It's getting to be crunchtime at eastern Wisconsin tracks

By Joe Verdegan

It's getting to be crunchtime at eastern Wisconsin tracks. The top dogs in points are keeping a closer eye on things like starting positions and finishing positions of their foes. Tempers are getting a little testy as most dirt tracks head into the final five or six weeks of their regular season schedule.

At Luxemburg Speedway Eddie Muenster has had a handle of the season points lead in the IMCA modified from week two and hasn't let go of it. To date he's the only driver running out of the 75 or so mod competitors who's been able to qualify for every single feature event on Friday nights. What's more, despite missing one Saturday night at Shawano to go Planet Pages mid-am supertruck racing at Marshfield, Muenster's still in the points chase at Shawano. A win Saturday night propelled him into second, 11 points behind AJ Diemel. The Luxemburg deal is even more interesting because when the season started Muenster had planned on taking a few Friday nights off to race Roger Perrett's truck. "I kinda bent it up at Marshfield so we changed those plans a little bit," said Muenster. "We're still going to run it a time or two yet. But when we got the points lead and kept building on it every week our plans changed a little."

Luxemburg's IMCA stock car points leader John "JJ" Heinz got some news from IMCA's Tom Herbert a few weeks back regarding the backup car he brings. "Tom told us per IMCA rules that I've got to have someone drive that car every night," said Heinz. "So I've got Bucky Coopman entered in it." Coopman normally pulls off after a lap or two, saving the car for Heinz should he need it. "I've never won a track championship yet," said Heinz, a near decade-long veteran of the IMCA stock car wars. "We're confident it's gonna be here at the 'Burg this year."

Although just 17-years-old, Brett Piontek, who'll be senior at Green Bay East high school this year, has shown that he's got some talent. Piontek led 21 and three-quarters laps in the IMCA stock car feature until Benji LaCrosse rim-rode his way on the outside to a thrilling, last-corner-of-the-last-lap win. Piontek is the son of former ASA car owner Randy Piontek, who can boast the names of Ted Musgrave and the late Alan Kulwicki as those who have driven for him. Right now Piontek says they are weighing their pavement options next year, considering either a limited late model or perhaps a mid-am car.

Plymouth's Dave Deicher and Manitowoc's Kris Hansen brought their winged supermodifieds to hot lap at Luxemburg Friday. Deicher is also a former flagman at tracks at Chilton, Plymouth and Manitowoc. The Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car (EWSC) supermods will have just one more chance at hot laps before their August 16 appearance at Luxemburg.

There will be no racing at Luxemburg on August 2 because of the Kewaunee County Fair. But I'm happy to say that it does look "real good" for racing to return to the track for the fair in 2003.

The program Friday night boasted 15 four cylinder sport fours, an all-time high for the class. Track manager Rick Goral is considering running them weekly next year. "If we get together and get a common set of rules between the two tracks it'll grow even more" said Seymour's Tom Schmidt, a racer himself and one of those who should get credit for introducing the division to Seymour's Sunday night program. Even with 124 cars and a kids coin toss at intermission, two hot lap sessions for the Plymouth supermods, the show, which started promptly at 7 p.m., wrapped up at 9:43 p.m., something Goral and his staff take much pride in. "In my mind we should be done by 10 p.m. every night," said Goral.

Despite the worst of weather warnings and strong winds, any severe weather held off last Saturday night and Door County Speedway was able to get their complete program in, big wheel races and all. Veteran Darrell Massart checked out early, and although he was dogged by Jared Siefert in the final laps Siefert bobbled on the final corner, helping Massart secure the win while Siefert, who's in a points battle there with hometown veteran George Henkel, wound up fourth, two spots behind Massart and Randy Back. I got into a discussion with a buddy of mine about seat time and how the guys who run more seem to do better. It makes sense, I guess. For example I glanced at the Door County Speedway points sheet, and discovered that eight of the top ten drivers in the IMCA mod and stock points race more than one night a week. But as mentioned at the top of this column it's to the point in the season that you'll only pull about the top 15 to twenty in points in any given division. Some teams blow up their motors and at this point in the year they'll call it a season and try and regroup for next year. That's what's happened to "Devilish Doug" Maurer. His IMCA modified is parked right now.

We made our first appearance ever to Monster Hall Raceway in Unity Tuesday, July 23, which is located darn near in the middle of nowhere. We made it there from Green Bay in one hour and 49 minutes, which prompted Terry Anvelink to ask me, "What did you do 90 the whole way there?" The ride wasn't quite as long as I thought it was and I was pleasantly surprised to discover there were 25 late models on hand. With the "Motor Mania" shootout there were few rules. Open tire, motor and body rules. The only rule was the cars had to weigh 2,300 lbs. Among the surprises were Iowa's Gary Webb and Milwaukee's Dan Schlieper. With a $4,000-to-win payoff and $400 to start many WISSOTA legal late models tried their luck in the wide open shootout. Of the 25 late models on hand one of the three or four different track announcers they had sharing the microphone that night said there were "nine of those aluminum gorilla motors" on hand.

The one machine that created the most talk was eventual winner Steve Laursen, who sported a sprint car's roof wing on his machine. Laursen looked like he had motor problems in hot lap laps and did poorly in his heat race. But the Cumberland veteran passed everyone like they were standing still in his consi and dominated in the feature, which had it's share of cautions. The only other real noticable "radical" change to any cars was the number 8 car normally driven by Brent Larson. Larson had problems with his appendix so Kerry Hansen wheeled the machine, which went "topless" for the night. The track looked for the most part smooth, with a few ripples high coming out of four. The track has a reputation for being a tire chewer, and that did appear to be the case. There was some confusion as to lineups for the dash, consi and feature race because passing points were used. Passing points may be a good thing, but the problem is the fans in the stands have no idea who transfers unless it's announced. There may be some cases where it's pretty clear cut who passes the most cars, but the fans weren't informed of this. They were just told "the lineups will be done by passing points." There were a lot of bewildered looks on people's faces when that was stated.

I've only seen WISSOTA super stocks a handful of times in my life but each time I've seen them I've never been dissapointed. All three heats went without a yellow, as did the main event, won by Phillips Randy Spacek. A progressive pot was built up from area businesses and one of the track announcers, who got in people's grills in the crowd, hitting them up for some cash. 26 supers were on hand. Some thought there should have been more cars for the money that was put out. But other than on the internet, there wasn't much advertising or p.r. at all for this event anywhere else until very late in the game. With Laursen winning with a wing on his roof, an interesting "poll" of sorts on one of the racing forums has been created. Event promoter Mike Suebert, through one of his p.r. people, is asking if folks would pay to see an entire field of winged cars for a big money event. It sounds far fetched, but I guess anything is possible down the road. I've got to wonder if they would have paid the same purse and went with the WISSOTA sanctioning. I'm guessing they'd have probably 40 late models, if not more. Then again, then you wouldn't have drawn Webb, Schlieper or Birkhofer. Still, I think throwing Doar, Mahder, Kaanta, etc. and the rest of the challenge series would have been equally entertaining and would have put just as many fannies in the seats. Plus, I've gotta feel the pool of drivers capable of winning under the WISSOTA sanctioning could have probably doubled.

The only area the show could have improved upon was tightening it up a bit time-wise. With an 8 p.m. start time the final checkered flag didn't fly until 11:35 p.m. That's way too long to race 51 cars. But I enjoyed the show and would return there in a minute next year. In fact, schedule permitting, we may even return for the Wednesday night WISSOTA Challenge Series event there scheduled for August. While I don't know of any attendance figures the crowd did appear at least three-fourths full, with one of the locals sitting behind me stating that was the track's biggest crowd of the year on a perfect weather night, too.