Charter press release for August 23, 2008

Beaver Dam, WI – August 23, 2008.  Saturday night at Charter Raceway Park there were fireworks on the track and in the sky as all five divisions took to the 1/3 mile oval and Bartolotta fireworks blasted off in the air on fan appreciation night.  With just two nights of racing left and several championships still up for grabs, the action was fast and furious as the drivers raced for every point they could get.

The Grand National division, with just seven points separating the top two drivers in the chase for the championship provided a lot of drama in their Feature event.  Todd Ascherien picked up his first feature win of the year leading all 20 laps and holding off a charge from Tommy Moore over the last 10 laps and a green, white checker shootout to end the race.  Behind them, the drama involved current points leader Don Sorce and second place Roger Lee.  Lee had the upper hand starting nine spots in front of Sorce.  Both drivers patiently picked their way through traffic and as lap eight was completed, Lee was running third and Sorce sixth.  Sorce continued to move upward through the field while Lee tried to get past second running Moore.  As the field completed lap 12, Lee was still third, but with Sorce right on his rear bumper in fourth.  After several unsuccessful attempts to get by Moore on the inside, Lee jumped to the outside on lap 15.  Lee was just about to make a pass on Moore as Nathan Persha spun in front of the leaders on lap 18 setting up a two lap shootout.  Going into turn two on lap 19, Sorce was able to inch past Lee.  Down the backstretch the two drew even and Lee went into three with more momentum and looked like he would get the upper hand.  However, he had too much speed and got the back end around too far and spun the car in turn four.  Sorce continued on picking up third place.  Lee finished a disappointing ninth. 

Jesse Kanas picked up another Feature win in the Street Stock division, his fourth of the year taking the lead on lap four and pulling away for a relatively easy win.  The event started off rough with Andrew Araco losing a tire coming out of turn two and the tire going all the way down the backstretch bring out the caution.  Matt Bedkar, in his best run of the year held the lead for a brief time until Kanas got by on lap four.  Jeremy Schwoch, looking for his fifth Feature of 2008, was on the move in his number 79 and put Bedkar down to third when he got past him on lap six.  Roger Frank lost his tire on lap 11 bringing out another caution and bunching up the field.  The next six laps saw a great battle between Schwoch and Kanas with Schwoch having the upper hand on lap 17.  Brandon Paitrick spun his car right in front of the leaders but everyone was able to make it by without incident.  Following the restart, Kanas retook the lead and held on for the win.  Schwoch finished second but was later disqualified in tech inspection give Matt Bedkar a second place finish.

In the Legend division, Joel Wyttenbach continued his fantastic run the second half of the season with his third win in a row.  Robert Lever took an early lead over Brian Peterson before Peterson got by him on lap three.  Watching the battle was Wyttenbach and Greg Hartlaub.  Wyttenbach, as usual, was one of just a few Legend cars using the outside lane and was able to make it work on lap four to get by for the lead.  However, the yellow came out on lap seven erasing the lead he had built.  Peterson got by him on the restart and Wyttenbach got involved in a heated battle with Eric Barth and Joe Johnson with all three coming across the line within inches of each other.  Barth gained the advantage the next lap with Wyttenbach third and Johnson fourth.  Tom Fraser and Dallas Ross got together the following lap bringing out another caution.  A couple of laps later, following the restart, Barth jumped to the lead as Peterson developed a flat tire.  Following Barth to the front was Johnson and Wyttenbach.  As the laps went by, Wyttenbach’s car started to get better and on lap 16 got by Barth.  Barth was unable to regain the lead and had to settle for second.  Johnson completed the event in third.

Eddie LeMay Jr came into the night 37 points behind Jay Schraufnagel in the race to the championship.  At the end of the night, he had cut the lead in half and now trails by just 19 going into the final night next week.  Jim Zdroik finally looked like he figured out the track as he definitely had the strongest car over the first half of the race.  Taking the lead on lap three, Zdroik was able to keep his car down on the bottom of the speedway.  Schraufnagel, starting outside row six quickly made his way toward the front and was right behind Zdroik, when mechanical problems forced him to the pits on lap five.  Schraufnagel would return later in the event but would not finish.  LeMay, made his first crack into the top five on lap seven as he and Mitch McGrath excited the fans with some side by side racing.  As lap ten went into the record books, it was Zdroik, LeMay, Frank Firari and Joe McGrath.  The final caution of the night came out for Robbie Schmid on lap 11 bunching the field up again.  LeMay went right to work on Zdroik and got by on the outside and went on to the win.  Zdroik had to hold off a furious charge from Tim Lemirande to finish second.  Lemirande, who early in the event got way up on two wheels but didn’t roll over, completed the race in third.

The final racing event of the night resulted in Jim Merkel picking up the win in front of Steve LeMay and Robert Nelson.  The race, caution free, was never really in doubt as Merkel picked up his first Feature win.

Next week, Charter Raceway Park will have all 5 regular divisions competing in the final night of racing for 2008. Pits open at 3:30 and the main gates open at 4:30. Racing is scheduled to start promptly at 6:30. Contact the track office for more information at 920-382-7858.

MODIFIEDS

HEATS           Jay Schraufnagel, Craig Priewe, Tim Lemirande, Brian Crapser

B MAIN 1      Mike Miller, Robbie Schmid, Don Scheffler, Scott Crowbridge, Geoff Zdroik     

A MAIN         Eddie LeMay Jr, Jim Zdroik, Tim Lemirande, Mitch McGrath, Joe McGrath, Frank Firari, Schoenberger, Brian Crapser, Craig Priewe, Don Scheffler

LEGENDS

HEATS           Joe Johnson, Eric Meyer, Brian Peterson

B MAIN         Warren Ropp, Jeff Steenbergen, Luke Polzin, Mike Mueller, Dallas Ross

A MAIN         Joel Wyttenbach, Eric Barth, Joe Johnson, Kevin Brill, Greg Hartlaub, Aaron Muhle, Robert Lever, Luke Polzin, Phil Van Tatenhove, Bethany Wyttenbach

DIRT DEVILS

HEAT             Steve LeMay, Tim Draheim

A MAIN         Jim Merkel, Steve LeMay, Robert Nelson, Matt Janke, Kevin Allard, Tim Draheim, William Young, Brian Vinney, Dylan Reinhard, Randy Allard

STREET STOCKS

HEATS           Aaron Streblow, Jesse Kanas

A MAIN         Jesse Kanas, Matt Bedker, Aaron Streblow, Nate Gross, Gordon Schultz, Craig Lepple, Joe Brenner, Austin Zdrok, Eric Beattie, Jeff Schepp

GRAND NATIONALS

HEATS           Don Schumacher, Todd Ascherien

A MAIN         Todd Ascherien, Tommy Moore, Don Sorce Jr, Will Sorce, Craig Boettcher, Ross Stalter, Don Schumacher, Curt Beek, Roger Lee, Nathan Persha