June 12, 2004, Francis Creek, WI:
Jimbo Schleis edged Don Wood to capture his first Super Stock feature win of the season Saturday night at the 141 Speedway in Francis Creek.
Joining Schleis in the winner's circle were Jason Sand in the Mini Stocks, Allen "Gator" Trudell in the Hobby Stocks, Sport 4 driver Jesse Sheffer and Jason Van Handel in the visiting Sport Truck class.
With the Mid-American series off for the night, the Super Stocks found themselves in the spotlight and didn't disappoint. The finale proved to be a match-up of the 2003 division rookie of the year and the potential 2004 honoree. Schleis, who moved up from the Mini-Stock class last year, grabbed the lead from Jo Mueller on a lap 13 restart from the outside of the first row. Mueller had taken the lead two laps prior to that from Greg Marks, who had paced the first 11 circuits. The restart also allowed Wood and defending champ Andy Casavant to slip by. The three were able to distance themselves from the rest of the pack as Errol Berry, Denny Crass, Greg Marks, Jason Meulemans and Jason Henrickson staged a battle for fourth.
Wood used the outside line to make several attempts at the lead over the course of the final five laps, but each time Schleis was able to fend him off. The win for Schleis was his first of the 2004 campaign.
The Mini-Stock feature boiled down to a duel between Sand and Jason Novak. Sand took the lead from Novak on the third lap. As he edged away, Novak was forced to contend with Kari Kostichka, Paul Ray, Dave Gauger, Jr and points leader Randy Nething for second. A lap 11 caution for Mark Truckey's brush with the wall gave Novak new life.
He quickly moved to the outside as the two broke from the field. At the checker, Novak was nearly even with Sand, but fell a few feet short of reclaiming the lead. It was Sand's second win of the season.
Several Hobby Stockers had shots at career first wins in that division's headliner. Lana Rabas, Adam Pontzloff and Maxwell Schultz took turns either at or near the point. In the end it was the veteran Trudell taking the trophy. He took the lead on the 13th circuit from Pontzloff, then pulled away to a comfortable win.
Contact knocked Pontzloff and Travis Rodewald from contention, openning the door for Trudell to escape to a safe margin and the win. It was his first victory of the year, but second in a row for the car that he "team drives" with John Mahlberg.
With a spot open on the night's racing card, the Sport Trucks paid their first visit of the season to the Speedway. Dan Vixmer appeared headed to the win until he lost the handle in turn four with just four laps to go. Van Handel, the current point leader in the class, inherited the lead and built just enough of a margin to withstand a late charge from Pete Zarnoth.
Zarnoth passed Tyler Lind for second with two to go, but ran out of time just as he caught Van Handel.
Picking their way through lapped traffic in the normal chaos that is the Sport 4 feature, Sheffer and Bryan Monday staged a bumper to bumper battle for the checker for the entire 20 lap duration. Sheffer held the line with Monday in his tire tracks for the victory, his first of the season. Monday failed post-race tech, moving two-time winner Kraig Koehler into the runner-up spot.
Saturday night, the Mid-Americans will be back on the card. Stock's Harley Davidson will host the show, with time trials at 5:30 and racing at 7:00. For more information, visit the track's website at 141Speedway.com.
Mini Stock
Fast Time Randy Nething 13.348
Heat 1: 1 #21 Corey Dallmann 2 #17 Sean Farrell 3 #32 Mike Meyerhofer
4 #18 Bill Schlei 5 #23 Jake Vosters 6 #60 Mark Truckey 7 #9 Rick Lyons 8 #86
Kevin Peroutka 9 #83 Kim Ducat 10 #18W Bryan Wetenkamp
Heat 2: 1 #72 Troy Selner 2 #024 Kari Kostichka 3 #24 David Gauger, Jr. 4 #01
Paul Ray 5 #4 Allen Dillon 6 #21C Tom Melichar 7 #29 Chris Wellner
Heat 3: 1 #8 Jason Riha 2 #56 Jason Sand 3 #22 Randy Nething 4 #29T Erik Turner
5 #13 Jason Novak 6 #40 Mark Christensen 7 #97 Kurt Naidl
Semi-Feature: 1 #17 Sean Farrell 2 #60 Mark Truckey 3 #32 Mike Meyerhofer 4
#18 Bill Schlei 5 #86 Kevin Peroutka 6 #23 Jake Vosters 7 #21 Corey Dallmann
8 #9 Rick Lyons 9 #29 Chris Wellner 10 #83 Kim Ducat 11 #18W Bryan Wetenkamp
Feature: 1 #56 Jason Sand 2 #13 Jason Novak 3 #024 Kari Kostichka 4 #72 Troy
Selner 5 #01 Paul Ray 6 #22 Randy Nething 7 #21C Tom Melichar 8 #8 Jason Riha
9 #24 David Gauger, Jr. 10 #40 Mark Christensen 11 #29T Erik Turner 12 #32 Mike
Meyerhofer 13 #17 Sean Farrell 14 #60 Mark Truckey 15 #97 Kurt Naidl 16 #4 Allen
Dillon 17 #18 Bill Schlei
Super Stock
Fast Time Don Wood 12.644
Heat 1: 1 #17 Todd Hacker 2 #13 Coley Klockzien 3 #57O Jamie
VanHout 4 #001 Brian Stanelle 5 #83 Robert Grayburn
Heat 2: 1 #8 Bill Gast 2 #123 Jason Henrickson 3 #65t Jeff Treml 4 #2 Derek
Rosek 5 #57 Bruce Conard 6 #31X Kevin Charles
Heat 3: 1 #JO Denny Crass 2 #34 Errol Berry 3 #31 Greg Thompson 4 #4 Jimbo Schleis
5 #65 Josh Sand 6 #26 Jolene Mueller 7 #74w Jimmy Wilson
Heat 4: 1 #00 Mark Christensen 2 #66 Jason Meulemans 3 #77 Paul Rabas 4 #32
Don Wood 5 #49 Randy VanRoy 6 #25 Andy Casavant 7 #44 Greg Marks
Semi-Feature: 1 #123 Jason Henrickson 2 #57 Bruce Conard 3 #31X Kevin Charles
4 #8 Bill Gast 5 #17 Todd Hacker 6 #65t Jeff Treml 7 #57O Jamie VanHout 8 #001
Brian Stanelle
Feature: 1 #4 Jimbo Schleis 2 #32 Don Wood 3 #25 Andy Casavant 4 #34 Errol Berry
5 #JO Denny Crass 6 #123 Jason Henrickson 7 #44 Greg Marks 8 #65 Josh Sand 9
#49 Randy VanRoy 10 #66 Jason Meulemans 11 #31 Greg Thompson 12 #00 Mark Christensen
13 #77 Paul Rabas 14 #74w Jimmy Wilson 15 #26 Jolene Mueller 16 #57 Bruce Conard
Hobby Stock
Heat 1: 1 #3 Allen Trudell 2 #27 Travis Rodewald 3 #25 Adam
Pontzloff 4 #42 Peter Kumbalek 5 #35 Brian Rathe 6 #38 Jacob Phillips
Heat 2: 1 #34 Maxwell Schultz 2 #7 Jason Rabas 3 #65 Bret Koehler 4 #81 Jesse
Behnke 5 #0 David Verhagen 6 #50 Jason Sand
Heat 3: 1 #99 Matt Reinke 2 #4 Kyle Kudick 3 #18 Jason Behnke 4 #11 Lana Rabas
5 #6s Layne Sours
Feature: 1 #3 Allen Trudell 2 #7 Jason Rabas 3 #0 David Verhagen 4 #42 Peter
Kumbalek 5 #4 Kyle Kudick 6 #81 Jesse Behnke 7 #99 Matt Reinke 8 #34 Maxwell
Schultz 9 #11 Lana Rabas 10 #50 Jason Sand 11 #65 Bret Koehler 12 #18 Jason
Behnke 13 #27 Travis Rodewald 14 #25 Adam Pontzloff 15 #6s Layne Sours
Sport Truck
Fast Time Jason VanHandel 13.459
Heat 1: 1 #15 Rick Jaloszynski 2 #66 Jeff VanHandle 3 #17 Andy
Wilquet 4 #82 Dusty Jaloszynski 5 #32 Mark Ziegelbauer 6 #70 Ted Ulman 7 #02
Kyle Quella
Heat 2: 1 #26 Pete Zarnoth 2 #97 Tyler Lind 3 #18 Brandon Kucksdorf 4 #99 Jason
VanHandle 5 #44 Jeff Looker 6 #5 Dan Vixmer 7 #1 Charlie Haven
Semi-Feature: 1 #99 Jason VanHandel 2 #26 Pete Zarnoth 2 #18 Brandon Kucksdorf
3 #97 Tyler Lind 4 #17 Andy Wilquet 5 #1 Charlie Haven 6 #66 Jeff VanHandle
7 #5 Dan Vixmer 8 #44 Jeff Looker 9 #02 Kyle Quella 10 #15 Rick Jaloszynski
11 #70 Ted Ulman 12 #32 Mark Ziegelbauer
Sport 4s
Feature: 1 #56 Jesse Sheffer 2 #29k Kraig Koehler 3 #41 Mike Dolphin 4 #1 Todd Hebel 5 #55 Kendra Cretton 6 #33 Rick Lorrigan 7 #01j Jasper Drengler 8 #28 Rachel Gauger 9 #29 Todd Welsing 10 #90 Bruce Sand 11 #49 Aaron Dalton 12 #13 Jonathan Hanson 13 #69 Hank Horn 14 #00 Cody Graf 15 #10 Koenig Terry 16 #33k Craig Miller 17 #57 Gary Novitski Jr 18 #62 Shelby Melichar 19 #18S Chris Schneider