A Night of ‘sweeps’ at Eagle River Speedway
If you won the Heat race on Friday Night at the legendary Eagle River Speedway Tri-Oval, it was a good ‘bet’ that you would go on to win the Feature. The racer that won the Heat race in all 5 of the popular Northern Wisconsin dirt track went on to win the Feature.
The track is known for having good conditions. When Eagle River got rain earlier in the day, track officials had numerous vehicles compressing the evenly distributed moisture into the clay surface. “This provided a lot of ‘grip’ for the cars. We saw it by the different ‘lines’ the drivers had to use when it came to passing,” explained Kevin Dawson, Eagle River Speedway Promoter.
The excellent conditions of the track gave the Memorial Weekend fans the chance to see a great race in the WISSOTA Pure Stock Feature. Rhinelander’s Jason Eisel started on the pole. Right next to him was Eagle River’s Isabelle Valeria. Right behind them was Eagle River’s Jake Ison. For 12 laps of the 15 lap feature, Valeria and Eisel raced ‘side by side.’ The two constantly changed the lead, with Ison right on the bumper of both Eisel and Valeria.
With only 3 laps remaining and the 17 year old gal, Valeria having the lead, she drifted in the challenging ‘hairpin’ third turn. This gave the lead back to Eisel. That prompted Valeria to turn up the speed on the front stretch. Valeria got the lead back going into the deceiving 1st turn. However that forced Valeria’s car to push hard to the outside between the first and ‘sweeping’ second turn. When Valeria went high going into the second turn, Eisel made the pass to get the lead back.
During this exciting battle between Eisel and Valeria, Jake Ison was right on the bumper of the driver that was taking the low end of the track.
When the flag dropped, Eisel got the win, Valeria took a second, and Ison was right on the bumper of Valeria.
“What a race! Anyone of the 3 could have ended up earning the right to go to the Auto Value Victory lane,” commented Dawson.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature appeared to be a ‘lock’ for the 4 time defending class champion, Jesse Aho of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. That is until a caution late in the race, put fellow Upper Peninsula racers, the Father-Son duo of Duane and Marcus Dunbar, back into the race. “Joining in the excitement was the talented Jerry Grasse of Phelps. (Jesse) Aho looked to be running away with the race, until that caution. Then it was anybody’s guess what was going to happen,” Dawson remarked.
Aho got his lead back after the caution. Thus the attention of the fans went to watching the previous week Feature winner, Marcus Dunbar, battle it out with Duane Dunbar at Grasse. Aho went on to follow the groove he has worn down on the way to the victory lane. Grasse made some excellent moves to pass both Duane and Marcus to take a second.
With the track holding the moisture for the entire night, another exciting race took place in the WISSOTA Street Stock Feature. The defending class Champion, Rhinelander’s Ryan Valeria, battled it out with a past class champion, Dustin White of Conover. White was right on the tail of Valeria for the entire 20 laps. At times during the race, White would set himself up in the back stretch to ‘sling shot’ into the bottom on the exit of the ‘button hook’ third turn. However, Valeria would change his line to protect the inside. Then the next lap White would set up to go on the outside of Valeria between the 1st and 2nd turn. “That move didn’t work either for Dustin (White), as Valeria had his car set up so good that he was able to keep his speed up on the inside,” explained Dawson.
Valeria held White off for the win, yet White had thrilled the fans with his persistence in trying to take the checkered flag.
Shiocton’s Dylan Larson swept the 600 Winged Sprint class by holding off Deerbrook’s Jerry Reif. The defending class champion, Ty Springer was in Colorado competing in a major Downhill Skiing event, and Dylan’s older brother, Denver, lost an engine a week earlier in the Season Opener. “We brought a back-up car, but that broke doing Hot Laps the night before. We didn’t know we had problems with that back-up until we got to the track,” stated Denver Larson.
Boulder Junction’s Peyton Towne is off to a fast start in the Junior Sprints. The young man made his debut a success the previous week by winning the feature. Towne came back and proved that even though he is just starting his racing career, he will be the driver to beat this year. Towne swept both the Feature and the Heat.
The Sport-ATV’s put on a great show as a special for the night. With 12 Quad’s competing on the 1/3rd mile track, two heats were run. Colton Zimmerman won the heat that the feature. Dylan Seis won the other heat.
“Those race-prepped Quads were ‘flying’ around the track! Even at the high speeds, they were racing tire to tire, side by side, throughout the race. What a show they put on!” concluded Dawson.
Racing returns to the 43 year old track this coming Friday Night. It will be on June 9th that the 1st Round of the ‘Redneck Games’ will take place. On that night, the track will have Spectator ‘one-on-one’ racing. Hot laps start a 7:00 pm CT, with racing to begin at 7:30 pm CT.
Eagle River Speedway 5/26/17 Results
WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature: 1) Jesse Aho, Toivola (MI); 2) Jerry Grasse, Phelps; 3) Duane Dunbar, Marenisco (MI); 4) Marcus Dunbar, Wakefield (MI); 5) Steve Altman, Mercer; 6) Mark Albertus, Boulder Jct; 7) Jonathon Miller, Eagle River.
WISSOTA Midwest Modified Heat: 1) Aho; 2) Duane Dunbar; 3) Marcus Dunbar; 4) Jerry Grasse; 5) Miller; 6) Albertus; 7) Altman
WISSOTA Street Stock Feature: 1) Ryan Valeria, Rhinelander; 2) Dustin White, Conover; 3) Britt Bromann, Eagle River; 4) Bruce Stanley, Merill; 5) Frank Gasperini, Eagle River.
WISSOTA Street Stock Heat: 1) Valeria; 2) Gasperini; 3) White; 4) Bromann; 5) Stanley
WISSOTA Pure Stock Feature: 1) Jason Eisel, Rhinelander; 2) Isabelle Valeria, Eagle River; 3) Jake Ison, Eagle River; 4) Don Scharf, Eagle River; 5) Bryce Wick, Eagle River; 6) Ethan Holm, Crandon; 7) Louis Malluege, Merill
WISSOTA Pure Stock Heat: 1) Eisel; 2) Ison; 3) Valeria; 4) Malluege; 5) Scharf; 6) Wick; 7) Holm
600 Winged Sprint Feature: 1) Dylan Larson, Shiocton; 2) Jerry Reif, Deerbrook; 3) Kyle Getchell, Escanaba (MI); 4) Mya Towne, Boulder Jct.; 5) Jake Reif, Deerbrook.
600 Winger Sprint Heat: 1) Larson; 2) Jerry Reif; 3) Getchell; 4) Towne; 5) Jake Reif.
Junior Sprint Feature: 1) Peyton Towne, Boulder Jct.; 2) Josh Nevoraski, Minocqua; 3) Brennan Swanson, Menomonee (MI); 4) Cole Stella, Minocqua; 5) Katherine Towne, Boulder Jct., 6) Dustin Kangas, Phelps; 7) Dayton Rein, Conover.
Junior Sprint Heat: 1) Peyton Towne; 2) Nevoraski; 3) Swanson; 4) Rein; 5) Stella; 6) Katherine Towne; 7) Kangas.
Sport Quad ATV Feature: (Top 3 only): 1) Colton Zimmerman; 2) Dylan Sies; 3) Kegan Hackbarth
Sport Quad Heat 1: (Top 3 only) 1) Seis; 2) Curtis Stoddard; 3) Tyson Vos
Sport Quad Heat 2: (Top 3 only) 1) Zimmerman; 2) Hackbarth; 3) Chris Nigbor
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