5/1/2024
Beaver Dam Raceway
Mother Nature Finds Victory Lane for the First Time During Weekly Racing
Beaver Dam, WI (May 1st, 2024) - The second week of racing at Beaver Dam Raceway was cut short, as the rain began to fall with just two features to race. The heat racing and 3 features that did make it in before the sky opened put on a fantastic show for the packed stands. 2 lucky kids brought home new bikes, with Mia Rechek winning Step by Step Respite Center’s bike, and Daxton Klug winning Mueller's Towing & Recovery’s Bike.
98 cars made the trip out to the track, with 13 EK Machine Unified Street Stocks, 27 Legends.Direct Legends, 16 N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars, 21 Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Modifieds, and 21 Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds.
14 heat races paved the way for the feature racing, with James Fletcher and Mark Hoeppner up top for the EK Machine Unified Street Stocks; Jordan Miklas, Jackson Lewis, Payton Jones, and Michael Weber picking up wins in the Legends.Direct Legends; N&S Towing IMCA Stock Car heat races went to Brandon Schmitt and Matt Rechek; finding victory lane in the Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Modifieds were Vince Jung, Geoff Zdroik, and Ryan Kuehn; with the final heat races for the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds going to Jeff Schmuhl, Cole Czarneski, and Dan Roedl. The lone B-Main for the night, for the Legends.Direct Legends, saw Griffin McGrath pick up the win.
It was an all-Persha front row for the first feature of the night, with Nathan on the pole and Jonathan next to him in the EK Machine Unified Street Stock division. Nathan Persha got the jump on the start but was quickly pulled in by Jonathan, who led the field at the end of lap 1. Tenth-starting James Fletcher charged all the way up to the lead at the end of lap 3, with Jon Schultz following him through into second. The yellow would come out for a spin by Jonathan Persha. Fletcher led the field back to green, with Schultz on his tail, and Stuart White charging through to third. A five-car battle for the 4th place spot ended in heartbreak for Nathan Persha, as he ended up in the infield, bringing out the yellow. Fletcher led the field once again back to green, and the big move was from Dale Kreuziger, who moved past White for third. The top two began to run away before the yellow once again came out for a spinning car in turn 3. Single file restarts ensued, which seemed to aid Schultz, as he pulled alongside Fletcher for the lead, but it wasn’t enough for him, as the 2-time track champion James Fletcher came out on top, picking up the win. Schultz came home second, with Kreuziger third. Mark Hoeppner and Ryan Sullivan rounded out the top 5, with both Schultz and Sullivan holding the hard-charger spot, up 8 spots each.
The Legends.Direct Legends feature featured Adam Zellmer and Payton Jones starting on the front row. Zellmer got the jump and led the field through the first laps. Jones began to fall down the order, first losing second to Hunter Cardinal, and then third to Jackson Lewis, last week's winner. Caution flew for some debris on the back straight, packing the field back together. The green flag came back out and Lewis made quick work of Cardinal for second, and turned his attention to Zellmer in the lead, making the move past him on lap 7. Michael Weber moved up into the third-place spot before yellow flew once again for a spun Tim Franz in turn 3. Lewis led the field back to green but eyes turned to the battle for third, with Ryan Sullivan, Weber, Jones, and Jordan Miklas all going at it together for the spot. Sullivan held the spot for a handful of laps and even drew in Zellmer for second before Miklas worked past him for second on lap 17. Out front, Jackson Lewis showed once again that the Lakeville, Minnesota driver is going to be the one to beat, picking up his second feature win in as many races. Miklas and Sullivan rounded out the podium, with Jones and Weber rounding out the top 5. Lewis and Griffin McGrath shared the hard-charger spot, both up a huge 10 spots.
When the N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars pulled onto the track, it was Matt Rechek and Dustin Ward on the front row. Ward got the better start, leading the field through the first lap. Rechek stayed with him in second. Brandon Schmitt and Brandon Paitrick went at it for the third-place spot for a few laps. Rechek took the lead back from Ward on lap 5, with Schmitt moving past Ward on lap 7. Yellow came out for the first time on lap 8, as Ward found himself spun around in turn 4. Green came back out and it was Jeremy Christians who made the most of the restart, shooting into the lead at the end of lap 9. A battle for third ensued between Caleb Arneson, Jesse Krahn, Cole Czarneski, and Schmitt. Krahn and Arneson held side-by-side driving for a long time before Krahn slammed the door. Schmitt began to move up, challenging the top 5, and making quick work of all of them, moving up into third on lap 19. Jeremy Christians didn’t mind all the fighting behind him, as he was able to walk away from the field and pick up his first win of the season, as well as the hard-charger spot, up 13 spots, with Rechek and Schmitt rounding out the top 3. Krahn and Arneson brought home fourth and fifth as they battled all the way to the checkered flag.
Vince Jung sat on the pole of the Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Modifieds, with Geoff Zdroik alongside him. The field would take the start as the rain began to fall, culminating in an almost huge catastrophe in turn 1, as every single one of the cars in the field plowed into turn one and almost plowed into each other.
The call was made shortly after to end the night early, as the track would not be able to be salvaged for the rest of the night. The track announced the next morning, “the best plan is to give all drivers equal points and equal pay for the night, next week will proceed as a normal weekly format.”
Racing will return in just one week, for the first night of an action-packed May. The 7th will include the regular 5 divisions as well as a Vintage and Alumni Exhibition race that you won’t want to miss. All information on future races and the upcoming season can be found on wismotorsports.net and the Beaver Dam Raceway Facebook page.
Article Credit: Zack Krueger
Submitted By: Zack Krueger