wide racing. Aaron Rake took an early lead and looked like a
strong contender until the tires warmed up and several others
including Mitch McGrath and Jeremy Christians made their move toward
the front. McGrath made his way past Ben Godlewski and Chris
Piquette up to second place behind Rake as the cars completed lap
nine – just before the yellow came out for an incident involving Rob
Schmid and Larry Zirbel. It didn’t take McGrath long after the
restart to get past Rake and lap 11 belonged to McGrath. He wasn’t
seriously challenged the rest of the way but behind him the
positions were changing every lap. From second on back, Christians,
Jay Schrufnagel, Don Scheffler and Rake duked it out with
Schrufnagel eventually finishing second, Christians third and
Scheffler fourth.
After having the win last week stripped from him due to the weather,
Don Sorce Jr had a chip on his shoulder coming into the nights’
Grand National feature event. Sorce left no doubt that he is going
to be the one to beat this year as he held off the rest of the field
for his second, officially his first, feature win of the year. Will
Sorce looked like he was going to carry the Sorce family into
victory circle early in the event as he jumped to the lead on lap
six. However, Don Sorce had other plans as both he and Roger Lee
worked past Will with just five laps remaining in the 20 lap event.
The following lap, mechanical problems forced Will Sorce and Lee
from the event leaving Don Sorce to pretty much coast to the win.
Todd Ascherien put in another strong performance and finished second
and Jeremy Christians third.
Jesse Kanas picked up his first feature win of 2008 as he lead all
but 5 laps of the 20-lap event. The first several laps were led by
Jeremy Schwoch but by lap five Schwoch turned the lead over to Kanas
and faded to a 10th place finish. The driver with the best chance at
beating Kanas was Roger Frank who watched Kanas circle the track
from his second running position for the last 13 laps or so. His
best and last chance at Kanas was on a restart at lap 12 following a
yellow flag for debris in turn one. Kanas, however, was able to pull
away from Frank and went on to the win.
The Dirt Devil feature was never in doubt as Steve LeMay ran away
with the win in a small field of cars. Matt Janke finished second
and Tim Sheppard third.
Next week, Charter Raceway Park will host the regular five division
lineup for the Modifieds, Grand Nationals, Dirt Devils, Legends and
Street Stock cars. Pits open at 3:30 and the main gates open at
4:30. Racing starts is scheduled to start promptly at 6:30. Contact
the track office for more information at 920-382-7858.
MODIFIEDS
HEATS Mitch McGrath, Eddie LeMay Jr, Jay Schrufnagel, Dave
Schoenberger
B MAIN I Brian Crapser, Joel Crowbridge, Kris Peterson
B MAIN II Eric Scribner, Larry Zirbel, Nick Firari
A MAIN Mitch McGrath, Jay Schrufnagel, Jeremy Christians, Don
Scheffler, Aaron Rake, Eddie LeMay Jr., Craig Priewe, Steve Mueller,
Eric Scribner, Ryan Bresaw
LEGENDS
HEATS Brad Weber, Joel Wyttenbach, Brian Peterson
A MAIN Eric Barth, Brad Weber, Joe Johnson, Mike Mueller, Brian
Peterson, Kevin Brill, Jeff Steenbergen, Phil Van Tatenhove, Ric
Mattie, Luke Polzin
DIRT DEVILS
HEAT Matt Janke
A MAIN Steve LeMay, Matt Janke, Tim Sheppard, Kevin Allard, Robert
Nelson, Jim Merkel, Derrick Schrauth, Mika Allard, William Young
STREET STOCKS
HEATS Aaron Strebloe, Matt Bedker
A MAIN Jesse Kanas, Roger Frank, Jerry Winkler, Andrew Araco, Brent
Lepple, Joe Brenner, Matt Bedker, Noah Schepp, Matt Rechek, Jeremy
Schwoch
GRAND NATIONALS
HEATS Roger Lee, Jeremy Christian
A MAIN Don Sorce, Todd Ascherien, Jeremy Christian, Dan Schumacher,
Tommy Moore, Roger Lee, Craig Boettcher, Don Schumacher, Nick
Schumacher, Eric Grunst
