Beaver Dam, WI – July 5, 2008.
A calm, clear night made for excellent conditions
Saturday night at Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam. The fans in
attendance were treated to some great action on the track and the
program finished in plenty of time to allow them back in the pits
afterward.
Don Sorce Jr was going for his fifth straight A-Main win in the
Grand Nationals and for a while it looked like he might get it
easily. At the drop of the green, there was a mad scramble for
position with the field going four wide by the time they got to the
green flag! Several of the cars got out of shape and Sorce was able
to thread his way through the field and by the end of the first lap
he had the lead. Behind him, Don Schumacher and Brian Gerber were
battling it out for second position which allowed Sorce to open up a
sizable lead. Roger Lee, driving the number 10 car, methodically
starting picking off cars and on lap seven, he worked past Gerber
for third. The yellow came out for Dan Schumacher on lap eight
bunching up the field and putting Lee outside of row two. Lee wasted
no time getting past Don Schumacher for second and with seven laps
to go closed in on Sorce. Lee was able to sneak past Sorce on lap 18
and held it for two laps. However, Sorce was able to power off of
turn four as they came for the checkered flag and beat Lee to the
flagstand for his fifth straight win. Lee finished a disappointing
second and Craig Boettcher third.
The Modified A-Main also came down to a last lap battle bringing the
crowd to their feet. Tim Lemirande, staring fourth in the field,
jumped out to an early lead as the entire field bumped and banged as
they jockeyed for position. When the yellow came out on lap four for
a Mitch McGrath spin, the running order was Lemirande, Eddie LeMay
and Dan Tafelski. Following the restart, Tafelski slowly faded as
Jeremy Christian and Jay Schraufnagel began moving up. LeMay,
Christian and Schraufnagel slowly starting reeling in Lemirande and
by lap 15, you could throw a blanket over all of them. Schraufnagel
took over second place on lap 16 as he used the inside line to get
past LeMay. Over the final four laps, Schraufnagel and Lemirande
battled it out with the lead swapping between the two several times.
As the white flag flew, the crowd came to their feet as the two were
side by side into the first turn. Lemirande was able to get just a
bit better exit from turn four and beat Schraufnagel to the line and
picking up his first A-Main win of the season. LeMay finished third
and Steve Mueller fourth.
The INEX Legend cars were treated to an extended feature event as it
was a National Qualifying race. Although the race had a number of
cautions, the racing was exciting and it produced the third
different winner of 2008. Brandon Schmitt had the fortune of
starting outside of row one and used it to his advantage to lead the
first seven laps. Behind Schmitt, the defending track champion, Eric
Barth had worked his way into the second position followed by Aaron
Muhle and Brad Weber. Barth took over the lead on lap eight but was
unable to pull away as the caution came out on lap nine for a spin
by the second running Schmitt. That moved Brad Weber and Joel
Wyttenbach up a spot into second and third respectively. The field
would only get in two more laps before the yellow came out again.
Wyttenbach got a great restart and moved into second just two laps
later and the following lap took the lead over Barth. He got to the
top just in time as the yellow came out again for the 21C of Kara
Clarke. Wyttenbach was scored the leader at the time and had clear
track as the green dropped again. Two more yellow flags came out on
laps 20 and 21 but each time Wyttenbach was able to hold off the
challenges of the field and went on to the win. Weber was able to
overtake Barth for second and Barth finished third.
The start of the Street Stock looked like a Los Angeles freeway at
rush hour with four wide action all the way through turns one and
two. Jeremy Schwoch got to the line first at the end of lap one and
was still the leader when the yellow came out on lap nine for the
89S of Noah Schepp hitting the frontstretch wall hard. The event
would go non-stop from there to the end with Schwoch getting the win
ahead of Aaron Streblow and Jesse Kanas.
The final even of the night showcased the Dirt Devil division. Kevin
Allard, starting second in the grid, took the lead from polesitter
Jim Merkel on the first circuit with Merkel fading quickly to
fourth. Merkel came to a halt on lap five bringing out the only
caution of the event. Eddie LeMay moved up into the second position
on lap eight followed by Matt Janke who was looking for his second
feature win in a row. LeMay looked like he might take the win as he
led lap 11 as the white flag came out. But Allard was able to fight
back and beat LeMay to the checkered flag for his first win of the
season.
Next week, Charter Raceway Park hosts the Interstate Racing
Association and Badger Midgets. Pits open at 3:30 and the main gates
open at 4:30. Racing is scheduled to start promptly at 6:30. Contact
the track office for more information at 920-382-7858.
MODIFIEDS
HEATS Don Scheffler, Eddie LeMay Jr, Mitch McGrath, Dave
Schoenberger, Steve Mueller
B MAIN 1 Eric Scribner, Marc Miller, Ralph Schneider, Dustin
Jackson, Jesse Brooks
B MAIN 2 Scott Crowbridge, Adam Reed, Ryan Horst, Joel Crowbridge,
Mark Kelm
A MAIN Tim Lemirande, Jay Schraufnagel, Eddie LeMay Jr, Steve
Mueller, Eric Scribner, Dave Schoenberger, Frank Firari, Craig
Priewe, Ben Godlewski, Dan Tafelski
LEGENDS
HEATS Robert Lever, Brad Weber, Eric Barth, Kara Clarke
B MAIN Kevin Brill, Joe Johnson, Bud Stoudt, Jim Bucher
A MAIN Joel Wyttenbach, Brad Weber, Eric Barth, Joe Johnson, Warren
Ropp, Kevin Brill, Brian Peterson, Ric Mattie, Jeff Steenbergen,
Aaron Muhle
DIRT DEVILS
HEAT Matt Janke
A MAIN Kevin Allard, Eddie LeMay, Matt Janke, Doug Draheim, Raymond
Keyser, Robert Nelson, Steve LeMay, William Young, Mika Allard, Jim
Merkel
STREET STOCKS
HEATS Jesse Kanas, Roger Frank
A MAIN Jeremy Schwoch, Aaron Streblow, Jesse Kanas, Foger Frank,
Jeff Jungwirth, Andrew Araco, Matt Bedkar, Brent Lepple
GRAND NATIONALS
HEATS Roger Lee, Don Schumacher
A MAIN Don Sorce Jr, Roger Lee, Craig Boettcher, Tommy Moore, Don
Schumacher, Will Sorce
