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Cold "Wintery" Weather Can’t Stop Great Racing Action
By Mary Burbach
May 18, 2002 - Cold weather was the hot ticket at the Wisconsin Fans for Auto Racing Night at the Eastern
Wisconsin Race Association program on Saturday. Die-hard, true race fans braved the cold and the metal
grandstands to watch their favorite drivers compete. Qualifying was cancelled early as the timing light
was malfunctioning and the show was converted to running progressive. Competitors from the Winged Super
Modifieds, Limited Late Models and Super Stock divisions would line up in their heat races according to
points and then transfer to their feature or semi-feature events according to their finish in the heat
races. The stage was set for some hard-fought racing action at the Sheboygan County Fair Park in
Plymouth.
After advancing the top 3 finishers from the 4 Modified heat races to the A-Main, the rest of the field
lined up in the B-Main to challenge for the final 8 transfers to the main event. After finishing 4th in
his heat, # 55 Brian Portschy of Oostburg jumped to the early lead in the B-Main. The battle lines for 2nd
place were drawn between # 3 Robert Enders of Campbellsport and # 42 Matt VanWyk of Sheboygan
Falls. Through lap 10, Portschy held off the two contenders but a lap later both VanWyk and Enders were
ahead of Portschy. The yellow caution would then come out for leader Vanwyk as he spun in turn 2. Enders
would be relined up in the front spot but another lap wasn’t completed when # 72 Dennis Klumb of Grafton
flipped his modified hard into the fence in turn 1. After the green flag flew again, Enders would hold onto
the lead with # 98 Tim McMullen of Plymouth moving into second. # 68 Craig Perko of Glenbeulah, # 5 Chad
Kistner of New Holstein and # 19 Dave Becker would finish behind Enders and McMullen to round out the
top 5.
Front row starter # 97 Tony Wondra of West Bend would take hold of the early lead in the Modified A-Main,
followed closely by # 93 Billy Kreutz of Kiel and # 7 Leroy Ostrowski of Milwaukee. After applying laps of
pressure, Kreutz would take over the lead on lap 8. With 15 laps in, # 98 Tim McMullen of Plymouth took a
wild flip into turn 1 and racing action was brought to a halt. When another yellow flag came out on lap
15, race leader Kreutz would retire to the pits with mechanical problems. This would place Wondra back
into the lead spot but just briefly as Ostrowski, who was lined up right behind Wondra on the inside, stuck
to Wondra. # 62 Gary Laack of Glenbeulah, lined up outside Ostrowski, swept around and beat both Wondra and
Ostrowski to take over the lead on lap 17. Ostrowski fell in behind Laack while last week’s feature
winner # 11 Tim Melis of Plymouth pulled into 3rd place and # 95 Kenjay Fiedler of Sheboygan Falls took
over 4th place. As lap traffic became a factor, Ostrowski and Melis battled for the second spot. Melis
would come out on top in that battle and Fiedler stepped up to challenge Ostrowski. After finishing 2nd in
the previous week’s feature, Laack would stay out in front to win the second Modified A-Main this
season. Melis would follow in second, with Fiedler, Ostrowski and Wondra staying in the top 5.
In Limited Late Model action, # 72 Chad Espen of Kewaskum moved into the early lead in the
semi-feature. His early pressure came from two rookies # 3 Larry Berg of Sheboygan and # 89 Todd Jensema
of Sheboygan Falls. Berg fell and # 71 Henry Dickmann of Sheboygan soon moved into 3rd behind
Jensema. Espen concentrated on putting track between his car and second place and began lapping cars by
lap 9. With lap cars and no caution flags, the race was on to determine the 3 cars that would be allowed
to transfer from the semi into the feature event. Dickmann moved into 2nd but had to battle his way
through lap traffic as the laps counted down. At the white flag, Dickmann was directly behind
Espen. Espen would win the semi-feature followed by Dickmann and moving into the final transfer on the
white flag lap was # 88 Steve Ziegelbauer of Sheboygan.
The Limited Late Model feature was plagued by cautions in the early laps. On lap 4, the top spots would be
secured by # 24 Dave Schaetzer of Sheboygan Falls, # 79 Jim Schmidt of Cleveland and # 65 Keith Borth of
Sheboygan when a caution flag would be displayed for a spun car. As the race was restarted, a multi-car
crash would bring out the red flag. Out of the 7 cars involved, only 1 would continue. After the field
was re-lined up, Borth would take over the lead. Schmidt would follow and # 52 Mark Zimmermann of Kohler
pulled into 3rd place. As the time limit was called, Zimmermann would take over 2nd from Schmidt and a
short-lived battle for 4th evolved between last year’s champion # 22 Charlie Schmidt of Cedar Grove and # 8
Dan Dippel of Plymouth. As the checkered flew, Borth would win the feature event followed by Zimmermann,
Jim Schmidt, Dippel and Charlie Schmidt.
Polesitter and last week’s feature winner # 35 Ben Schmidt of Kiel took the early lead and held off all
contenders to win the Super Stock semi-feature. The tight racing group of Schmidt, # 89 Jim Bailey of
Oostburg and # 14 Terry McCoy of Hingham held the top three places in the semi for the entire race. Even
as lapped cars came into play and former track champion # 98 John Dirks of Elkhart Lake made his way through
the field, Schmidt, Bailey & McCoy held on to win transfer spots to the A-Main. Dirks also earned a
transfer spot along with # 84 Bradley Ruh of Elkhart Lake and # 27 Tony Ehaney of Sheboygan.
# 3 Dean Horneck of Kiel grabbed the early lead in the Super Stock A-Main followed by # 12 Brian Goetsch of
Sheboygan. Close behind was 2001 second in points # 87 Brian Genske of Sheboygan Falls and coming from
mid-field, last year’s track champion # 7 Brian Gilles of Plymouth. By lap 6, Gilles maneuvered into the
top spot followed by Goetsch, # 0 Mark Scholten of Oostburg, Horneck and Genske. Within 3 laps, Genske
took over second and began running down Gilles. On lap 15, the final halt to the racing action would pull
Gilles and Genske back together. After the restart, driving the # 21 tonight Nate Ruh and # 80 Luke
Scholten of Oostburg laid claim to third and fourth, respectively, and # 98 John Dirks raced his way up to
fifth from the back transfer starting spot. As the white flag was thrown, Dirks had moved into fourth and
at the checkered into third behind race winner Gilles and second place contender Genske. Ruh and Scholten
would finish 4th and 5th.
In All-American Mighty 4 action, 15 cars lined up to battle for 15 laps in the main event. Coming from the
second row, # 89 Jeremy Sauter of Sheboygan Falls took over the lead from polesitter # 69 Joel Nyhof of
Oostburg when Nyhof was maneuvering around a lapped car. # 29 Christopher Seehaver of Sheboygan moved
into second behind Sauter. # 22 Jamie Gauger moved into 3rd and was challenged on the white flag lap by
last week’s feature winner # 88 Tim Sauter of Plymouth. After taking second place last week, Jeremy Sauter
would pull into the winners circle this week followed by Seehaver and Tim Sauter. The Miller/Elias # 83
would finish fourth with # 5 Duane Dippel of Plymouth in fifth.
Join Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car on Saturday, May 25 for Memorial Day weekend racing. Qualifying begins
at 5:45 pm with racing to follow. Just announced this week are two added points shows at the Manitowoc
Expo. A full EWSC program will run at the Expo grounds on Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, September
1st. Further details can be obtained as they are developing by visiting the EWSC website
at “ewscracing.com”
Summary: Wisconsin Fans for Auto Racing Night
Winged Super Modified
Feature (30 laps): 1) Gary Laack, Glenbeulah; 2) Tim Melis, Plymouth; 3) Kenjay Fiedler, Sheboygan
Falls; 4) LeRoy Ostrowski, Milwaukee; 5) Tony Wondra, West Bend;
Semi-Feature (15 laps): 1) Robert Enders, Campbellsport; 2) Tim McMullen, Plymouth; 3) Craig
Perko, Glenbeulah; 4) Chad Kistner, New Holstein; 5) Dave Becker
1st Heat (10 laps): 1) Melis; 2) Ostrowski; 3) Tom Johnson, Slinger;
2nd Heat (10 laps): 1) Kris Hansen, Manitowoc; 2) Laack; 3) Wondra;
3rd Heat (10 laps): 1) Ben Schmidt, Oostburg; 2) Fiedler; 3) Barry Maas, Cascade;
4th Heat (10 laps): 1) Paul Pokorski, West Bend; 2) Dave Deicher, Plymouth; 3) Billy Kreutz, Kiel;
Limited Late Models
Feature (25 laps): 1) Keith Borth, Sheboygan; 2) Mark Zimmermann, Kohler; 3) Jim Schmidt, Cleveland;
4) Dan Dippel, Plymouth; 5) Charlie Schmidt, Cedar Grove;
Semi-Feature (15 laps): 1) Chad Espen, Kewaskum; 2) Henry Dickmann, Sheboygan; 3) Steve Ziegelbauer,
Sheboygan;
1st Heat (10 laps): 1) JJ Walvoord, Oostburg; 2) Brian Kessler, Plymouth; 3) John Scharenbroch, Sheboygan Falls;
2nd Heat (10 laps): 1) Dave Schaetzer, Sheboygan Falls; 2) Howie Weiss, Glenbeulah; 3) Schmidt;
3rd Heat (10 laps): 1) Borth; 2) Rick Thompson, Campbellsport; 3) Nate Winkel, Oostburg
Super Stock
Feature (20 Laps): 1) Brian Gilles, Plymouth; 2) Brian Genske, Sheboygan Falls; 3) John Dirks, Elkhart
Lake; 4) Nate Ruh, Elkhart Lake; 5) Luke Scholten, Oostburg;
Semi-Feature (15 laps): 1) Ben Schmidt, Kiel; 2) Jim Bailey, Oostburg; 3) Terry McCoy, Hingham;
1st Heat (8 laps): 1) Stephen Schad, Cleveland; 2) Genske; 3) Dean Horneck, Kiel;
2nd Heat (8 laps): 1) Gilles; 2) Ruh; 3) Brian Goetsch, Sheboygan;
3rd Heat (10 laps): 1) Brian Kaat, Plymouth; 2) Don Kulow, Plymouth; 3) Mark Scholten, Oostburg;
4th Heat (10 laps): 1)Doug Teunnissen, Sheboygan Falls; 2) Luke Scholten, Oostburg; 3) Jeremy
Bushman, Kiel;
All-American Mighty 4’s
Feature (15 laps): 1) Jeremy Sauter, Sheboygan Falls; 2) Christopher Seehaver, Sheboygan; 3) Tim
Sauter, Plymouth; 4) Joe Miller, Plymouth; 5) Duane Dippel, Plymouth;
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