Beaver Dam, WI – July 19, 2008.
Another great night of racing was witnessed by a
good crowd Saturday night at Charter Raceway Park. The regular 5
divisions were joined by a contingent of Milwaukee Stock Car Racing
Association vintage modified cars and treated the fans to clean,
close racing.
A large field of modifieds, 40 cars in all, signed in for the night
meaning five heats, two B-Mains and an A-Main. They didn’t
disappoint the fans. The Modified feature started with a yellow on
lap one with a turn one incident involving Dylan Koltz, Craig Priewe,
Steve Mueller, Mitch McGrath and Don Scheffler. All of the cars were
able to continue. Aaron Rake went to the top spot as the field
completed the first green flag lap in front of Tim Lemirande and
Brian Crapser. Lemirande, looking to make it two in a row, used the
inside line to move past Rake the following lap. The top three
stayed the same until lap five when the yellow came out for Koltz
and Ryan Marshall who was making his first visit to Charter in 2008.
On the restart Crapser began to fade a bit and Eddie LeMay moved
into the third position. Frank Firari was also on the move and took
over the fourth spot on lap 12. LeMay appeared to have a mechanical
problem on lap 15 and exited the speedway the following lap. Rake’s
night also ended disappointingly as he headed to the pits on lap 16
after bringing out the yellow for the final time. The restart saw
the running order as Lemirande, Firari, Tony McGuire and Jay
Schraufnagel who was patiently picking his spots and moving up in
the running order. Lemirande held off the field to make it two in a
row followed by Firari, Schraufnagel and McGuire. Marshall recovered
from his lap five incident to finish in the top five.
Don Sorce started the Grand National A-Main with five straight
feature wins and trying to keep his streak going. However, as the
field took the green and went into turn one, Will Schumacher,
starting a couple of rows in front of Sorce, went around and Sorce
made contact. Both cars were able to continue but Sorce was
relegated to the back. Roger Lee jumped right to the front before
the yellow came out again on lap two as Sorce and Tommy Moore got
together. The yellows continued on lap four, this time for Nick
Schumacher. Each time, Sorce was able to move past a couple of
places and Lee’s lead was erased. Once the green came out after the
caution for Schumacher, the race went green to the end. Sorce moved
into the top five on lap ten behind Lee, Andrew Araco, Will
Schumacher and Todd Ascherien. Ascherien’s night ended on lap seven
as he pulled to the infield and Araco’s night came to a halt on lap
13. With both of those cars out, Sorce was able to move to the third
position. Sorce and Will Schumacher battled for the second position
over the last five laps putting on a great show for the fans. Lee
took advantage of their battle to pull away for the win. Will
Schumacher finished in second and Sorce third.
Joel Wyttenbach was also trying to join the ranks of drivers making
it two in a row as the Legend’s feature event started. For the third
time during the evening, the feature event had a lap one caution,
this time involving Mike Mueller and Jim Bucher. Once the race got
started again, Aaron Muhle took control and looked like he might
hold on for his first win in 2008. However, Brad Weber and
Wyttenbach had other ideas. When Brian Peterson was black flagged on
lap three for a problem with his bumper, Weber moved into the second
position followed by Jeff Steenbergen. After a quick caution on lap
three for Tom Hunter, Muhle had his hands full trying to hold off
the rest of the field. Steenbergen slowly dropped back as Weber,
Wyttenbach, Joe Johnson and Eric Barth all were able to fight their
way by. Wyttenbach overtook Weber on lap eight and just one lap
later got past Muhle for the lead. Muhle worked hard to hold off
Weber and was still running second at the completion of lap
thirteen. Unfortunately, Muhle and Weber got together during the
next circuit bringing out the yellow and ending their chances for
the win. Johnson inherited the second position with Barth taking
third. That’s the way the race would end with Wyttenbach making it
two in a row.
Jeremy Schwoch started the Street Stock feature in the 4th position
looking for his second straight feature win. For the first half of
the race, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen with Jon Schultz
pacing the event. However, something broke on Shultz’s machine on
lap 10 bringing out the yellow and giving the lead to Schwoch. From
second on back, the battle was on between Jesse Kanas, Todd
Zimmerman and Aaron Streblow. With just five laps to go, Kanas was
holding down the second position trying to close in on Schwoch.
Third was Zimmerman with Streblow fourth. Streblow was able to get
by Zimmerman with just two laps to go but wasn’t able to move up any
further. Schwoch made it two in a row as he came across the line
first ahead of Kanas and Streblow.
Matt Janke started the Dirt Devil feature in the outside fourth row.
Already by the end of lap two, he was in the lead in front of Jim
Merkel and Robert Nelson. Tim Draheim, who started twelfth in the
twelve car field was the car on the move as he got past Merkel on
lap seven to take over the second position. The yellow came out for
the only time in the event one lap later as Steve LeMay, Kevin
Allard and Robert Nelson all got together. After the restart, Janke
started opening up a lead as Draheim started getting pressure from
Tim Sheppard. Sheppard got past him on lap twelve and held on for
second place. Janke picked up the win, his second of the year.
The MSC brought around 15 cars to the track and almost 10 cars
started the feature event. Seeing the old time modifieds on the
track competing brought back lots of memories for the older fans.
The feature event went 12 laps with no cautions. Bill Schmitz took
the lead from Jerry Bergdorf on lap eight and picked up the win.
Bergdorf finished second and Corey Pieper third.
Next week, Charter Raceway Park will have all 5 regular divisions
competing. 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, Dylan Koltz, Aaron Rake, Craig Priewe, Jay
Schraufnagel
B MAIN 1 Dave Schoenberger, Dan Tafelski, Larry Zirbel
B MAIN 2 Rob Schmid, Mike Conn, Ryan Marshall
A MAIN Tim Lemirande, Frank Firari, Jay Schraufnagel, Tony McGuire,
Ryan Marshall, Don Scheffler, Dave Schoenberger, Mike Conn, Dan
Tafelski, Dylan Koltz
LEGENDS
HEATS Brad Weber, Eric Barth, Brian Peterson
A MAIN Joel Wyttenbach, Joe Johnson, Eric Barth, Jeff Steenbergen,
Kevin Brill, Mike Mueller, Luke Polzin, David Fraser, Robert Lever
DIRT DEVILS
HEAT Matt Janke
A MAIN Matt Janke, Tim Sheppard, Tim Draheim, Jim Merkel, Raymond
Keyser, Kevin Allard, William Young, Dylan Reinhard, Brian Vinney,
Steve LeMay
STREET STOCKS
HEATS Jon Schultz, Jeremy Schwoch
A MAIN Jeremy Schwoch, Jesse Kanas, Aaron Streblow, Roger Frank,Todd
Zimmerman, Craig Lepple, Andrew Araco, Brandon Paitrick, Joe
Brenner, Noah Schepp
GRAND NATIONALS
HEATS Brian Gerber, Will Schumacher,
A MAIN Roger Lee, Will Schumacher, Don Sorce, Tommy Moore, Eric
Grunst, Ron Koenig, Paul Tod, Brian Gerber, Nick Schumacher, Craig
Boettcher
MILWAUKEE STOCK CAR RACING ASSOCIATION
HEATS Steve Muth
A MAIN Bill Schmitz, Jerry Bergdorf, Corey Pieper, Bill Thompson
