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Koenig And Crass Top Super Stock Nationals At 141
September 20, 2003
141 Speedway in Francis Creek host it’s fourth annual Super Stock Nationals
Saturday night punctuating a record breaking season at the asphalt
quarter-mile.
As they have each year, 141 held double features for the Super’s; one on the
widely used Hoosier tires and a second race using the harder compound Goodyear
Eagles.
The Goodyear race kicked off the evening with Denny Crass of Maribel and Greg
“Doogie” Hauser of Appleton leading the pack to the green flag. These two
would remain in front for most of the contest having a seesaw battle for the
lead.
On lap 15, last year’s SSN champ Jeff Boetcher of Escanaba, MI collided with
Trent Erdmann’s Monte Carlo bring out the caution flag and the first of many
trips for the tow trucks. Both Boetcher and Erdmann would return to the race
after repairs were made in the pits.
On the restart, Hauser and Crass continued to battle up front with Hauser
leading on the outside for three laps until the yellow flag came out once
more. This time Andy Waack of Manitowoc had blown a motor and oiled down a
large portion of turns, three and four which caused about half of the field to
either check up or spin. Everyone was again able to fix their damage and
continue.
On the ensuing restart Hauser got anxious and jumped the green flag twice in a
row. He would be sent to the rear of the field for this infraction and Crass
took over the lead, which he held onto until the checkers flew giving the
fourth generation driver his first ever Nationals win.
Scott “Chico” Riedner of Waunakee finished second in the only station
wagon in the field just ahead of fast qualifier Randy Van Roy, Josh Sand and
Crystal Koenig.
The pit crews than went about the business of changing rubber from Goodyear to
the softer, stickier and normally faster Hoosier tires. However, with the
weather conditions changing as fast as they do this time of year most of the
teams weren’t able to make chassis adjustments quickly enough to take
advantage of the tire change and the fastest qualifying time of the night was
actually on the Goodyear’s.
The Hoosier feature was no less exciting with Scott Shambeau of Milwaukee
starting on the pole and leading for almost half of the thirty-lap contest.
Shambeau, a regular competitor at Slinger, hugged the bottom line of the
racetrack and held off advances by local drivers Greg Hauser and Terry Miller
until a turn one incident involving four cars brought out the yellow flag.
Kevin Charles of Green Bay had been running near the front when a hose broke
on his ride spreading fluid fluids all over the entrance to turn one causing
the field to either dive low or spin into the outfield. Two off the
unfortunates were Jimbo Schlies and Derek Rosek both of whom ended up in the
outfield area. They were able to continue but had to restart from the back.
When the race was restarted Shambeau was still leading with Hauser running
second. Crystal Koenig of Denmark had worked her way to the third and had her
car working on the outside where she would pass both of the leaders in short
order and cruise to her first ever Nationals win.
Hauser would settle for the runner-up spot just ahead of Michigan’s Nick
Anderson, Shambeau and Schleies who recovered from the crash to finish a
strong fifth.
In addition to the Super’s, two of the regular Saturday night classes
finished their seasons on the night.
The Mini Stock division was nearly an afterthought as Mark Christiensen of
Mishicot needed only to qualify for the feature and complete one lap in his
heat to win the season points race. He would qualify fourth and finish sixth
in his heat cementing his first track championship.
In the feature, Tom Melichar knew his chances of overtaking the points lead
were over but still felt he had something to show the fans. Starting from the
second last spot in the field, Melichar wove his way to the front making the
final pass for the lead over Manitowoc’s Dave Gauger on lap seventeen and
taking the bittersweet win.
Gauger would get second followed by Christiansen, Scott Bauer and Paul Ray who
came back from a horrendous early season crash to finish a very respectable
third in the season points behind Melichar.
In the Hobby Stock division, two competitors went into the evening tied for
the season lead. Jason Rabas of Maribel and Kyle Bauknecht of Reedsville would
both qualify for the feature by finishing second in their respective heats
setting up a final showdown in the feature.
Kurt Thomas led the first ten laps of the race but was overtaken by eventual
winner Matt Reinke who became the only driver in the division to get back to
back wins this season.
Meanwhile, Bauknecht and Rabas were trying to battle their way through the
pack while holding each other off at the same time. For much of the race they
were either side by side or nose to tail setting up the most exciting finish
of the night.
On lap 22 of 25 Bauknecht tried to make a move for position on the front
stretch when the hole suddenly closed causing him to brake hard and drop one
spot. That was all Rabas needed as he then went on to finish one spot ahead of
Kyle and take the points championship.
Jason Behnke of Brillion finished second followed by Brian Stanelle, Rabas and
Bauknecht.
Jim Brooks of Fredonia managed to hold off a charging Todd Hebel in the Sport
4 division feature to take his only win of the season. Matt Vetting , Mike
Graziano and Nick Boldt rounded out the top five.
Next week 141 Speedway presents it’s annual “Mayhem Night of Thrills and
Spills” presented by Jesse Guns Plastering of Denmark. Bring the kids for
all of the “smashing, crashing, spinning and winning” Saturday night
September 27th.
Along with the regular craziness, monster trucks “Godzilla” and
“FrightMare” the world largest Jeep will be on hand for some car crushing
and high jump action.
Advance tickets are just $10 each and are available at the 141 Speedtrap Tap,
Van’s Drive-In Liquor in Manitowoc and Animal’s Pizzaria in Francis Creek.
For more information, see their website at www.141Speedway.com.
Mini Stock
Fast Time Tom Melichar 13.743
Heat 1: 1) #21 Corey Dallmann 2) #008 Ken (Buster) Knapp 3) #32
Mike Meyerhofer 4) #9 Rick Lyons 5) #17 Sean Farrell 6) #29
Chris Wellner 7) #90 Jeff McCormick 8) #6 Josh Lammers 9)
#44 Jason Mertes
Heat 2: 1) #56 Jason Sand 2) #86 Kevin Peroutka 3) #4 Allen
Dillon 4) #01 Paul Ray 5) #72 Troy Selner 6) #71 Scott
Bauer 7) #5 Dave Senkbeil
Heat 3: 1) #38 Mike Oswald 2) #8 Jason Riha 3) #24 Dave Gauger,
Jr. 4) #40 John Senkbeil 5) #18 Christopher Yerges 6) #00
Mark Christensen 7) #62 Tom Melichar
Semi-Feature: 1) #32 Mike Meyerhofer 2) #21 Corey Dallmann
3) #17 Sean Farrell 4) #29 Chris Wellner 5) #90 Jeff
McCormick 6) #9 Rick Lyons 7) #008 Ken (Buster) Knapp
Feature: 1) #62 Tom Melichar 2) #24 Dave Gauger, Jr. 3) #00
Mark Christensen 4) #71 Scott Bauer 5) #01 Paul Ray 6) #72
Troy Selner 7) #38 Mike Oswald 8) #32 Mike Meyerhofer 9) #8
Jason Riha 10) #40 John Senkbeil 11) #86 Kevin Peroutka 12)
#21 Corey Dallmann 13) #17 Fred Dorn III 14) #29 Chris Wellner
15) #4 Allen Dillon 16) #5 Dave Senkbeil 17) #18 Christopher
Yerges 18) #56 Jason Sand
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Hobby Stock
Heat 1: 1) #35 Brian Rathe 2) #33 Kyle Bauknecht 3) #024 Kari
Kostichka 4) #18 Jason Behnke 5) #27 Travis Rodewald 6) #42
Peter Kumbalek 7) #15 Michael Robinson
Heat 2: 1) #81 Jesse Behnke 2) #26 Jo Mueller 3) #43 Curt
Thomas 4) #0 David Verhagen 5) #32 Don Wood 6) #30 David
Wood 7) #5SC Jason Schneider 8) #00m Jerry Brice
Heat 3: 1) #99 Matt Reinke 2) #7 Jason Rabas 3) #001 Brian
Stanelle 4) #JO Mat Crass 5) #31 Greg Thompson 6) #54 Chris
Wellner 7) #119 Eric Jandrin
Semi-Feature: 1) #42 Peter Kumbalek 2) #54 Chris Wellner 3)
#5SC Jason Schneider 4) #30 David Wood 5) #15 Michael
Robinson 6) #119 Eric Jandrin 7) #00m Jerry Brice
Feature: 1) #99 Matt Reinke 2) #18 Jason Behnke 3) #001
Brian Stanelle 4) #7 Jason Rabas 5) #33 Kyle Bauknecht 6)
#42 Peter Kumbalek 7) #26 Jo Mueller 8) #54 James Dunham 9)
#43 Curt Thomas 10) #5SC Jason Schneider 11) #31 Greg
Thompson 12) #0 David Verhagen 13) #15 Michael Robinson 14)
#27 Travis Rodewald 15) #35 Brian Rathe 16) #81 Jesse Behnke
17) #JO Mat Crass
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Sport 4s
Feature: 1) #2 Jim Brooks 2) #99x Jason VanHandel 3)
#104 Matt Vetting 4) #27 Mike Graziano 5) #19 Nick Boldt 6)
#51 Lee Kielpikowsky 7) #57 Gary Novitski 8) #24 Tim Peer 9)
#141 Dave Senkbeil 10) #41 Aaron Dalton 11) #55X Kris Oliver
12) #65 Jim Rehbein 13) #55 Brandi Konieczny 14) #87 Rick Lorrigan
15) #40 shelby melichar 16) #00 Calen Graf 17) #23 Jeremy Goetsch
18) #52 Mike Dolphin 19) #77 lana rabas
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Super Stock - Goodyear
Fast Time Jessie Gracyalny 12.785
Heat 1: 1) #74 Brandon Blashe 2) #a76 Tim Arnoldussen 3) #5W Andy
Waack 4) #73 kevin hill 5) #32 Jules Klapps 6) #57 Tim
Conard 7) #31 Kevin Charles 8) #57B Jamie Vanout
Heat 2: 1) #10 Crystal Koenig 2) #07 terry miller 3) #26 Scott
Riedner 4) #4 Jimbo Schleis 5) #8 Bill Gast 6) #76 Jason
Manecki
Heat 3: 1) #JO Denny Crass 2) #49 Jessie Gracyalny 3) #2 Derek
Rosek 4) #15B Errol Berry 5) #65 Josh Sand 6) #17 Todd
Hacker 7) #44 Greg Marks 8) #11 Trent Erdman
Semi-Feature: 1) #74 Brandon Blashe 2) #57 Tim Conard 3) #31
Kevin Charles 4) #a76 Tim Arnoldussen 5) #5W Andy Waack 6)
#57B Jamie Vanout 7) #73 kevin hill 8) #32 Jules Klapps 9)
#17 Todd Hacker
Feature: 1) #JO Denny Crass 2) #26 Scott Riedner 3) #49
Jessie Gracyalny 4) #65 Josh Sand 5) #10 Crystal Koenig 6)
#44 Greg Marks 7) #4 Jimbo Schleis 8) #31 Kevin Charles 9)
#07 terry miller 10) #8 Bill Gast 11) #59 Jeff Boettcher 12)
#a76 Tim Arnoldussen 13) #11 Trent Erdman 14) #15B Errol
Berry 15) #5W Andy Waack 16) #76 Jason Manecki 17) #74
Brandon Blashe 18) #2 Derek Rosek
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Super Stock - Hoosier
Fast Time Jimbo Schleis 12.862
Heat 1: 1) #35s Ben Schmidtt 2) #a76 Joe Arnoldussen 3) #85 Steve
Schad 4) #57 Tim Conard 5) #31 Kevin Charles
Heat 2: 1) #JO Denny Crass 2) #5 Jay Shambeau 3) #29 Jeremy Sauter
4) #0 Mark Scholten 5) #17 Todd Hacker 6) #45 Joe Schmidt 7)
#50 Nathan Wegner
Heat 3: 1) #8 Bill Gast 2) #2 Derek Rosek 3) #10 Crystal
Koenig 4) #4z Kevin Zimbal 5) #8d Matt Derricks 6) #65 Josh
Sand 7) #15B Errol Berry
Heat 4: 1) #88 Scott Shambeau 2) #19d John McDonald 3) #17a Nick
Anderson 4) #44 Greg Marks 5) #07 terry miller 6) #4 Jimbo
Schleis 7) #74 Brandon Blashe
Semi-Feature: 1) #JO Denny Crass 2) #45 Joe Schmidt 3) #31
Kevin Charles 4) #35s Ben Schmidtt 5) #5 Jay Shambeau 6) #29
Jeremy Sauter 7) #85 Steve Schad 8) #a76 Joe Arnoldussen 9)
#4G Louis Goss 10) #57 Tim Conard 11) #0 Mark Scholten
Feature: 1) #10 Crystal Koenig 2) #8 Bill Gast 3) #17a Nick
Anderson 4) #88 Scott Shambeau 5) #4 Jimbo Schleis 6) #07
terry miller 7) #JO Denny Crass 8) #5 Dale Carbon 9) #15B
Errol Berry 10) #65 Josh Sand 11) #45 Joe Schmidt 12) #35
Brian Rathe 13) #8d Matt Derricks 14) #4z Kevin Zimbal 15)
#29 Jeremy Sauter 16) #2 Derek Rosek 17) #44 Greg Marks 18)
#74 Brandon Blashe 19) #31 Kevin Charles
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