Grasse wins WISSOTA Race of Champions Qualifier

Overcast skies and an over-turned car didn’t prevent Jerry Grasse of Phelps from winning the WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature on Friday NIght at Eagle River Speedway. Shortly after Grasse held off Jeff Klopstein and Jesse Aho to win the feature, Bob Kleinschmidt and Dan Melton had an altercation right at the flag pole. Kleinschmidt’s car rolled three times and ended up resting on it’s roof. After the Eagle River Service Center Tow Truck pulled Kleinschmidt’s car over, the racer of 3 decades came out of the car without serious injury.

Grasse started the 20 lap feature on outside of the first row, and quickly jumped out to an early lead. While Grasse was leading, Klopstein and Aho were in a back and forth battle for the second spot. While the two kept swapping the second spot, Grasse’s lead on both of them continued to decrease. At the flag pole it was Grasse, with Klopstein getting by Aho on the final lap for the second spot. Klopstein is from Tomahawk, while Aho is from the Twin Lakes are of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula.

With temps in the upper 60’s the challenging 1/3rd mile tri-oval was able to hold it’s moisture in the clay. This created a race track that had a wide ‘groove.’

“Racers could go anywhere on the track. They could pass anywhere on the track,” commented Ryan Glembin of Eagle River Speedway and a WISSOTA Street Stock racer.

Due to the excellent track conditions, racers were passing on spots on the track that many fans have never seen. This was really evident in the Micro Sprint 600 Feature. 12 year old Ty Springer of Eagle River raced in only his second Micro Sprint 600 night. The former Junior Sprint Champion led the defending and current Eagle River Speedway Micro Sprint point leader, Jered Cech, for the first 10 laps. With only 5 laps to go, Jered Cech passed Springer between the first and second corner. On the final lap, Eagle River’s Bob Hicks passed Springer to take a second. Cech is from Rhinelander.

It was in the Pure Stock Feature that Tomahawk’s CJ Hedges, Junior, used the wide ‘groove’ to pass the legendary Don Scharf on the outside between the first and second turn. Scharf took the lead away from Pelican Lake’s Herb Dettman on the third lap and did everything he could to hold Hedges on his bumper. On the 11th lap of the 15 lap feature, Hedges made his move to the high side as he was going into the ‘sweeping’ second turn.

It’s not unusual for most of the action at Eagle River Speedway taking place in the middle of the pack. This was the case in the WISSOTA Street Stock Feature. While Tomahawk’s Nate Langberg jumped out to a lead right from the start, it was the battle between Eagle River’s Ryan Glembin, the Upper Peninsula’s Jordan Kurtti, and Tomahawk’s Derek Eberl. In addition to those 3 racing side by side, Eagle River’s Ron Vanduessan and Argonee’s Jeff Mullins were swapping positions lap after lap. In the end it was Langberg, Kurtti, and Glembin taking the top 3 spots.

From the heat races to the features the fans were treated to exciting racing all night long. In the Truck feature, Cory Allen of Rhinelander appeared to be running away from the competition. That is until he lost control exiting the ‘hairpin’ third turn. This gave the lead to the current Truck class point leader, Dylan Spiegelhoff of Rhinelander. While Allen continued to draw closer to Spiegelhoff as the race was winding down, Spiegelhoff would go on to win the Feature.

Just like in many of the other races, the thrills in the Junior Sprint class took place in the battle for 2nd. As the defending class champion, Wyatt McIntyre of the Upper Peninsula was pulling away from the other racers, a good battle for 2nd place was going on between Lake Tomahawk’s Hunter Tingley and Eagle River’s Tommi Jo Springer. This was only Springer’s second race of the season, and at the half way point Springer got by Tingley. However Tingley stayed right with Springer to the finish to take a 3rd.

This coming Friday NIght Eagle River Speedway will give the fans the chance to come down on the track, get autographs and pictures of the racers and the cars. Gates open at 5:00 pm CT, with Hot Laps to start at 7:00 pm CT.

7/25/2014 Results (Top 3 Only)

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

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 1: 1) Jesse Aho,Toivola (MI); 2) Jeff Klopstein, Tomahawk; 3) Tadd Schoonover, Eagle River;

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 2: 1) Jerry Grasse, Phelps; 2) Guy Carley, Eagle River; 3) Dennis Michelson, Rhinelander;

WISSOTA Street Stock Feature: 1) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk; 2) Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossiing, (MI); 3) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 1: 1) Ron Van Duessan, Eagle River; 2) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk; 3) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River;

Micro Sprint 600 Feature: 1) Jered Cech, Rhinelander; 2) Bob Hicks, Eagle River; 3) Ty Springer, Eagle River’

Micro Sprint 600 Heat 1: 1) Bob Hicks, Eagle River; 2) Jered Cech, Rhinelander; 3) Ty Springer, Eagle River;

Truck Feature: 1) Dylan Spiegelhoff, Rhinelander; 2) Cory Allen, Rhinelander; 3) DJ Koga, Dale;

Truck Heat 1: 1) Cory Allen, Rhinelander; 2) Dylan Spiegelhoff, Rhinelander; 3)) James Koga, Eagle River

Pure Stock Feature : 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Don Scharf, Eagle River; 3) Herb Dettman, Pelican Lake;

Pure Stock Heat 1: 1) Michael Brown, Tomahawk; 2) David Blackberg, Eagle River; 3) John Johnson, R., Lac Du Flambeau

Pure Stock Heat 2: 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Don Scharf, Eagle River; 3) Paul Winker, Tomahawk;

Junior Sprint Feature: 1) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 2) Tommi Jo Springer, Eagle River; 3) Hunter Tingley, Lake Tomahawk;

Junior Sprint Heat : 1) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 2) Hunter Tingley, Lake Tpomahawk; 3) Tommi Jo Springer, Eagle River;

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