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MSA Sprints Add To Exciting Show
By Dave Buss
July 15, 2003
A large crowd was presented with perfect weather and another great night of
racing at the Powercom Speedzone on Tuesday, July 15th. Fans came out in force
as the MSA Sprint cars joined the Modifieds, Stocks and Dirt Devils to put on
a relatively clean racing program.
The Sprint cars would not disappoint the fans when they took the track for
feature action as Danny Schlafer jumped to an early lead from his starting
pole position. The early battle would be for second as Doug Schenck and
Michael Emme would do battle with Schenck winning to take the second position
kin the early going. Schlafer would maintain his lead through a couple of
cautions in the first 10 laps of the race. The second half of the race would
see the 82 of Troy Hepfner begin to make some noise as he began to power his
way forward. Meanwhile, Dean Erfurth had quietly made his way into the third
position with Emme falling back to third. Hepfner would follow Erfurth past
Emme to assume the fourth position by lap 15 but wasn’t satisfied as he
moved to third on the next lap. With all the battling for third and
fourth would allow Schlafer and Schenck to get away with Schenck beginning to
track down Schlafer as they encountered lap traffic. In the end Schlafer would
lead them across the line with Schenck, Hepfner, Erfurth, and David O’Neal
rounding out the top five.
The Modifieds Feature sponsored by Suburban Motors Harley Davidson/Buell would
produce many great battles throughout the field. At the onset of the race Ryan
Besaw, Dennis Schultz and Todd Ascherien would battle for the lead with Besaw
taking the position on lap 4. Caution would fly, as Jay Schraufnagel and Scott
Lewis would get together in corners 3 and 4. On the restart Ascherien would
take the lead from Besaw while a heated battle for third would begin. Last
year’s track champion, Travis Spaulding, would fight for third with Schultz
and Brian Drexler eventually taking the third position. Spaulding would set
his sights on the second position, which was now occupied by Ascherien as
Besaw had retaken the lead. Spaulding grabbed second and then one lap later
wrestled first from Besaw. Points Leader, Tim Lemirande, would
begin to once again move through the field, something we have all become
accustomed too. As Lemirande worked his way forward, Ascherien began to slide
out of the top five. Chris Engels and Mike Hansel would grab the audience’s
attention, as they would battle for the third position. Lemirande joined the
battle on lap 12 and on lap 13 he won the battle taking third and then went
after Besaw for second. Lemirande would eventually take second but Spaulding
had checked out. Lemirande would be unable to overcome the large lead
Spaulding had built, as Spaulding would take his first Checkered Flag of the
year. Besaw, Hansel and Drexler would complete the top five.
The American Auto Stocks feature would also produce a first time winner at the
Speedzone in 2003. The first 18 laps would run caution free with rookie Bill
Genz jumping out to a lap one lead. Gary Neau would move up to and begin his
assault on the lead but to no avail as Genz held firm to the position.
Meanwhile, Mark Schultz had taken the opportunity to work his way into
striking distance of both Neau and Genz. On lap 3 Neau grabbed the lead from
Genz and took Schultz along with him dropping Genz into the third spot. Neau
would continue to pace the field as Shawn Frelich, Jerry Kope and Rich Garb
joined the top five. Dale Averkamp and Trevor Schmidt decided to join the
battle up front on lap 12 with Averkamp sliding into 4 and Schmidt to fifth.
On lap 18 the caution would fly giving the drivers a chance to catch their
breath for a three-lap shoot out for the win. On the restart, Schultz would
dive to the inside and take the lead from Neau, a lead he would never
relinquish from Neau. Garb, seeing the line Schultz had used, led a line of
cars past Neau. At the line it would be Schultz, Garb, Averkamp, Kope, and
Schmidt claiming top five finishes. Neau would grab sixth.
The Golf Central/Jurassic Dirt Devils continued their run of exciting
finishes. Loren Rangeloff would use his pole position to grab the lead from
the start. Loren would begin to pull away as cars battled it out behind him.
Jasper Drengler worked his way past Bandon Rennhack and Chris Cottrell on lap
2 for third position and begin to work on the 12 of Matt Hoge. The field would
hold their positions up front until lap 8 when Rennhack would grab third from
Cottrell only to have Cottrell take it back a little later. Drengler had
whittled Rangeloff’s big lead down by the time the white flag flew. It
looked like Rangeloff would hold for the win but Drengler had other plans and
stormed out of corner four on the high side to steal the win at the line. Hoge,
Cottrell, and Rennhack would round out the top five.
While a regular night of racing returns to the Powercom Speedzone on July 22,
2003, those interested in seeing the sprints in action again can check them
out at The Race at Powercom Park in Beaver Dam on July 26, 2003.
MSA Sprints
A-Main (1-10) Danny Schlafer, Doug Schenck, Troy Hepfner, Dean Erfurth, David
O¹Neal, Michael Emme, Jerry Ski, Keith Olejnik, Lance Fassbender, Kurt Davis
B-Main 1 – David O’Neal
Heat 1 – Alex Trimmings, Heat 2 – Jerry Ski, Heat 3 – Dean Erfurth, Heat
4 – Doug Schenck
Suburban Motors Harley Davidson/Buell Modifieds
A-Main (1-10) Travis Spaulding, Tim Lemirande, Ryan Besaw, Mike Hansel,
Brian Drexler, Chris Engels, Russell Reinwald, Andy Voight, Nick Woods,
Timothy Robbins
B-Main 1 – Mark Pownell
Heat 1 – Brian Drexler, Heat 2 – Dennis Schultz, Heat 3 – Mike Hansel,
Heat 4 – Jay Schraufnagel
American Auto Stocks Division
A-Main (1-10) Mark Schultz, Rich Garb, Dale Averkamp, Jerry Kope, Trevor
Schmidt, Gary Neau, Shawn Frelich, Richard Amundson Jr., Frank Formiller, Dan
Wirl
B-Main 1 – Jason Kienast
Heat 1 –Ken Feavel, Heat 2 – Trevor Schmidt, Heat 3 –Gary Neau, Heat 4
– Dale Averkamp
Golf Central/Wingers/Jurassic Valley Dirt Devils
A-Main (1-10) Jasper Drengler, Matt, Hoge, Chris Cottrell, Brandon,
Rennhack, Jon Schultz, William Angermeyer, Dustin Schwandt, Patrick Klawitter,
Amanda Rangeloff
Heat 1 – Loren Rangeloff
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