Beaver Dam, WI – August 30, 2008.
Saturday night brought the 2008 racing season to an
end at Charter Raceway Park. Three of the five divisions had already
determined their champions but the Modifieds and Grand Nationals
champs were yet to be decided.
Coming into the final night of racing, Jay Schraufnagel held a 19
point lead over Eddie LeMay Jr. Just one week earlier the lead had
been almost 40 points so it was still in reach for LeMay but he
would have to be perfect. The field got in just two green flag laps
before Geoff Zdroik went around in front of a number of cars
bringing out the caution. Dylan Koltz led Tim Lemirande and Mitch
McGrath on the restart but Ben Godlewski brought out another caution
before a lap could be completed. On the next restart, Tim Lemirande
got a great jump and by the time the field exited turn two,
Lemirande had gotten by Koltz and set off down the backstretch.
Mitch McGrath got by Koltz the following lap setting up a two car
battle for the lead with Schraufnagel taking third. McGrath got by
Lemirande on lap six but couldn’t quite shake him. The yellow came
out again on lap 14 for Mike Miller bunching the field up again and
giving McGrath a clean track. Schraufnagel and Lemirande tried
various lines around the speedway but were unable to chase down
McGrath. McGrath picked up the win with Lemirande second and
Schraufnagel third. With LeMay finishing sixth, Schraufnagel won the
championship for the third time in the last five years.
Don Sorce held an 11 point leading over Roger Lee, the defending
Grand National champion, going into the night’s action. He picked up
a couple more points in the heats and entered the A-Main with a
comfortable, but not guaranteed, lead. Sorce got a break before a
lap was even completed. Nathan Persha, the pole-sitter crashed on
the first circuit forcing a complete restart. However, with Persha
put to the rear of the field, the entire inside line moved up a row
moving Sorce a row up on Lee before the first lap went in the record
books. Once started, Craig Boettcher jumped out to the lead and
looked like he might be a contender for the win. However, Sorce
using the inside line as he usually does, got by Boettcher on lap
four. Kenny Richards, starting outside row six was running fast and
got by Boettcher on lap six taking over the second position. Sorce
and Richards battled for three laps until there was contact between
the two spinning out Sorce and getting Richards black-flagged for
rough driving. Sorce was put to the rear for the restart. With Lee
barely in the top 10, it looked like he might still have a chance at
the championship. Will Sorce inherited the lead as he had been
running third at the time of the caution. It stayed that way for a
few more laps until Don Sorce went around again, with help from Eric
Grunst. Track officials black-flagged Grunst and put Sorce to the
rear. It looked like Will Sorce would get his first feature win, but
he got into turn four too hard as he was coming for the white flag
and spun out. Larry Richards was the beneficiary of the caution and
took over the lead. He held on for the final two laps with Boettcher
finishing third. Lee finished tenth but it wasn’t enough to take the
championship away from Sorce.
The Street Stock division winner was all but wrapped up going into
the feature event. Aaron held a sizable lead over Roger Frank and
the rest of the drivers. The seemingly only question was how big the
margin of victory would be. The feature event itself held little
questions as Jesse Kanas went right to the front and lead all but
the first lap. Brent Lepple finished second and Matt Bedkar third.
Streblow finished seventh as he wrapped up the 2008 season as the
Street Stock champion.
Eric Barth had already locked up his fourth championship in the last
five years in the Legends division but wanted to finish 2008 with a
win. However, Jeff Steenbergen and the rest of the drivers weren’t
about to let that happen. Lap one belonged to outside row one
starter Warren Ropp. Brian Peterson took over on lap two after he
was able to work past Ropp. Right behind the pair was Steenbergen
and Weber. The foursome put on a great show with positions changing
several times before Steenbergen took the lead for good on lap six.
Weber moved past Ropp on lap ten and tried to catch Steenbergen.
However, Steenbergen had too much going for him and picked up the
win in front of Weber and Barth.
The Dirt Devil feature was dominated by Steve LeMay but the
championship was won by Matt Janke. LeMay led all 20 laps of the
feature event which was run with just a single caution on lap three
for William Young. LeMay took the checkered flag first in front of
Janke and Tim Draheim.
The racing will continue next year starting approximately in April.
Watch the track website at www.wismotorsports.com for more
information. Charter Raceway Park would like to thank all of their
fans and sponsors for their support over the course of the 2008
season. We hope to see you all back in 2009.
MODIFIEDS
HEATS Rob Schmid, Tim Lemirande, Geoff Zdroik, Eddie LeMay
B MAIN 1 Chris Piquette, Nick Firari, Brad McGuire, Brian Crapser,
Mark Kelm
B MAIN 2 Dan Tafelski, Ralph Schneider, Scott Magsmen, Nick Woods,
Scott Barnharst
A MAIN Mitch McGrath, Tim Lemirande, Jay Schraufnagel, Craig Priewe,
Frank Firari, Eddie LeMay Jr, Joe McGrath, Rob Schmid, Steve
Mueller, Joel Crowbridge
LEGENDS
HEATS Brian Peterson, Warren Ropp, Kevin Brill
A MAIN Jeff Steenbergen, Brad Weber, Eric Barth, Joel Wyttenbach,
Warren Ropp, Brian Peterson, Mike Mueller, Kevin Brill, Aaron Muhle,
Joe Johnson
B Main Joe Johnson, Phil Van Tatenhove, Eric Meyer, Dallas Ross,
Jimbo Sommers
DIRT DEVILS
HEAT Steve LeMay
A MAIN Steve LeMay, Matt Janke, Tim Draheim, Robert Nelson, Tyler
Kontos, Kevin Allard, Josh Borden, Aaron Stolp, Jim Merkel, William
Young
STREET STOCKS
HEATS Matt Bedkar, Jesse Kanas
A MAIN Jesse Kanas, Brent Lepple, Matt Bedker, Andrew Araco, Roger
Frank, Jon Schultz, Aaron Streblow, Mike McNeil, Brandon Paitrick,
Nate Gross
GRAND NATIONALS
HEATS Don Sorce, Craig Boettcher, Kenny Richards
A MAIN Larry Richards, Craig Boettcher, Nick Schumacher, Will
Schumacher, Todd Ascherien, Tommy Moore, Brian Gerber, Dan
Schumacher, Ross Stalter, Roger Lee
B MAIN Eric Grunst, Ross Stalter, Dan Schumacher, Brian Gerber, Tim
Robbins
