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Froelich Keeps On Truckin’ At Fergus Falls Raceway
By Cody Lewis
(FERGUS FALLS, MN) July 25th--For a long time it looked as though Larry
Fitzsimmons’ truck was unbeatable, as he lead over three-forths of the race
by a full straightaway’s length. But in the end, it was John Froelich’s
machine that saw victory lane for the first time ever at the Fergus Falls
Raceway in the Yellow Book USA Super Trucks. Fitzsimmons and Brad Blenker
started off the race, running side-by-side under the green, with Fitzsimmons
pulling out front out of turn two. Around lap three, Donnie Woller and Andy
Jirik made heavy contact through turns one and two, but no caution was
necessary. Meanwhile, Fitzsimmons was nursing a massive lead over the second
place truck of Froelich. Before the halfway point, Fitzsimmons had at least a
4 second lead, and it looked pretty definite that the race was his. However,
Gary Fredrickson stopped just off the backstretch and into turn three to bring
out the caution flag. On the restart, Froelich took over the lead for the few
remaining laps to record his first career truck win.
Scott Brandt got behind the wheel of Bryan Roach’s machine and lead
virtually the entire 75 lap Late Model Feature on his way to the victory.
Within the first lap, Brandt made it to the front, where he would stay the
rest of the event. The first caution came around 1/5 of the way through the
race, for debris on the track. On the restart, Brandt continued to set the
pace, with the action happening behind him for the second spot. Don Shaw was
pressuring Blake Bjorkland, but just couldn’t find the way past. Also
fighting for position were Trent and Rich Snyder, who were running
side-by-side. In this case, Trent was able to hold off Rich to keep the fifth
position. Trent continued to hold the spot as Rich fell off the pace with what
appeared to be mechanical problems. Rich was able to keep his car going and
stayed out to finish off the race. Just past lap 70, Stacy Rossell, who had
been running strong, blew his engine and caught fire going into turn three to
bring out the red flag. Rossell emerged uninjured from the scary moment. When
the cars were going again, Brandt led the remaining few laps to cap off the
win.
Dave Ostendorf has been doing pretty well all season and finally he was able
to have something to celebrate, after collecting the win in the Modified
Feature. To get things started, Jon Lewerer went out front early on. Points
leader Oren Hoeper made his way into second right away, and began putting the
pressure on Lewerer. Jon Olson’s Modified seemed loose as he spun exiting
turn two. Meanwhile, Oren Hoeper was riding right on Lewerer’s rear bumper.
The top two then ran side-by-side and then made contact on the front stretch
sending Lewerer spinning and Hoeper to the rear of the pack for the restart.
When the green flag flew again, Chris Harig took up the lead. Behind him was
Ostendorf and Olson occupying second and third. Olson’s loose car went
spinning again in turns three and four. Working his way through the field was
Hoeper, but misfortune would again come his way, as his car turned up through
turns one and two and clipped the wall, producing a shower of sparks that
looked cool, but meant trouble. On the restart, Ostendorf took the lead and
held off Harig to score the win.
Tim Brockhouse gathered up another win at Fergus Falls Raceway, putting the
number 13 car in Victory Lane in the Great North Legends Feature. At the
start, Jon Lewerer went out front, followed by Todd Tracy and Brockhouse.
Within the next lap, Brockhouse moved to second, and then to the lead, where
he would remain for the rest of the caution-free race. 14-year-old Andy Hansen
had a new engine in his car and he put it to the test as he battled Lewerer
for third. Hansen was able to get by, but that’s as far as he would get.
Back out front, Brockhouse continued to lead, with Tracy trying to find a way
by. Tracy put up a great effort and finished very close, but Brockhouse went
home with the win.
Dan Bolstad took home the UCAR Feature win again in his red and yellow number
6 car. At the start of the race, Bolstad wasted no time getting out front,
followed by Sam Hanson, who was driving a different number 87 car, that he
recently purchased from Tim Wilson. Bolstad, Hanson and Adam Fronning were
going around the track single file, bumper to bumper, with no position changes
until Hansen tried to make a move that failed and forced him to third. This
allowed Fronning to take second, though they were still pretty much going
single file. The top trio spread out gradually however, with Bolstad running
away to take the win.
The Thunder Cars displayed some excitement, with Tom Weinhandl taking an
unexpected win. At the start, Harry Johnson went out with the lead, generating
a wide gap right away between himself and Darren Werner in the number 28 Ford
Thunderbird. Before they were able to get to lap five, Werner’s car smacked
the turn four wall after his right front tire came off the car and went
bouncing along, to prove that the fence does its job well stopping items such
as wild bouncing tires from getting to spectators. When things were going
again, Shawn Robinson gave Johnson a run for his money for the top position.
The leaders made contact, allowing Mark Milbeck to get by and take over the
lead. Milbeck would later made contact with Cory Eggen and this let Weinhandl
get into the top position, where he would stay to take the win.
Fergus Falls Raceway Results July 25, 2003
Yellow Book USA Super Trucks
First Heat
1.) John Froelich (Chippewa Falls, WI) 2.) Larry Fitzsimmons (Farmington) 3.)
Jamie Farrell (New Prague) 4.) Gary Fredrickson (Northfield) 5.) Bill Prietzel
(West Allis, WI) 6.) Tony Holm (Prior Lake)-DNF
Second Heat
1.) John Vig Jr. (Shakopee) 2.) Anthony Brewer (Shakopee) 3.) Brad Blenker
(Shakopee) 4.) Donnie Woller (Merrill, WI) 5.) Michael Schmitz (Northfield)
6.) Andy Jirik (Lonsdale)
Fast Qualifiers
1.) Bill Prietzel (17.60 sec.) 2.) Andy Jirik (17.66 sec.) 3.) Jamie Farrell
(17.68 sec.) 4.) Donnie Woller (17.83 sec.) 5.) Tony Holm (17.84 sec.) 6.)
John Vig Jr. (17.87 sec.)
Feature
1.) John Froelich 2.) Larry Fitzsimmons 3.) Bill Prietzel 4.) Jamie Farrell
5.) Donnie Woller 6.) John Vig Jr. 7.) Brad Blenker 8.) Andy Jirik 9.) Anthony
Brewer 10.) Gary Fredrickson-DNF 11.) Michael Schmitz-DNF 12.) Tony Holm-DNF
ASA Late Models
Heat
1.) Dan Darco (Fergus Falls) 2.) Molly Rhoads (Hastings) 3.) Randin Olson
(Ottertail) 4.) Mark Grewe (Fergus Falls) 5.) Rick Harig (Fergus Falls) 6.)
Tim Olson (Hamel) 7.) Matt Freitag (Fergus Falls) 8.) Jeff Lofquist (Fergus
Falls)
Fast Dash
1.) Scott Brandt (Olivia) 2.) Stacy Rossell (Atwater) 3.) Blake Bjorklund
(Isanti) 4.) Trent Snyder (Ironton) 5.) Don Shaw (Ham Lake) 6.) Rich Snyder
(Alexandria)
Fast Qualifiers
1.) Don Shaw (17.04 sec.) 2.) Trent Snyder (17.09 sec.) 3.) Blake Bjorklund
(17.13 sec.) 4.) Rich Snyder (17.25 sec.) 5.) Scott Brandt (17.25 sec.) 6.)
Stacy Rossell (17.36 sec.)
Feature
1.) Scott Brandt 2.) Blake Bjorklund 3.) Don Shaw 4.) Trent Snyder 5.) Tim
Olson 6.) Randin Olson 7.) Molly Rhoads 8.) Dan Darco 9.) Rick Harig 10.)
Stacy Rossell-DNF 11.) Rich Snyder-DNF 12.) Mark Grewe-DNF 13.) Jeff
Lofquist-DNF 14.) Matt Freitag-DNS
Modifieds
First Heat
1.) Oren Hoeper (Dalton) 2.) Jon Lewerer (Coon Rapids) 3.) Chris Harig (Fergus
Falls) 4.) Harlan Lysne (Fergus Falls) 5.) Dave Ostendorf (St. Cloud)
Second Heat
1.) Jon Olson (Hamel) 2.) John Samuelson (Dalton) 3.) Jay Karch (Fergus Falls)
4.) Duane Werner (Breckenridge) 5.) Jason Hintermeister (Garfield)
Feature
1.) Dave Ostendorf 2.) Chris Harig 3.) Harlan Lysne 4.) Jay Karch 5.) John
Samuelson 6.) Jon Olson-DNF 7.) Oren Hoeper-DNF 8.) Jon Lewerer-DNF 9.) Duane
Werner-DNF 10.) Jason Hintermeister-DNS
Great North Legends
First Heat
1.) Tim Brockhouse (Prior Lake) 2.) Todd Tracy (Belle Plaine) 3.) Jon Lewerer
(Coon Rapids) 4.) Ed Velardi (Northfield) 5.) Rollie Davidson (Burnsville) 6.)
Gary Oie (St. Paul)
Second Heat
1.) Andy Hansen (Ramsey) 2.) Cory Lease (Pierz) 3.) Rick Dubay (Coon Rapids)
4.) Jaysen Brockhouse (Prior Lake) 5.) Nick Velardi (Northfield)
Feature
1.) Tim Brockhouse 2.) Todd Tracy 3.) Andy Hansen 4.) Jon Lewerer 5.) Cory
Lease 6.) Rick Dubay 7.) Jaysen Brockhouse 8.) Ed Velardi 9.) Nick Velardi
10.) Rollie Davidson 11.) Gary Oie
Thunder Cars
Heat
1.) Tom Weinhandl (Henning) 2.) Shawn Robinson 3.) Rick Hoeper Jr. (Fergus
Falls) 4.) Cory Eggen 5.) Mark Milbeck 6.) Kent Reisenauer 7.) Darren Werner
(Wahpeton, ND) 8.) Harry Johnson (Breckenridge) 9.) Steve Devaney (Fergus
Falls) 10.) Jobie Gutzmer (Fergus Falls)
Feature
1.) Tom Weinhandl 2.) Harry Johnson 3.) Mark Milbeck 4.) Kent Reisenauer 5.)
Jobie Gutzmer 6.) Cory Eggen-DNF 7.) Shawn Robinson-DNF 8.) Steve Devaney-DNF
9.) Rick Hoeper Jr.-DNF 10.) Darren Werner-DNF
UCARs
First Heat
1.) Sam Hanson (Fergus Falls) 2.) Craig Maack (Pelican Rapids) 3.) Matt Ness
(Fergus Falls) 4.) Adrian Kubitz (Fergus Falls) 5.) Brock Gronewold (Fergus
Falls)
Second Heat
1.) Adam Fronning (Dalton) 2.) Dan Bolstad (Fergus Falls) 3.) Doug Fick 4.)
David Bolstad (Fergus Falls) 5.) Shawn Kugler (Fergus Falls)-DNF
Feature
1.) Dan Bolstad 2.) Adam Fronning 3.) Sam Hanson 4.) Brock Gronewold 5.) Matt
Ness 6.) Shawn Kugler 7.) Doug Fick 8.) Adrian Kubitz 9.) David Bolstad-DNF
10.) Craig Maack-DNF
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