RACIN AROUND TITLETOWN by Joe Verdegan

September 11th, 2002 

With many of the top guns down in Boone, Iowa for the IMCA Supernationals, it was almost considered an afterthought that the number of modified and stock cars on hand for Luxemburg Speedway's season finale would be down. In fact, track manager Rick Goral said he'd be happy with sixteen cars in each division. What a nice surprise last Friday night. 29 IMCA-style stock cars turned up, along with 23 IMCA-style modifieds. It was enough cars to provide three full heats and a consi in each division, something Goral hadn't expected. "With us showcasing the street stocks and with Boone running I was pleasantly surprised to see the pit area pretty full."

Many drivers who call other tracks like Seymour, Shawano, Sturgeon Bay or Manitowoc made the trip to Luxemburg Friday night. After all, not everyone can afford to go to Boone or even get the vacation time off from work. It was good to see Darrell Massart back at Luxemburg. A driver who not long ago used to race four nights a week in his familiar green number 2 modified, Massart has called Door County Speedway his one and only track in recent years. Massart kept winner Dave Zeitler in his sights towards the end but wound up in the bridesmaid spot.

Other first timers who showed up off the top of my head in the mods were Shiocton's John Peters, Gillett's Greg Magsam, Green Bay's Joel Schmidt and Brian Bruechert, who made his Luxemburg debut in a mod. "This car was raced by Toby Berkovitz a few years ago," said Bruechert. Berkovitz has served as a crew member for Jerry and Eddie Muenster in recent years. Bruechert made the feature through the consi.

The stock car field drew many cars from the Door County area. Among them were Russ Tuttle, Gary and Scott Reinhardt and Kerry Douglass. Shawano regulars who gave it a go were Greg Gutt and Michael Aschenbrenner. Beaver Dam regular Jerry Schaalma was there, as was Seymour regular Chas Van Ooyen, who scored an impressive fourth against a pretty tough field.

But the showcased class of the night were the street stocks. Top guns from the three other neighboring dirt tracks showed up not only for bragging rights but a crack at the $500 top prize. In fact, the top five finishers in the main I wouldn't consider "regulars" at the track all year. Winner Tom Daubner debuted his car at Sturgeon Bay around mid- season and was racing in just his fourth night of the year at Luxemburg. White battling for second regulars Phil Hiles and Charlie Kroll collided and spun, which opened the door for "Dancin" Lance Arnenson to take the second spot. Arnenson had run his modified down at Boone Iowa. But like a few others he hoofed it back to Luxemburg to make the show.

Track crews faced an uphill battle all night long. A pesky drizzle all day in Green Bay most likely kept the crowd down. But the show went on, despite a near 50 minute delay due to the drizzle and to a lack of cooperation to a certain extent among the drivers early on. Still, despite starting at 7:50 p.m., track crews were able to click off a total of 20 races in two hours and 31 minutes. The show wrapped up at 10:21. And that light drizzle fell pretty much on and off all night long.

Other Luxemburg notes.....Shawano's Jeremy Hodkiewicz, a third year student at UW-Stout, skipped his afternoon lab classes so he could come back and race. Mom and Dad couldn't have been too mad - they were in the stands cheering him on!

Among the first two drivers out there to pack the track when they were called were street stockers Phil Hiles and Al Sedo. The bombers hit a season high 13 cars. The division will become the IMCA hobby stock class in 2003. There is interest early as a few of the sport truck drivers have indicated they will build cars to compete in that division. The bomber class will most easily convert to the IMCA hobby stock. The street stocks will not be part of the weekly program at Luxemburg in 2003. The sport fours it appears will most likely compete each week.

Look for some facilities improvements at Luxemburg in 2003. Among them will be a complete redesign of the pit area. "Once we get some fill in here and raise the pits and shuffle things around we should be able to squeeze 150 haulers in here," said Goral. I also know on Goral's "wish list" is also to improve the lighting around the third-mile, clay oval. But most importantly for the drivers eight to ten inches of new clay will be added to the racing surface. And most likely that clay will be added this fall before the snow flies. And the full IMCA sanction will remain in effect at Luxemburg for the mods, stocks and hobby stocks in 2003.

In all, Lakeshore Motorsports Promotions should be proud of what they accomplished in so little time. Remember they didn't get the contract to operate the track this season until seven weeks before their opener. This winter should be much easier with more time to plan and create next year's schedule.

On Saturday night, Sept. 7 we made a snap decision to take in a show at the Dells Motor Speedway. Of course we've heard much talk about all the improvements and solid car counts they've had this season. When we arrived we found the facilities to be clean and well kept. We made it there from Green Bay in about two hours and twenty five minutes. They started off the night by loading up a pickup truck full of Gatorade and giving one to each driver at the driver's meeting. The driver's meeting, conducted by Pat Barrett, was piped through the p.a. system, which allowed everyone in the stands to hear "the skinny" on what was going on. There were many questions regarding the big $10,000-to-win show on Sept. 27 and 28.

Dells pays out $1,000-to-win for their 50 lap late model features every week, with $400-to-start. Word has it that next year they plan on paying $1,500-to-win each late model feature. Dells is about the same size as Norway, Michigan's third-mile paved oval but has more banking. Those "in the know" told me it appeared the outside groove was beginning to come around. We saw veteran Rocky Breezer work the outside line well all night, as well as Nathan Haseleu.

A number of non-regulars came out to test and tune for the big one, including Illinois' Steve Rubeck, Alleton's Dave Prunty and Waterford's Jeff Storm, who turned in a poor qualifying time and for whatever reason loaded up and watched the rest of the night from the stands.

On the point standings sheet we picked up through the ticket gate, we discovered that 85 different late model drivers have sampled the Dells Motor Speedway this season. Throw in another five newcomers and you've got a total of 90 different cars in that class this season. It's pretty impressive.

The late model feature wasn't without sparks. Montello's Jeff Kendall "boogered" Haseleu with two to go to take the lead. Haseleu didn't do the same, and kept his cool after passing everyone cleanly on the outside most of the night and settled for second. (Editors Note: After post race inspection Jeff Kendall was disqualified for being to light on the scales. Since Dells Motor Speedway's rules state no one moves up a position. So there was no winner of the event, and Nathan Hassleu took second.) Mark Eswein was on hand, fresh off wrapping up the Golden Sands Speedway track title the night before. "We've always liked running the Dells and we're sure not afraid of the competition," said Eswein. "We're here to give it a good run for the big one in a few weeks. It should be a dandy."

Lake Geneva's Ryan Matthews has really been getting alot of seat time in at a lot of different tracks. If you scan the racing papers you can notice his name at just about any asphalt late model show in Wisconsin. Matthews was a late addition to the late model feature field Saturday night. And it happened under a strange set of circumstances.

While scuffing their tires and getting some heat in them prior to the main, Tod Kropf and Todd Stapleman got together, the end result being "Stapes" car collecting the turn one wall. Since the race hadn't yet started, Matthews quickly jumped into his racer and joined the field. A couple of ladies who also compete at the Dells were on hand. Sandy Birch was in the number 11 car. It was sponsored by Dairyland Transport, longtime sponsor of Mike Miller back in his radical Bemco chassis looking days. And at just 16-years-old, Ashley Morrisey was out there wheeling around a late model. The super stock class sported some sharp looking machines. One that immediately stood out was the bright blue number five of Travis Sauter. Travis is the son of Tim Sauter, as the third generation of Necedah natives keeps it a racing family.

I'm very much looking forward to my return to the Calumet County Speedway Sept. 27 and 28 for the traditional Chilton Fall Colors Classic. I believe last year's record car count may have been 312. It wouldn't surprise me if that would get beat this year. It's eight classes and just a good atmoshere of "let's just race and have a good time." End of the year, no politics, no rules bickering, etc. It's a show you won't want to miss.

Another one we may attempt to make will be the Jim Pagel Memorial, a race for several reasons we haven't been able to make in past years. This year they've added the limited late models to bring the fans more racing on the half mile. The Jim Pagel Memorial race will take place at WIR on Saturday night, Sept. 14.

And I see that an open UMP/WISSOTA late model show will be held at Sheboygan County Fair Park in Plymouth Saturday night, Sept. 21 to be run with the Bumper To Bumper Outlaw IRA sprint cars. It's the first time in many years that late models have competed at Plymouth. With many of their graduates moving up to late models in recent years like Scott Specht (UMP), and many others going the WISSOTA route like Tim Buhler, Steve Hoffman, Scott Cramer, Dave Jessen and Jim Rychtik, the show's got some potential.