It was a full moon, off in the distance a wolf howled…..
Nevermind, with the way tonight went, I thought a horror story would be a good way to open. With a few clouds looming over Shawano Speedway during the heats, we say only a few drops of rain. By the time I found cover, it was over. The rest, maybe not so lucky. With the start time being pushed back to 7:00, this show barely made the cut, with the final checker flying at almost exactly 11:00. The reason? Cautions. Every feature had cautions tonight, some more than others.
As far as the actual racing is concerned, it was good. The competition was tight for the lead in almost every race, from Cody Hudson chasing down Chucky Forstner in the opening feature, to Dan Michonski taking the lead away from brother Nate Michonski in the closing feature. Joel Bennett had to work to hold the Fastrak lead in the beginning, but checked out later on, and never looked back, even with cautions to restack the field. In the mods, Charlie Wild took the early lead and battled to hold on against Jason Czarapata, and the cautions probably helped Wild the most. Eventually, Marcus Yarie would make his way past Czarapata and work on Wild, but Charlie wasn’t giving up the win. The WISSOTA late model race was one of the messiest I had seen in a while. Paul Parker had the lead, with AJ Diemel making his way up through the pack. With about four cautions on the fourth lap, it was hard for anybody to make any progress. Eventually, we would get more laps on the books, but those would still carry a price.
Tonight we also had some other action. Charlie, go get your phone! Charlie, go get your phone! The woman screaming across the track to “Charlie” didn’t need a phone. It was worth a good laugh. There was apparently a claim attempt tonight, and from what I under stand, the claim was invalid after the drivers crew member walked up in the claim area. Don’t forget now, only the driver in the claim area if there is to be a claim. I also received news that there was an attempt to claim Eric Arneson at Thunderhill, but that was also an invalid attempt. The new claim rules apparently state that you race every week at the track up to the claim, and the claimer in this case must have missed a week.
Safety topic tonight. I don’t usually like to call people out directly, but anger led to stupidity tonight, and the track did nothing about it. There was a wreck in the stock car feature, and Stedjee needed to pit for a tire. This was under caution. He brought the 35 car in through the back stretch pit entrance, and came onto pit lane almost sideways. He hit the asphalt on pit lane so fast that he left skidmarks. Why was nothing done by track personnel over this? It’s one thing to come in hot, but he came around a corner in the pits sideways. I think this needs to be addressed.
Moving on, most tracks rained out tonight, Shawano Speedway went on, undeterred by the weather. The track looked smooth, and the racing was good, despite the cautions. Rice Lake, Thunderhill, and 141 Speedway also filled the night, so here are your results. Stay dirty!
Shawano: Sport mods Cody Hudson, Fastrak Joel Bennett, Mods Charlie Wild, WISSOTA late model Paul Parker, and Stocks rounded off the night with Dan Michonski.
141 Speedway would see McGrath take the mods, Boyea in the sport mods, Jesse Colwell in the stocks, Kraig Koehler in street stocks, Logan Rhode in grand nationals, and Brandon Tegen in the Sport 4s.
Rice Lake: Kevin Adams in mods, Cory Davis in super stocks, Jay Kesan in street stocks, Shane Halopka in midwest modified, and Jamie Fisher in pure stock
Thunderhill: Hackett in the sport mods, Lumaye in hobby stocks, Muench in stocks, Matthias in mods, Sternard in street stocks, Stueck in the sport 4s, and Benji LaCrosse wins the King of the Hill