(04-30-03) With sunny skies Luxemburg Speedway opened it's doors last Friday night. I think the drivers and fans got a gut check when the normally smooth racing surface was soft and rutted up, very uncharacteristic of Luxemburg's third-mile, clay surface. But I guess that's what happens when you put new clay on.

Despite the sub-par track conditions a healthy field of cars turned up for the opener. Both the IMCA modifieds and IMCA stock cars had predictable healthy car counts, while the IMCA hobby stocks and sport fours had smaller car counts of 12 and 10, respectively. Many drivers machines are still in the building stages Zion, Illinois' Tony Schlei, for example, is just finishing up his racer.

He had planned to run for the points title. What a night for "Joe Bear" Hegnet. He had quite a night. Hegnet joked when he took home the first place trophy for best appearing car in the car show two weeks ago, stating "this will probably be the only trophy I collect all year long." Boy, was he wrong. On his 21st birthday nonetheless Friday night, Hegnet scored a clean sweep, winning the heat and feature. What's more, he collected $1,000 from two fans, who each put up $500 should he win the feature. The Sturgeon Bay driver went home with $1150, more than double what the IMCA modified feature winner Eddie Muenster went home with. Muenster was racing with a heavy heart. His father Jerry, a racer himself for four decades, underwent a quadruple bypass surgery last Thursday. He's currently resting comfortably. It was strange to see Jerry's pit stall open, next to Eddie's. Eddie qualified through "the gong show" (aka consi) and started from the back and fought both the choppy racing surface and a field of hungry, at times over aggressive field of mod drivers opening night. Muenster was involved in what appeared to be a controversial call in the mod main with four laps to go. While battling Mike Mashl for the lead, Muenster's car hit a rut and slammed into Mashl's racer, sending Mashl's machine head on into the frontstretch retaining wall. Mashl was ok but the same could not be said for his car. Word is a near $4,000 price tag is needed to fix it, but that's just what he and his crew are doing. Muenster got his spot back in the lead which some fans questioned. However the caution was not thrown for Mashl and Muenster. It was thrown for a stalled racer in corner four just prior to the M*M collision.

Mashl wasn't the only driver who made junk in an encounter with the frontstretch wall. Jared Siefert and Dean Maurer both met similiar fates, with Siefert's machine suffering perhaps the worst damage. Siefert suffered a headache and a split lip in the melee. Maurer was driving one of MJ Hintz's modifieds from a season ago. Some blamed the modified crashes, which accounted for a brutal eight yellows in the main event, on over aggressive driving just as much as the track conditions. Who's to say? A couple of visitors from the north came down to shake their cars down before Langlade County Speedway in Antigo opens next weekend. Beetle Bailey, the veteran racer from Argonne (near Crandon) was on hand in his number 4 IMCA modified. Bailey told this scribe he had "the itch" and had to scratch it. Bailey has raced on northern Wisconsin's tracks for three decades now, including a stint in late models back in the day.

Another driver pulled in with a sharp dressed crew to boot was Jamie Czernecki of Antigo. "I raced a few times last year so I guess I'm still considered a rookie," said Czernecki. Mod driver David Charles on the reason from switching to number 79 from his familiar 8 "there were already three number 8's running mods around here. Maybe this will bring me better luck." A pair of young guns who should be given serious track title consideration this season are Eric Van Iten and Sean Jerovetz. Both had top five performances and they've won features in the past. Keep your eye on those two young guns, as big things will happen to them soon. While the mods were busy bodyslamming each other the IMCA stock cars had much smoother racing. A green-to-checkered feature race on a sub-par track certainly says something about the quality of the drivers in that division. I suspect some of the track conditions these guys have experienced at other tracks south of here a couple of months earlier helped prepare them for their "better-put-your-mouthguard-in" nights of racing.

WISSOTA late model driver Ron Berna hotlapped his number 66 racer on two different occasions Friday night. Berna will be taking part in one of the four WISSOTA late model specials this year at Luxemburg. Berna actually got his start racing in the street stock classes at Luxemburg and even a brief stint on the pavement at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek back in the day. One driver who made a surprise visit to Luxemburg was Chilton's Scott Sorwheide, a former grand national sportsman champion at Chilton's tiny quarter-mile, paved oval. "I'm going to put someone else in this car Sunday nights at Seymour," said Sorwheide, who'll still run his grand national sprotsman Friday nights at Chilton.

In all, a decent sized crowd was on hand. They were patient, too when Bobby Marquis and the gang did a grading job on the track at intermission, something they're not used to seeing.

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Congrats going out to Luke Roffers on his first career WISSOTA late model win at Monster Hall Raceway in Unity last Friday night. By the sounds of it, Luxemburg wasn't the only dirt track with some opening night problems with regards to track conditions.

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This weekend the rest of the tracks in the area will get things started, as Thunder Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay will open it's doors Saturday night at 6 p.m. It will be the maiden voyage for new promoters Bryan "Woody" Wodack and Brian Duquaine. Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna will run three Sunday afternoon programs to open up the season, beginning this Sunday. And Seymour Tri-Oval Raceway will kick off a 20th anniversary season Sunday night as well. Remember they've got a new start time of 6 p.m.