Wi Dirt Racin

Was it the fact that it was Friday the 13th, or was it because of the full moon, or could it have been a combination of both? Whatever one believes, it was a large turnout of fans and racers that saw exciting, and at times ‘interesting’ racing at Eagle River Speedway. The superstitions were voiced early in an action packed night of racing.

At the start of the night, the first Heat in the new Truck Division saw Rhinelander’s Jeff McDonald get out to an early lead and built that lead to over a quarter of a lap on his nearest competitor, Eagle River’s Jim Koga. Then on the final lap, McDonald pulled off the track for reason’s only known to McDonald. While the fans were watching McDonald head to the over-flow pit area in the infield, Koga was nowhere to be found. To make one wonder if the ‘Friday the 13th,’ or the ‘full moon’ superstitions were coming into play, the driver that appeared to be gaining ground on the leaders was Wausau’s Adam Jennejohn. That is until Jennejohn hit the outside wall coming out of the ‘hair-pin’ final turn.

“OK, we only have one driver left to take the checkered…hmmm, who is the winner and what is the ‘official’ places of the drivers?” questioned long-time track announcer Skip Schulz?

The official results gave the win to Forest Crandall of Birnamwood.

The Truck racer that went into the night with the point lead, Dylan Spiegelhoff of Rhinelander won the second Heat and the Truck Feature. The only driver to crack into the Top 3 in the Feature from that ‘interesting’ first heat was Crandall.

It was in the Junior Sprint Heat that Greenland, Michigan’s, Wyatt McIntyre was defeated for the first time in 2 years. Shiocton’s Dylan Larson may be top young to have heard that Friday the 13th can bring bad luck. The 10 year old stuck right to McIntyre’s duo-winged Junior Sprinter for the first 6 laps, then when the two came upon lapped traffic in the 7th lap, Larson passed McIntyre and held on for the win. McIntyre would come back to hold off Larson to win the Feature.

Whether it was the turn-out of racers in each of the classes, many racers that took to the 1/3rd mile Tri-Oval for the first time, or the superstitious beliefs, all of the races saw crashes, spin-outs, and yellow flags being brought out throughout the night. This excitement of the Heat races carried on to the Features.

It wasn’t just the fans that were treated to the mishaps and mistakes from the drivers, even some of the racers took advantage of the Yellow flag being brought out.

This was evident in the Pure Stock Feature as those that started in the middle of the pack were having a hard time breaking free of some of the slower cars in front of them. This forced those that had the car and skills to challenge for the win to ‘thread the needle’ when it came to passing cars. The one that really ‘shined’ on the full moon night was Tomahawk’s CJ Hedges. Hedges went from the 10th spot at the start to draft the leader Jason Melton of Rhinelander in the 5th lap. On the proceeding lap, Hedges got on the inside of Melton on the ‘sweeping’ 2nd turn to take the lead. A lead the current Pure Stock Class point leader would not relenquesh.

With Hedges proving that you can go from the back of the pack at the start of the race to win the feature, would this be possible for the defending Eagle River Speedway WISSOTA Street Stock Champion, Bruce Crossing, Michigan’s, Jordan Kurtti. Kurtti, who won the 1st Heat Race started the feature in the 7th spot. While Kurtti was patiently moving up as the race progressed, it was the battle at the front of the pack between Eagle River’s Ryan Glembin, Tomahawk’s Nate Langberg, and 1994 WISSOTA National Champion KIrk Bogdonavich of Phillips that had the crowd on the edge of their seats.

Glembin held an outside line throughout the battle with Langberg and Bogdonavich. With the ‘door’ open on the inside, Langberg and Bogdonavich were to busy fighting each other off to make the move on Glembin. Bogdonavich held the second spot from the 3rd lap to the 13th lap, then on 14th lap, Langberg got by Bogdonavich. Langberg did everything he could to try to pass Glembin, with Glembin holding off Langberg for a photo finish.

As far as Kurtti? Ended with a 4th place finish.

With one defending Class Point Champion failing to break into the Top 3, would a full moon bring bad luck for the 3-year Consecutive WISSOTA Midwest Modified Class Champion, Jesse Aho of Toivola, Michigan? That looked to be a good possibility when a Track Champion from a past Northern Wisconsin track, Cole Spacek of Phillips holding off Aho in the 2nd Heat, and a past Eagle River Speedway Class Champion, John Kallas of Hurley winning the 1st Heat. To make things even more difficult for Aho was one of WISSOTA’s top Midwest Modified Drivers, Jeff Klopstein, Jr., making his first trek north from Tomahawk to Eagle River.

Klopstein grabbed an early lead, as Aho had to work his way through the crowded field from the 7th position. Klopstein, a former fellow Upper Peninsula resident (L’Anse), didn’t have time to be concerned about Aho, he was too busy in a tight race with Spacek, Kallas, and Eagle River’s Ben Pitlik. When Pitlik drove into the back end of Kallas, that put him in the back and opened up the battle between Klopstein, Spacek, Kallas, and guess who moved up to join the pack…yep, Jesse Aho.

With only 4 laps to go in the race, Aho showed why he has been the WISSOTA Midwest Modified Class Champion at Eagle River Speedway since 2011. Aho made an impressive move to pass Klopstein.

“The way these new (Midwest) Mods are set up, I can get the car to handle even when the track is drying out. I have too, I race at many tracks in Wisconsin where this is a common condition,” commented Aho at the start of the night.

It was 2 Micro Sprint 600 drivers that came from Southern Wisconsin to compete at the 40 year old Eagle River Speedway. Vance Lein and Zach Bodeen of the Madison area. The challenging track didn’t seem to scare these two as they opened the night challenging the talented ‘regulars,’ as the only driver to beat them was 17 year old Jake Reif of Deerbrook. Reif’s Kawasaki powered Micro Sprint held off the Suzuki-powered sprinters of Lein and Bodeen in the Heat Race.

The Feature followed suit by exciting the fans when some of these 85 MPH sprinters were spinning out in the tough 3rd ‘hairpin’ corner. Bodeen left the feature early, and Lein fell from the 3rd spot to the 4th spot when he was passed by the class’s defending champion, Jered Cech of Rhinelander. Cech went into the night with a narrow 3 point lead over Eagle River’s Bob Hicks and a 6 point lead over Jake Reif.

Cech and his Honda was unable to get by the Son-Father combo of Jake and Jerry Reif who took first and second in the Feature.

Whether one blames the thrills of the night on it being a full moon, Friday the 13th, or a combination of the two, it will be a few years before Eagle River Speedway will see racing on a night with a Full Moon and Friday the 13th. This won’t happen for another 35 years, when Eagle River Speedway will be celebrating it’s 75th year of racing.

Racing will return this coming Friday Night, In addition to racing in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, WISSOTA Street Stock, Micro Sprint 600’s, Trucks, Pure Stock, and Junior Sprints, the 1/3rd Mile Tri-Oval will see the ABC Raceway 6 cylinders also compete. Hot Laps begin at 7:00 pm CT, with racing to start at 7:30 pm CT. Excitement is already building for the Friday NIght, July 4th Fireworks Spectacular, when the track will host an increased purse WISSOTA Midwest Modified Special and a Special Race for the Micro Sprint 600’s. The other classes will also compete on the 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular.

6/13/2014 Results (Top 3 Only)

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Feature: 1) Jesse Aho, Toivola (MI); 2) Jeff Klopstein, Tomahawk; 3) Jerry Grasse, Phelps;

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 1: 1) John Kallas, Hurley; 2) Jeff Klopstein, Tomahawk; 3) Bob KLeinschmidt, Arbor Vitae;

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 2: 1) Cole Spacek, Philllips; 2) Jesse Aho, Toivola (MI); 3) Jerry Grasse, Phelps;

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 3: 1) Tadd Schoonover, Eagle River; 2) Ben Pitlik, Eagle River; 3) Larry Gasparini, Iron River (MI) ;

WISSOTA Street Stock Feature: 1) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River; 2) NateLangberg, Tomahawk; 3) Kirk Bogdonavich, Phillips;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 1: 1) Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing (MI); 2) Jason Jenson, Eagle River; 3) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 2: 1) Chad Boetcher, Tomahawk; 2) Kirk Bogdonavich, Phillips; 3) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River;

Micro Sprint 600 Feature: 1) Jake Reif, Deerbrook; 2) Jerry Reif, Deerbrook; 3) Jered Cech, Rhinelander;

Micro Sprint 600 Heat: 1) Jake Reif, Deerbrook; 2) Vance Lein, Edgerton; 3) Zach Bodeen, Madison;

Truck Feature: 1) Dylan Spiegelhoff, Rhinelander; 2) Cory D Allen, Rhinelander; 3) Forest Crandall, Birnamwood;

Truck Heat 1: 1) Forest Crandall, Birnamwood; 2) Jeff McDonald, Rhinelander; 3) Jim Koga, Eagle River;

Truck Heat 2: 1) Dylan Spiegelhoff, Rhinelander; 2) Cory Allen, Rhinelander; 3) Jeff Barnhill, Rhinelander;

Pure Stock Feature: 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Tyler Lundberg, Rhinelander; 3) Jason Melton, Rhinelander;

Pure Stock Heat 1: 1) Troy Larock, Laona; 2) Michael Brown, Tomahawk; 3) Herb Dettman, Pelican Lake;

Pure Stock Heat 2: 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Jason Melton, Rhinelander; 3) David Blackberg, Eagle River;

Pure Stock Heat 3: 1) Tyler Lundberg, Rhinelander; 2) Tyler Musoff, Tomahawk; 3) Spencer Duncan, Eagle River;

Junior Sprint Feature: 1) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 2) Dylan Larson, Shiocton; 3) Parker Retzlaff, Rhinelander;

Junior Sprint Heat: 1) Dylan Larson, Shiocton; 2) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 3) Hunter Tingley, Lk Tomahawk;

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