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Victory ‘Waits’ for No One
by Dan Bailey
(Arcadia, WI) - John Doelle had a perfect Opening Night, Friday April 8th, to
the 2005 racing season at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY; winning both his heat race and
the evenings USRA Feature event the Arcadia racer relished the ideal start to
the year. This past Friday evening, April 15th, Doelle appeared ready to
duplicate that perfect night at the track; his Dirt Dueller appeared to handle
perfectly on the big 3/8 mile oval and his lap times were at or near the top
of the list. But, instead of a night of wins, Doelle was forced to settle for
an evening of seconds; still not a bad night.
After finishing second to Winona’s Karl Fenske in the second heat race,
Doelle worked his way to the front of the feature and began walking away from
the competition. Building up nearly an entire straightaway lead, it looked as
if it would two feature wins in a row as the 35 year old road the ultra-high
groove with smooth precision.
As the feature entered the mid-way portion of the event, a caution slowed
pace, regrouping the field for a restart. It was on this restart the
Doelle’s hopes of a repeat win were dashed. “He’d been running up high
the first half of the race,” commented eventual winner Brad Waits, “I’d
showed my nose down low a few times early, and then on that restart (Doelle)
switched his choice and went low, so I went up top and cleared him.”
Waits saw the opening offered and never thought twice about using it. The
Zumbrota, MN veteran racer grabbed the lead on the restart and did just the
opposite of his name - not waiting for anyone as he backed up his heat race
win by collecting the feature win as well. Doelle struggled mightily the
remainder of the event dropping as far back as fourth in the running order
before working his way back to a slightly disappointing second.
It was Wait’s turn to relish the moment in Victory lane, “The car really
did what ever I wanted it to,” he offered after the win, “The look of this
track can be pretty deceiving, looking dark and dry slick, but there was
actually still a little moisture, so all I really had to do was race
accordingly.” Third heat race winner Todd Dart, making the long haul from
Algoma, WI, finished the feature third.
Gullikson makes a successful transfer
In only his second night behind the wheel of the #00 WISSOTA Super Stock,
Stacy, MN racer Dan Gullikson put the entire Super Stock division on notice
that he was in the division to race at the front of the field. “You know, we
actually only made this long drive just to give Dan some extra seat time,”
explained car owner Jim Muller, “we figured this was such a great wide track
with lots of racing room. I mean, we were hoping to run well, but we were
honestly not planning on taking home a feature win!”
But that’s exactly what Gullikson did, grabbing the feature win while taking
to the Super Stock and the track like it was and old habit.
Mondovi’s Rodney Dregney appeared on the verge of a dominant feature win
before a couple of minor bobbles allowed Gullikson to capitalize on the
opportunity and take over the lead. Dregney was forced to settle for second
with first heat race winner Troy Brand in third. Justin Sass and Travis Wagner
enjoyed stellar runs at FOX RIDGE rounding out the top five.
Jason is ‘Cummin’ to the front
The WISSOTA Midwest Modified division presented yet another upset of sorts.
After winning the second heat race earlier in the evening in dominant fashion,
Winonan Ben Anderson looked ready to do the same in the evening’s feature
event. New Richland, WI’s Jason Cummins had other ideas.
After some early race contact with both first heat race winner Harlan Morehart
and Clint Wittlief Cummins’ modified showed the battle scars, but neither
incident slowed his #83. Cummins motored his way to the win with Anderson
second and Dean Hoffman, from Eyota, rounding out the top three.
The come-back of the weekend
Last week’s opening weekend of racing couldn’t have gone much worse for
WISSOTA Street Stock driver Wayne Dean. “I blew the motor last Friday here
at FOX RIDGE,” explained the Fall Creek racer, “burned the pistons. I
spent all Saturday on the engine, then Sunday night I broke both rear shocks,
the came down and ruined two brand new tires.”
Week number two presented Dean with just he opposite flavor as he raced his
red and white #17 to both the first heat race win and gathered a trip to the
FOX RIDGE Victory lane in the evening’s feature. “When we came out for the
feature,” commented Dean after the win, “I was looking over the track for
any rough spots, trying to figure out where I’d need to be running, and I
couldn’t find any. The track was almost perfectly smooth.”
Jim Gullikson and Tom Hund completed the top-three finishing positions while
second heat race winner Danny Hanson survived an early race altercation to
finish fourth with third heat race winner Jason Vandekamp sixth.
Double Hornet Features
A swarm of Hornets descended upon FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY Friday night; Hornets of
the 4-Cylinder nature that is. So many competitors showed up to race in the
popular division that two separate features were run for all the competitors.
Galesville’s Alan Van Vleet won the opening feature just in front of a
three-wide scramble across the line Strart/Finish line for second. Ettrick’s
Coty Slawson won the second feature in front of Ron Hestekin.
Racing action resumes at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY next Friday night in all five
divisions. Hot laps get underway at 7 pm with the first green flag scheduled
for 7:30.
4/15/2005 - Fox Ridge Speedway Results...
USRA Modifieds
A-Main 01 -- 1. Brad Waits, Zumbrota, Minn.; 2. John Doelle, Arcadia,
Wis; 3. Todd Dart, Algoma, Wis; 4. Kerry Ledebuhr, Winona, Minn.; 5. Jay Ihrke,
Dover, Minn.; 6. Sean Jerovetz, Little Sucmico, Wis; 7. Benji Lacrosse,
Luxenburg, Wis; 8. Lonnie Earney, Cochrane, Wis; 9. Dave Zeitler, Luxemberg,
Wis; 10. Gary Doelle, Fountain City, Wis; 11. Scott Mullen, Seymour, Wis; 12.
LeRoy Scharkey, Rochester, Minn.; 13. Paul Hamernik, Winona, Minn.; 14. Karl
Fenske, Winona, Minn.; 15. Rick Hauser, Winona, Minn.; 16. Ron Britain,
Winona, Minn.; 17. Dan Ratajczak, Frogstation, Wis; 18. Les Jonsgaard, Winona,
Minn..
Heat 01 -- 1. Waits 2. Scharkey 3. Mullen 4. Earney 5. Jonsgaard 6.
Ratajczak
Heat 02 -- 1. Fenske 2. J. Doelle 3. Ledebuhr 4. Hauser 5. Jerovetz 6.
Britain
Heat 03 -- 1. Dart 2. Lacrosse 3. Hamernik 4. Ihrke 5. Zeitler 6. G.
Doelle
WISSOTA Super Stocks
A-Main 01 -- 1. Dan Gullikson, Stacy, Minn.; 2. Rodney Dregney, Mondovi,
Wis; 3. Troy Brand, Winona, Minn.; 4. Justin Sass, Alma, Wis; 5. Travis
Wagner, Arcadia, Wis; 6. Dan Arneson, Eleva, Wis; 7. David Nastvold,
Galesville, Wis; 8. Gary Wiersgalla, Fountain City, Wis; 9. Jon Duffy, Winona,
Minn.; 10. Luke Schultz, Manitowoc, Wis; 11. Jesse Lutz, Winona, Minn.; 12.
Jeff Dregney, Eleva, Wis; 13. Chris Groth, Plymouth, Minn.; 14. Dennis Earney,
Cochrane, Wis; 15. Troy Langowski, Winona, Minn..
Heat 01 -- 1. Brand 2. Gullikson 3. R. Dregney 4. Wagner 5. Nastvold 6.
Earney 7. J. Dregney 8. Schultz
Heat 02 -- 1. Wiersgalla 2. Sass 3. Arneson 4. Groth 5. Duffy 6. Lutz 7.
Langowski
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
A-Main 01 -- 1. Jason Cummins, New Richland, Minn.; 2. Ben Anderson,
Winona, Minn.; 3. Dean Hoffman, Eyota, Minn.; 4. Justin Jones, Onamia, Minn.;
5. Harlan Morehart, Eyota, Minn.; 6. Tom Brink, Winona, Minn.; 7. Ryan Olson,
Strum, Wis; 8. Jeff Brauer, Eyota, Minn.; 9. Robert Bautch, Winona, Minn.; 10.
Travis Krause, Buffalo City, Wis; 11. Matt Steffen, Mondovi, Wis; 12. Dan
Hesch, Arcadia, Wis; 13. David Kruckeberg, Zumbrota, Minn.; 14. Clint Wittlief,
Oronoco, Minn.; 15. Terry Timmerman, Rochester, Minn..
Heat 01 -- 1. Morehart 2. Krause 3. Hoffman 4. Brink 5. Brauer 6. Bautch
7. Steffen 8. Timmerman
Heat 02 -- 1. Anderson 2. Cummins 3. Olson 4. Jones 5. Wittlief 6. Hesch
7. Kruckeberg
WISSOTA Street Stocks
A-Main 01 -- 1. Wayne Dean, Fall Creek, Wis; 2. Jim Gullikson, Forest
Lake, Minn.; 3. Tom Hund, Fountain City, Wis; 4. Danny Hanson, Alma, Wis; 5.
Shaun Wehlage, Stockton, Minn.; 6. Jason Vandekamp, North Branch, Minn.; 7.
Kylan Gamez, Arcadia, Wis; 8. Michael Conrad, Independence, Wis; 9. Andy
Bohnstengel, Winona, Minn.; 10. Fred Prudoehl, Winona, Minn.; 11. Dennis
Davis, Fountain City, Wis; 12. Matt Wolfe, Mondovi, Wis; 13. Darryll Foegen,
Cochrane, Wis; 14. Chuck Nerland, Rochester, Minn.; 15. Adam Wilken, Eau
Claire, Wis; 16. Gerald Schultz, Arcadia, Wis; 17. Dan Bork, Alma, Wis; 18.
Jim Randall, Rice Lake, Minn.; 19. Erik Kanz, Winona, Minn.; 20. Roger Conrad,
Independence, Wis; 21. Tagge Pape, Arcadia, Wis.
Heat 01 -- 1. Dean 2. Gullikson 3. Wehlage 4. Bohnstengel 5. Prudoehl 6.
Nerland 7. R. Conrad
Heat 02 -- 1. Hanson 2. Randall 3. Hund 4. Wolfe 5. Schultz 6. Bork 7.
Pape
Heat 03 -- 1. Vandekamp 2. M. Conrad 3. Gamez 4. Davis 5. Wilken 6.
Foegen 7. Kanz
Hornets
A-Main 01 -- 1. Alan Van Vleet 2. Gary Towner 3. Scott Kronn 4. Brandon
Gleiter 5. Rick Slawson 6. Eric Komperud 7. Roger Niederkorn 8. Dan Carpenter
9. Rich Niederkorn 10. Danny Richards 11. Jerry Schomers 12. Preston Fenske
13. John Towner 14. Lorne Klonecki 15. Nate Towner 16. Ryan Ruhbusch 17. Chris
Gilbertson 18. Chris Endle 19. Kevin Baertsch 20. Justin Yahnke
A-Main 02 -- 1. Coty Slawson 2. Ron Hestekin 3. Mike Gilbertson 4. Klye
Franson 5. Matt Fawcett 6. Robert Carpenter 7. Mike Krause 8. Michael Peters
9. Mike Thompson 10. Corey Klink 11. Jody Tollefson 12. James Clark 13. Jeff
Hofer 14. Joel Hesch 15. Mark Bornitz 16. Tommy Richards 17. Jason Lindvig 18.
Jason Sass 19. Aaron Towner
Heat 01 -- 1. Scott Kronn 2. Alan Van Vleet 3. Rich Niederkorn 4. Ryan
Ruhbusch 5. Eric Komperud 6. Ron Hestekin 7. Roger Niederkorn 8. Mike
Gilbertson 9. Jerry Schomers 10. Michael Peters 11. Nate Towner 12. Jason Sass
13. Kevin Baertsch
Heat 02 -- 1. Mark Bornitz 2. Coty Slawson 3. Gary Towner 4. Mike
Thompson 5. Matt Fawcett 6. Chris Gilbertson 7. Aaron Towner 8. Danny Richards
9. Tommy Richards 10. Dan Carpenter 11. Corey Klink 12. Lorne Klonecki 13.
James Clark
Heat 03 -- 1. Jason Lindvig 2. Joel Hesch 3. Justin Yahnke 4. Brandon
Gleiter 5. Robert Carpenter 6. Mike Krause 7. Rick Slawson 8. Klye Franson 9.
Chris Endle 10. Jeff Hofer 11. Preston Fenske 12. Jody Tollefson 13. John
Towner
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