Kurtti win’s Jake Mullins Memorial Race

WISSOTA Street Stock racers from throughout Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula converged on the challenging 1/3rd mile tri-oval at Eagle River Speedway on Friday NIght (Aug 8th) for the 5th Annual Jake Mullins Memorial Race. 14 of the best in the class started the feature, however a 5-car pile up on the ‘hairpin’ third turn knocked out the winner of the second Heat race, one of the favorites to win the feature, Glenwood City, Wisconsin’s, Ron Hannestad.

With the field down to 11 drivers, the large turnout of fans still didn’t know who would be the favorite. As the race was winding down it turned out to be a bumper to bumper, two and sometimes three wide race between the tracks defending class champion and current class point leader, Jordan Kurtti of Bruce Crossing, Michigan, Tomahawks’s one-two punch of Derek Eberl and Nate Langberg, Eagle River’s Jason Jenson and Rice Lake’s Jim Randall.

Jenson, Langberg and Kurtti were in a nip and tuck battle early on, as Eberl and Randall patiently worked their way through traffic. With only a couple laps to go the fans were on the edge of their seat wondering if it would be Kurtti, Eberl, or Randall. As the checkered flag flew, Kurtti held off Randall with Eberl taking a third.

Upper Peninsula racers took 4 of the 6 features. The first feature was in Junior Sprints, and that is where the ‘Yooper’ dominance began. Greenland’s Wyatt McIntyre got back into the Auto Value Winners Circle by holding off Lake Tomahawk’s Hunter Tingley and Shiocton’s Dylan Larson. McIntyre was trailing Tingley by a quarter lap with only two laps to go. The talented 11 year old made up a lot of ground to win the race.

Next win for a Michigan driver came in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds when Twin Lakes Jesse Aho made an impressive pass on the inside of the ‘sweeping’ 2nd turn on Rhinelander’s Dan Melton. Once Aho passed Melton, the Class Champion for the past 3 years looked to be running away from the pack. That is until a caution with 3 laps to go put Phillip’s Cole Spacek and Eagle River’s Tadd Schoonover back into contention for the win. Aho was able to hold Spacek and Schoonover on his back bumper to take the win.

With Aho, Kurtti, and McIntyre being the defending champions in their class and the current class point leaders, it was not a surprise to see these 3 take their features. However the biggest surprise of the night came when Escanaba’s Matt Peterson won his first feature in the Micro Sprint 600 class. Peterson hit speeds of over 80 miles per hour on a track that was drying out by the end of the night. Officials, and fans were simply waiting for the defending Micro Sprint 600 champion and current class point leader, Jered Cech of Rhinelander to pass Peterson and go on for another routine win.

That never happened, as Peterson kept Cech and Deerbrook’s Jake Reif in his dust.

“I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t think that either Jered (Cech) or Jake (Reif) would eventually catch up to (Matt) Peterson, but neither one of them could get close enough to make the move on Peterson,” commented track announcer, Skip Schulz.

Preventing Upper Peninsula drivers from capturing a ‘sweep’ of the features was Rhinelander’s Cory Allen in the Truck Class and CJ Hedges, Jr., of Tomahawk in the Pure Stock Feature.

Allen is in a tight point battle with the Truck Class Point leader Dylan Spiegelhoff of Rhinelander. An accident in the Heat Race knocked Allen out, which forced him to win the feature. Surprisingly Allen’s stiffest competition in the feature was not from Spiegelhoff, but from Eagle River’s James Koga. Allen took the win when Koga had problems late in the race handling the hairpin third turn. Koga still took a second, with Spiegelhoff getting a 3rd.

The class that is turning out to be one of the most exciting to watch is in Pure Stock. 13 evenly matched cars started the feature. Wabeno’s John Danielson quickly jumped out to a lead, but was challenged right away by Eagle River’s Don Scharf and Rhinelander’s Michael Brown. During this battle in the front of the pack, Tomahawk’s CJ Hedges, Jr., was passing one car at a time. When the flags were crossed, depicting the half way point of the race, Hedges had worked his way to the front to challenge Brown and Scharf. When Scharf and Brown went wide in the 3rd turn, Hedges ran the edge of the infield grass to get the lead. A lead he would hold on, giving his race team a new knickname, “Hedges on the Edges” Racing.

It is Hedges Team and fans that are joining with Eagle River Speedway to hold a special night for an 11 year old girl that lost a courageous health battle, Tori Stevens. The Tori Stevens Memorial Race will be held on Friday Night, August 15th. Hedges Racing has picked up sponsors to give away bicycles to lucky young fans. They are looking for other business’s, race teams, and individuals to also purchase a child’s bike to give away. Contact either CJ Hedges in Tomahawk or Eagle River Speedway if you are willing to purchase and bring a new Child’s Bike for this special Tori Stevens Memorial Race. Those races will be this coming Friday Night (Aug 15th), gates open at 5:00 pm Central time, with Hot Laps to begin at 7:00 pm Central Time.

8/8/2014 Results (Top 3 Only)

WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature: 1) Jesse Aho, Toivola (MI); 2) Cole Spacek, Phillips; 3) Tadd Schoonover, Eagle River;

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

WISSOTA Street Stock Feature: 1) Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing (MI); 2) Jim Randall, Rice Lake; 3) Derek Eberl, Tomahawk;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 1: 1) Derek Eberl, Tomahawk; 2) Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing (MI); 3) Nate Langberg, Tomahawk;

WISSOTA Street Stock Heat 2: 1) Ron Hannestad, Glenwood City; 2) Jim Randall, Rice Lake; 3) Ryan Glembin, Eagle River;

Micro Sprint 600 Feature: 1) Matt Peterson, Escanaba (MI); 2) Jered Cech, Rhinelander; 3) Jake Reif, Deerbrook;

Micro Sprint 600 Heat 1: 1) Jake Reif, Deerbrook; 2) Jered Cech, Rhinelander; 3) Mike Hicks, Eagle River;

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

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

Pure Stock Feature : 1) CJ Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk; 2) Michael Brown, Tomahawk; 3) Don Scharf, Eagle River;

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

Pure Stock Heat 2: 1) Herb Dettman, Pelican Lake; 2) Ken Valeria, Eagle River; 3) David Blackberg, Eagle River;

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

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

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