Pure Stock Features Pure Excitement!

It was ‘sweet 16’ going for 15 exciting laps in the Pure Stock Feature at Eagle River Speedway this past Friday Night. With cars lined up from the ‘hairpin’ third turn all the way back to the ‘sweeping’ 2nd turn, everyone wondered what would happen when the flag dropped and all those cars would be bumper to bumper going into the first turn. As expected their would be a traffic jam from the first turn to the second turn that forced to the flag man going from the green flag to the yellow flag.

Involved in an early altercation was the current Eagle River Speedway Pure Stock point leader, CJ Hedges, Jr., of tomahawk. While Hedges thought it was only a flat tire, it ended up being damage to the cars front end. When Hedges came out of the pits, he had to go to the back of the pack. This had track officials and the fans wondering if Hedges could come from the 16th spot all the way to first in 15 laps.

While drivers were racing for position in the crowded field, Eagle River’s Ken Valeria jumped out to an early lead. Valeria was driving Neil Slizewski’s car for the first time this year.

“It’s a car that I built year ago, so I was familiar with it,” commented Valeria.

As Valeria was building his lead, Rhinelander’s Tyler Lundberg was in an exciting back and forth race with Ontonagon, Michigan’s, Dave Dishaw, and Lac Du Flambeau’s John Johnson, Jr. With only 3 laps to go, Hedges had joined in the battle. That is the battle between Lundberg, Dishaw, and Johnson, but not Valeria.

“I was looking for a caution to come out toward the end of the race, but it didn’t. I knew that without a caution coming out, it would be hard to catch up to (Ken) Valeria,” stated Hedges.

Valeria went on to win the action packed Pure Stock Feature, with Lundberg taking a second, Dishaw ending up in 3rd, and Hedges took a 4th.

The Pure Stock Feature wasn’t the only feature that had the fans at the edge of their seat, so did the WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature and the Micro Sprint 600 Feature.

A track record was set when 11 year old Ty Springer of Eagle River won the Micro Sprint 600 Feature. This is the youngest driver to ever win the Micro Sprint 600 Feature. This is the class where the duo-winged sprint cars hit speeds in excess of 80 MPH. Springer, a past Junior Sprint Class Champion held off the current class point leader and defending champion, Jered Cech of Rhinelander. Springer is racing Cech’s former Honda-powered Micro Sprint.

The top drivers to compete at the 40 year old track this year all raced in the WISSOTA Sanctioned Midwest Modified Feature. Earlier in the night the defending class champion for the past 3 years, Jesse Aho of the Upper Peninsula and Phillips, Wisconsin’s, Cole Spacek won their highly competitive heat races. Spacek held off Ashland’s Tyler Vernon in the first Heat, and Aho held off Tomahawk’s Jeff Klopstein and the previous week’s Feature Winner, Jerry Grasse of Phelps.

This set up a feature that also included 7 other highly competitive drivers. No build up for the feature was needed when the fans saw Spacek, Klopstein, Grasse and Aho start in the middle of the pack. The question to be answered would be who can work their way through the pack and stay out of trouble. However as the ‘fast four (Spacek, Klopstein, Grasse, and Aho) were jostling for position, Rhinelander’s Dennis Michalson and Vernon were putting on a show battling for the lead.

It didn’t take Klopstein long to move to the front to battle it out with Vernon and Michalson. By the 6th lap of the 20 lap feature, Klopstein passed Michalson for the lead. During the Klopstein, Michalson and Vernon ‘tango,’ Spacek brought in his dancing shoes as did Aho. This led to a battle of three of the best drivers in the class, and a battle right to the end when Klopstein took the checkered flag, Spacek took second, and the current class point leader, Aho taking a third. Grasse ended up in 4th place to keep the “fast four’ together.

For only the second time in the past two years, Greenland, Michigan’s, Wyatt McIntyre was defeated in the Junior Sprint Feature. The only other time McIntyre was beat it was by Shiocton’s, Dylan Larson. What made this feature so exciting was that Tommi Jo Springer was a part of a 3-way battle for the win with Larson and McIntyre. Larson jumped out to an early lead, with Springer and McIntyre right behind. With 2 laps to go, McIntyre passed Springer, but there wasn’t enough laps left in the race to catch up to Larson.

In addition to all the excitement in the Pure Stock, WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Micro Sprint 600’s and the Junior Sprints, the WISSSOTA Street Stock feature made the night even more exciting. The feature opened up with a battle between Eagle River nighbors, Jason Jenson and Ryan Glembin. Glembin led the first 2 laps, then Jenson took the lead for the next 15 laps. While Jenson was working to hold off Glembin, Tomahawk’s Derek Eberl was in a nip and tuck battle with Tomahawk’s Nate Langberg and Eagle River’s Ryan Valeria. With all these drivers battling for position it was difficult which racers to focus on.

Eberl made his move to get by Langberg and Glembin in the 13th lap of the 20 lap feature. Then with two laps to go Eberl went on the inside of Langberg entering the sweeping 2nd turn to get the lead and hold on for another exciting finish!

With only 4 trucks running in the Truck Class, one would think that this would be the one feature that would bring a person’s heartbeat back to normal. Think again. Early in the race Rhinelander’s Cory Allen and DJ Koga of Dale got into an accident between the 1st and 2nd turn. The accident knocked both drivers out of the race, leaving only Rhinelander’s Dylan Spiegelhoff and Eagle River’s James Koga. The two raced next to each other for most of the race, until Koga had handling problems in the challenging ‘hairpin’ 3rd turn. That gave Spiegelhoff some ‘breathing’ room, and the current class point leader went on for the win.

This coming Friday NIght, Eagle River Speedway will hold it’s annual Jake Mullens Memorial Race. The night will include the annual WISSOTA Street Stock special with an increased purse in that class. Gates open at 5:00 pm CT, with hot laps to start at 7:00 pm CT.

8/1/2014 Results (Top 3 Only)

WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature: 1) Jeff Klopstein, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Cole Spacek, Phillips; 3) Jesse Aho, Toivola (MI);

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds Heat 1: 1) Cole Spacek, Phillips; 2) Tyler Vernon, Ashland; 3) Dennis Michaelson, Rhinelander;

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

WISSOTA Street Stock Feature: 1) Derek Eberl, Tomahawk; 2) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk; 3) Jason Jenson, Eagle River;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 1: 1) Jason Jenson, Eagle River; 2) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River; 3) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 2: 1) Derek Eberl, Tomahawk; 2) Ryan Valeria, Eagle River; 3) Heidi Karschbaum, Chetek;

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

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

Pure Stock Feature : 1) Ken Valeria, Eagle River; 2) Tyler Lundberg, Rhinelander; 3) Dave Dishaw, Ontonagon (MI);

Pure Stock Heat 1: 1) John Johnson, Jr., Lac Du Flambeau; 2) Tyler Lundberg, Rhinelander; 3) Herb Dettman, Pelican Lake;

Pure Stock Heat 2: 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Ken Valeria, Eagle River; 3) Michael Brown, Tomahawk;

Pure Stock Heat 3: 1) Don Scharf, Eagle River; 2) Dave Dishaw, Ontonagon (MI); 3) Holly Winker, Tomahawk;

Junior Sprint Feature: 1) Dylan Larson, Shiocton; 2) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 3) Tommi Jo Springer, Eagle River;

Junior Sprint Heat : 1) Dylan Larson, Shiocton; 2) Wyatt McIntyre, Greenland (MI); 3) Tommi Jo Springer, Eagle River;

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