Wi Dirt Racin

Both feature events totaled 55 laps honoring Brian Portschy included a 28 lap 360 feature and IRA Filskov Memorial 27 lap feature in which was also the car number he ran in the IRA.
Ken Jay Fiedler and Rusty Egan made up the front row of our Aldog-Honald Mechanical Sprints for our feature. On the drop of the green Champion Donny Goeden jumped into second behind Fielder. Leader Fielder continued to battle a charging Goeden who was running the high side lap after lap, eventually Fiedler lost his lead to Goeden who passed him upon coming up on lapped traffic. Goeden continued to place lapped cars of Chris Clayton, Nick Melis, and Randy Sippel between himself and Fielder. Our first caution came out on lap 23 for Rusty Egan spinning between turns one and two, caution did not wave early enough for our leader to avoid him. Goeden clipped Egan’s car sending him to the pits for some new tread, resulting in starting at the back of pack.

Realigning the field for the restart Lee Schroeder got squished on the back stretch hitting the wall and flipping over bringing out our first red. Third attempt at a restart did not go as planned with Jim Melis breaking on the front stretch. Danny Schlafer took control of the field after the final restart with Kurt Davis tucked in tight behind. White flag waved for Schlafer and upon crossing the checkers the red was waved for a final time as Donny Goeden and Shane Wenninger tangling in turn four causing Goeden to go up and almost over. Crossing the checkers first was Danny Schlafer (Sussex) followed by Kurt Davis (West Allis), Ken Jay Fielder (Sheboygan Falls), Paul Pokorski (West Bend) and Doug Wondra (Oakfield). Hard Charger was Brandon McMullen passing 11 cars.
B-Main Results and Transfer cars were: Travis Luedke (Plymouth), John Krebsbach (Cascade), Brandon McMullen (Plymouth), Kyle Marten (Sheboygan Falls), Nick Melis (Plymouth) and Chris Clayton (Waldo).
Heat Winners: Jim Melis (Glenbeulah), Paul Pokorski (West Bend), Donny Goeden (Kewaskum) and Rusty Egan (Crystal Heights, IL)
“Neitzel has started on the pole of the 27-lap A-main contest. The unique distance, a tribute, to match Filskov’s number which he ran in IRA competition.
After a false start racing began in earnest with Neitzel gaining the upper hand on Modjeski who had been positioned outside the front row. Reinke was able to power his way into the third spot ahead of Ben Schmidt. Schmidt, who has several titles to his credit in 360 sprint action at Plymouth, gave the partisan fan base plenty to cheer about this evening having earlier become the first of four drivers who were able to eclipse the track record in qualifying.
The first caution flew on lap four as multiple incidents took place. Phillip Mock making his return to action after having expired his engine a couple months ago, again suffered mechanical ills with his powerplant while running just outside the top five. Mock lost speed quickly and was clipped by Bill Rose.
Rose’s perfect season of starting every A-main, and finishing every lap came to an abrupt end as he pulled into the infield with steering issues. Rose, had some satisfaction this evening however, as the Plainfield, Indiana native earned the fastest qualifying time establishing a new track record of 11.888 seconds. It was the first time in his career that Rose had set a new qualifying standard in winged sprint car action.
At the same time 2013 Rookie of the Year Jeremy Schultz went for a spin in turn two drawing the caution. He would return to action, while Mock, and Rose retired from the contest.
When the race restarted, Neitzel went back to the lead, while Reinke gave Modjeski all he could handle while attempting to garner the second spot. After several laps of side by side action, Reinke used the high line on the track to secure the runner-up spot at Modjeski’s expense.
Neitzel had pulled out to a solid lead by lap ten as the leaders began to encounter lapped traffic. A caution on lap 12 for rookie contender Scotty Thiel drew the second yellow flag of the race. Thiel who had been running in the 10th spot had suffered a flat tire coming to a halt in turn four.
Once the race resumed, the final 15 circuits went uninterrupted. Neitzel again gained the upper hand as starter Jim Barr’s green flag waved in the air, but Reinke immediately began to supply the pressure. Behind the lead duo Modjeski held fast to the inside line in third, challenged by Schmidt.
Testing the high line around the track Reinke soon was able to reel in Neitzel. Reinke’s line was especially effective coming off turn two, and that is where he made his move for the lead on Neitzel on lap 20. With a sweeping pass Reinke was able to nab the top spot, and he quickly scrambled away as lapped traffic began to thicken.
Over the closing circuits, Reinke was able to extend his lead to eight car lengths by the time the checkered flag fell. Neitzel settled for runner-up honors and was well aware of the challenge of trying to hold off Reinke.
Reinke indicated he knew it would take using the high line as a means to achieve victory. “The way everybody was tonight, everyone was on the bottom. I knew I could trust him (Neitzel) where I was at. If I was going to pass a car, and win the race I was going to have to figure out how to make the top work. We had a car to win and we finally got it done”, said Reinke obviously pleased with the efforts of his crew.
Modjeski had spent the last half of the feature repelling the challenges of Schmidt who tried one last time on the final circuit to reach the final podium spot. Modjeski’s efforts had proved successful edging Schmidt by less than a car length. Schmidt had to settle for the fourth spot.
In earlier action, Vandervere outran Meyer for the victory in the B-main. Ken Jay Fiedler, Blake Nimee, Darrell Dodd, Brian Kristan and Byron Walters earned transfer spots.
Heat race victories were captured by Wirth, and Mock, and the wins for both drivers negated a bit of bad luck as both have had several misfortunes this season. Brandon Thone captured the final heat race after a wheel to wheel duel with Reinke. The victory for Thone was his first heat race win of the season, and it happened in dramatic fashion.”
Wisconsin Illinois Mini Sprints Feature Results were Mark Heinert, Nick Petska and Nick Daywalt
Heat Winners: Nick Petska and Mike Neau.

Special thanks to Oskar Blues Brewery for being the evening Trophy Sponsor. Hope to see everyone in 2015. Please visit us at plymouthdtr.com.

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