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Langowski Returns To Fox Ridge Victory Lane
by Dan Bailey
(ARCADIA, Wisconsin) -- Coming into Friday July 8th’s action at FOX RIDGE
SPEEDWAY control of the WISSOTA Super Stock Division appeared to belong to
Cochrane, WI’s Dennis Earney. With a smooth and fast driving style that has
brought him into Victory Lane at the conclusion of more than half of this
season’s feature events, Earney has become the driver to beat on ‘The Big
3/8 Mile’.
Friday night’s Super Stock Feature event went through so many plot twists
and unexpected turn of events that race fans and drivers alike were left
wondering what would happen next. Those unexpected variations continued right
up until the moment the checkered flag waived.
At the drop of the green flag, first heat race winner Rodney Dregney jumped
from the inside of the second row to pass pole sitter Troy Brand for the lead
entering turn one. Brand, however, was able to battle back down the long back
straight and regain the lead while racing through turns three and four.
Brand led the first eight green flag laps before a safety caution for debris
slowed the field. It was during this caution that the first major change
impacted the field. While lumbering around the track at pace speed, Brands
race leading car suddenly slowed and came to a stop in between turns one and
two.
This handed the lead over to Fountain City’s Gary Wiersgalla. Entering the
evening’s events fifth in the point standings, it really can’t be said
that Wiersgalla’s been experiencing a ‘bad’ year thus far – but the
results to date have tended to fall short of what this former Track Champion
is capable. Inheriting the lead at the halfway point appeared to be a blessing
to help Wiersgalla turn his season around.
Indeed, his #52 raced strongly at the front of the field and appeared ready to
roll into Victory Lane to celebrate his first feature win of the year.
Unfortunately, lap 15 would bring these hopes to an end and usher in yet
another change. Wiersgalla’s ride went for a spin in turn one while leading
all alone. The resultant caution set up a three lap shoot-out to the checkered
flag with Earney inheriting the lead.
With his success thus far, I’m sure it’s safe to say that many expected
this to be a three-lap runaway win for Earney and his blue #4. Nothing could
be further from the truth. With the green flag sending them back to racing the
top-five racers immediately turned up the intensity level several notches.
Travis Wagner and Jon Duffy made the top three race hard while Rodney Dregney
made advances on Earney for the lead.
But it was the blue and white 88 of Troy Langowski who brought forth a three
wide battle to the checkered flag. When all was said and done, Earney had been
relegated to an unexpected third place finish behind Dregney while Langowski
basked in the glow of his second feature win this season!
“I came out on the end of the action anyway,” commented a smiling
Langowski when asked about the exciting conclusion to the feature, “I think
I held my breath all the way through those last two laps! Those last three
laps I found a decent line right on the bottom; the car was sticking good
there and I drove it hard enough to Troy and Dregney.”
The feature win did not come without some pre-race work, “I really didn’t
know what I was going to have for them for the feature. I came in after the
heat and we ended up changing gears, two springs, the wheel off-set,
stagger.”
The changes were exactly what Langowski needed, though, to get him back into
Victory Lane.
CLEAN SWEEP FOR BRAUER
Eyota, MN’s Jeff Brauer won the opening WISSOTA MIDWEST Modified heat race
and then went on to lead all but a single lap of the 16-lap feature.
Fending off early race challenges from both Tom Brink and Ryan Olson (who lead
the feature’s third lap as the only other lap leader in the event) Brauer
raced on to his first MIDWEST Mod feature win of ’05 at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY.
Olson and Brink completed the top-three with second heat race winner Bobby
Bautch finishing fifth just behind Ben Anderson.
FENSKE AGAIN
Local racing legend LeRoy Scharkey appeared ready to collect his first feature
win of the 2005 season at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY. Starting from the pole, Scharkey
battled Dover’s Jay Ihrke and was able to lead the first thirteen laps of
the 18-lap feature before ‘The Leaders Curse’ struck him down, “Blew the
motor.” was all Scharkey felt like offering after the discouraging failure.
This handed the lead and eventual win over to Karl Fenske. Fenske opened a
lead over Ihrke and Hank Rollinger through the closing five-lap green flag
battle, to collect his sixth feature win of the season, adding to his point
lead over Arcadia’s John Doelle.
SIXTH FOR DEAN
Wayne Dean lead all but the opening lap en route to his sixth WISSOTA STREET
STOCK feature win on the high-banks of FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY. After grabbing the
lead from pole sitter, and first lap leader, Cory Hanson, Dean battled point
leader Danny Hanson over the next three laps for the lead.
On lap five Hanson and Dean made contact exiting turn four. While it was
Dean’s car that actually came to rest at the beginning of the front straight
away, Hanson put forth and incredibly sportsman like gesture and accepted
blame for the incident. As Hanson’s #5 dropped to the rear of the field for
the restart the crowd actually cheered, with some even rising to their feet,
to applaud Hanson’s actions.
Hanson then put forth an incredible effort, battling back through the entire
field up to a side by side battle for fifth with Michael Conrad. Entering turn
three on lap 10, Conrad’s #76 dove from the outside lane, across the front
of Hanson’s #5 and ended up spinning out in turn three. The track ruling is
that all cars involved in a caution go to the back unless one of the drivers
accepts blame for the incident (as Hanson had in the earlier caution).
Unfortunately, Conrad was not ready to stand up and accept blame for the
incident. This meant both cars would be dropped to the rear of the field. To
make matters more frustrating for Hanson, this also meant that, as it was his
second caution, he was headed to the pits.
Dean held off challenges for the lead by Tom Hund, and collected the win. Hund
finished second for the third week in a row, followed by Chuck Nerland –
who, in turn, finished third for the second week in a row.
SECOND FEATURE WIN FOR KRONN
After an early season feature win with his #13Q Honda, Holmen, WI’s Scott
Kronn enjoyed a solid night – winning both the opening 4-Cylinder Hornet
heat race as well as the evening’s 12-lap feature.
Second heat race winner Mark Bornitz added to his points lead with a second
place finish in the feature, just ahead of Robert Carpenter.
EXTRA FUN ON THE 15th
Racing action resumes Friday July 15th with Budweiser / KG 95.3 night at the
track. In addition to all of the on-track action in all five divisions, the
off-track fun will ramp up with music, prizes and added entertainment for the
entire crowd.
Grandstands open at 5 pm – hot laps get underway at 7 with the first green
flag waiving at 7:30. Don’t miss all the high-speed action and the added fun
this coming Friday night at FOX RIDGE SPEEDWAY!!
Fox Ridge Speedway
7/8/2005 - Fox Ridge Speedway Results
USRA Modifieds
A-Main 01 -- 1. Karl Fenske, Winona, Minn.; 2. Jay Ihrke, Dover, Minn.;
3. Hank Rollinger, Buffalo City, Wis; 4. Mick Glenn, Minnesota City, Minn.; 5.
Kerry Ledebuhr, Winona, Minn.; 6. Jason Marten, Mondovi, Wis; 7. Rick Hauser,
Winona, Minn.; 8. John Doelle, Arcadia, Wis; 9. Matt Sweeney, Waukon, Iowa;
10. Gary Doelle, Fountain City, Wis; 11. Les Jonsgaard, Winona, Minn.; 12.
Paul Hamernik, Winona, Minn.; 13. LeRoy Scharkey, Rochester, Minn.; 14. Bob
Timm, Winona, Minn.; 15. Jesse Frericks, Pine Island, Minn.; 16. Brad Waits,
Zumbrota, Minn.; 17. Jessie Maynard, Minnesota City, Minn..
Heat 01 -- 1. K. Fenske; 2. B. Waits; 3. R. Hauser; 4. J. Marten; 5. M.
Sweeney; 6. G. Doelle; 7. L. Jonsgaard; 8. K. Ledebuhr; 9. J. Doelle
Heat 02 -- 1. B. Timm; 2. J. Frericks; 3. J. Ihrke; 4. H. Rollinger; 5.
L. Scharkey; 6. P. Hamernik; 7. M. Glenn; 8. J. Maynard
WISSOTA Super Stocks
A-Main 01 -- 1. Troy Langowski, Winona, Minn.; 2. Rodney Dregney,
Mondovi, Wis; 3. Dennis Earney, Cochrane, Wis; 4. Jon Duffy, Winona, Minn.; 5.
Travis Wagner, Arcadia, Wis; 6. David Nastvold, Galesville, Wis; 7. Dan
Arneson, Eleva, Wis; 8. Gary Wiersgalla, Fountain City, Wis; 9. Justin Sass,
Alma, Wis; 10. Jesse Lutz, Winona, Minn.; 11. Jeff Dregney, Eleva, Wis; 12.
Bruce Lutz, Minnesota City, Minn.; 13. Patrick Mc Carthy, Apple Valley, Minn.;
14. Dan Nissalke, Winona, Minn.; 15. Troy Brand, Winona, Minn.; 16. Quinn
Arnoldy, Arcadia, Wis; 17. Jere Stanton, Arpin, Wis; 18. Luke Schultz,
Manitowoc, Wis. (D.N.S.)
Heat 01 -- 1. R. Dregney; 2. J. Duffy; 3. T. Langowski; 4. D. Nissalke;
5. T. Wagner; 6. Q. Arnoldy; 7. J. Dregney; 8. B. Lutz; 9. P. Mc Carthy.
Heat 02 -- 1. J. Stanton; 2. G. Wiersgalla; 3. T. Brand; 4. D. Earney;
5. J. Sass; 6. D. Arneson; 7. D. Nastvold; 8. J. Lutz; 9. L. Schultz.
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
A-Main 01 -- 1. Jeff Brauer, Eyota, Minn.; 2. Ryan Olson, Strum, Wis; 3.
Tom Brink, Winona, Minn.; 4. Ben Anderson, Winona, Minn.; 5. Robert Bautch,
Winona, Minn.; 6. Dean Hoffman, Eyota, Minn.; 7. Dan Hesch, Arcadia, Wis; 8.
Travis Krause, Buffalo City, Wis; 9. James Pehler, Fountain City, Wis; 10.
Harlan Morehart, Eyota, Minn.; 11. Matt Steffen, Mondovi, Wis.
Heat 01 -- 1. J. Brauer; 2. R. Olson; 3. D. Hoffman; 4. T. Krause; 5. H.
Morehart; 6. M. Steffen.
Heat 02 -- 1. R. Bautch; 2. B. Anderson; 3. D. Hesch; 4. J. Pehler; 5.
T. Brink.
WISSOTA Street Stocks
A-Main 01 -- 1. Wayne Dean, Fall Creek, Wis; 2. Tom Hund, Fountain City,
Wis; 3. Chuck Nerland, Rochester, Minn.; 4. Kylan Gamez, Arcadia, Wis; 5. Andy
Bohnstengel, Winona, Minn.; 6. Cory Hanson, Black River Falls, Wis; 7. Matt
Wolfe, Mondovi, Wis; 8. Jack Nissalke, Winona, Minn.; 9. Gerald Schultz,
Arcadia, Wis; 10. Tagge Pape, Arcadia, Wis; 11. Dennis Davis, Fountain City,
Wis; 12. Michael Conrad, Independence, Wis; 13. Roger Conrad, Independence,
Wis; 14. Danny Hanson, Alma, Wis; 15. Adam Wilken, Eau Claire, Wis.
Heat 01 -- 1. A. Bohnstengel; 2. W. Dean; 3. C. Nerland; 4. C. Hanson;
5. J. Nissalke; 6. G. Schultz; 7. T. Pape; 8. A. Wilken.
Heat 02 -- 1. D. Hanson; 2. T. Hund; 3. K. Gamez; 4. D. Davis; 5. M.
Conrad; 6. M. Wolfe; 7. R. Conrad.
Hornets
A-Main 01 -- 1. Scott Kronn, Holmen, Wis; 2. Mark Bornitz, Holmen, Wis;
3. Robert Carpenter, Black River Falls, Wis; 4. Mike Thompson, Melrose, Wis;
5. Steve Bryn, Arcadia, Wis; 6. Roger Niederkorn, Ettrick, Wis; 7. Rich
Niederkorn, Galesville, Wis; 8. Justin Yahnke, Sparta, Wis; 9. Tommy Richards,
Mondovi, Wis; 10. Joel Hesch, Arcadia, Wis; 11. Mike Skroch, Independence, Wis;
12. Kyle Franson, Strum, Wis; 13. Rick Slawson, Ettrick, Wis; 14. Coty Slawson,
Ettrick, Wis; 15. Michael Peters, Whitehall, Wis; 16. Dan Carpenter, Black
River Falls, Wis; 17. Danny Richards, Mondovi, Wis; 18. Brandon Gleiter, Alma,
Wis; 19. Mike Krause, Buffalo City, Wis; 20. Corey Klink, Fountain City, Wis;
21. Mackenzie Ziemer, Winona, Minn.; 22. James Clark, Winona, Minn.; 23. Kris
Oium, Eleva, Wis; 24. Chris Gilbertson, Trempealeau, Wis; 25. Charlie
Schwabenbauer, Holmen, Wis; 26. Kyle Redsten, Galesville, Wis.
Heat 01 -- 1. S. Kronn; 2. M. Thompson; 3. R. Carpenter; 4. S. Bryn; 5.
Ro. Niederkorn; 6. R. Slawson; 7. C. Schwabenbauer; 8. B. Gleiter; 9. M.
Skroch; 10. C. Gilbertson; 11. M. Peters; 12. K. Oium; 13. J. Hesch.
Heat 02 -- 1. M. Bornitz; 2. J. Yahnke; 3. C. Slawson; 4. D. Richards;
5. T. Richards; 6. Ri. Niederkorn; 7. M. Krause; 8. C. Klink; 9. M. Ziemer;
10. J. Clark; 11. K. Redsten; 12. K. Franson; 13. D. Carpenter.
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