Wondra, Scheffler, Lubach and Riemer Capture Mid-Season Championships
By Eric Mueller
(Plymouth, WI)- On the week of celebrating our nation's independence, Plymouth Dirt Track Racing celebrated America with a Mid Season Championship night of racing.
Sprint car heat races started 42 cars in five events, and each heat race turned out to be just as exciting as the next. TJ Luedke, Tim Melis, Tony Wondra, Doug Wondra, and Troy Wondra would all visit victory lane. Those cars not making the A-main would go to the twin B-mains, racing their way into the show. The first B-Main was captured by KenJay Fiedler of Sheboygan Falls, with Josh Walter in second followed by Al Schlafer in third. In the second twin B-main Adam Miller of Plymouth took home his first checkered flag, followed by Danny Schlafer and in third, Michael Emme.
With the City of Plymouth Fireworks just off of turn four as a backdrop, all 22 cars took the green flag for the 30 lap extended feature. The race would go under caution on lap 2 for a spin by Robbie Pribnow, once back under way Fiedler would work his way up to 7th by lap12 after starting near the back of the field helped by a red on lap 19 for Ben Schmidt of Plymouth after he flipped in turn one, Fiedler would wind up fourth by the end. A late caution would stack the field up for a green white checkered finish and Troy Wondra of Lomira would back his heat race win up with a feature win. Wondra has a photo of Marines raising the Stars and Stripes from the island of Iwo Jima on his car, and declared in Miller Lite Victory lane that this win was "For all of our fellow Americans who are serving and have served around the world. This is for them and we couldn't be here without them!" That sentiment was not lost on the crowd for the remainder of the evening. Rounding out the top five were Tony Wondra, TJ Luedke, Fiedler and in fifth Earl Possi who took a shot at Wondra on the last restart and faded towards the end.
In the Grand National division, four heat races with 28 cars, saw yet again the fast and wide surface of the Plymouth Dirt Track. The four drivers making the trip to the winners circle were, Doug Teunissen, Brian Kaat, Troy Theobald and Brad Lubach. In the B-Main, Point Leader Jeremy Sauter would need to race his way into the Feature event and he did just that by winning the contest, over Dave Holm, Greg Kempf and Dean Horneck. They would all transfer there way into the A-main which did not disappoint the large crowd on hand.
Brad Lubach of Elkhart Lake started from the pole alongside Tony Miller of Random Lake, and with the green flag out the racing was just as hot as the weather for the extended 30 lap feature. However, the A-main saw a three car melee on lap 2 that sent Doug Teunissen into the air after his front bumper and nose were torn off after contact with Luke Scholten. Points Leader Sauter was involved as well and all three drivers would retire. Sauter's fuel pump broke off of the engine, which was not related to the caution. On the ensuing restart, Brad Mueller from Random Lake who started tenth, had worked his way into the top five. And would be a contender for the top five the remainder of the race. Lubach was under no pressure from behind holding a half lap lead on Miller, Will Sorce and Mueller who had a three way battle for second for 22 laps until another caution on lap 24 for a spin involving Tony Wiltzius. Miller and Kaat would go the pits for flat tires, stacking the field up with lapped cars between Lubach and Sorce. Source would catch a break and a caution a lap later on lap 25 would send lapped cars to the rear and would put Sorce, Mueller, Sheboygan Falls Brad Dahmer in fourth and Loren Lubach in fifth, right on Brad Lubach's bumper for the final 5 laps. On the restart Mueller would jump to the outside of Lubach, but couldn't get past the former track champion as he would go on to capture the feature event. Loren Lubach made it the Cousin's third 1-2 finish at the track passing Sorce at the line by a fender to take second, Sorce held on to third with Mueller and Brian Goetsch rounding out the top five.
The late model Division was third in the rotation this week and had two heat races, captured by Brett Sievert and Bill Rezutek who got the motor back at 2 am Saturday morning after it exploded one week ago.
In the 30 Lap Feature Tim Carman and Scott Sohrweide would lead the field to the green and raced side by side for several laps until Carmen would clear for the lead on lap 4 and held on until a lap 9 caution when defending champion Dan Sorce would get by on the restart and hold it through several laps until Russ Scheffler closed in and passed him on lap 12. Rick Scheffler and Carmen would battle for third trading the spot several times and dodging a few caution flags in between. On a restart with just 10 to go Rezutek had made his way up to fifth after avoiding several spins in front of him. Scott Specht spun early, and had worked his way back up to sixth right on Rezutek's bumper. Mark Zimmerman would bring out the final caution on lap 29 and a green, white, checkered flag finish was all that was left of the event. Russ Scheffler would hang on to win the main event followed at the line by Rick Scheffler, Dan Sorce in third, Tim Carman a solid fourth and Bill Rezutek in fifth.
The Outlaw Compacts had three heat races each captured by Chris Bauman, Cory Straub and Steven Weber. Due to a time limit, the race was shortened to just 8 laps but in those laps Jay Reimer would lead them all only challenged once by Chris Bauman who made a great save as he attempted to pass on the outside with just two laps to go after a restart. Reimer would win followed by Bauman, Curtis Moehring, Jeremy Miller, and James Pagel rounding out the top five.
Plymouth Dirt Track Racing would like to thank Sheboygan County's "Fairest of the Fair" Julie Hoegger for presenting the trophies to the Mid-Season Champions.
Plymouth Dirt Track Racing resumes next Saturday night, Gates open at 4:30pm and the side by side action gets underway at 6:00pm.
RESULTS
Sprint Cars
Heat 1
1. Luedke
2. Dave Lisowe
3. Fiedler
4. Terry Marten
5. Michael Emme
Heat 2
1. Tim Melis
2. Brian Portschy
3. Earl Possi
4. Lance Fassbender
5. Josh Walter
Heat 3
1. Tony Wondra
2. Leroy Ostrowski
3. Shane Wenninger
4. Ben Schmidt
5. Danny Schlafer
Heat 4
1. Doug Wondra
2. Pete Ostrowski
3. Mark Wernes
4. Scott Conger
5. Jack Parrish
Heat 5
1. Troy Wondra
2. Robbie Pribnow
3. Tim Haddy
4. Adam Miller
5. Andy Klumb
B-Main 1
1. Fiedler
2. Walter
3. A. Schlafer
B-Main 2
1. Miller
2. D. Schlafer
3. Emme
A-Main
1. Tr. Wondra
2. To. Wondra
3. Luedke
4. Fiedler
5. Possi
6. T. Melis
7. Brian Portschy
8. L. Ostrowski
9. Walter
10. P. Ostrowski
Grand National
Heat 1
1. Teunissen
2. Sorce
3. Dahmer
4. L. Lubach
5. Tyler Nault
Heat 2
1. Kaat
2. Miller
3. Brian Cesar
4. Jason Roe
5. Kempf
Heat 3
1. Theobald
2. Cliff Annis
3. Paul Perronne
4. Holm
5. Wiltzius
Heat 4
1. B. Lubach
2. Mueller
3. Goetsch
4. Scholten
5. Sauter
B-main
1. Sauter
2. Holm
3. Kempf
4. Horneck
A-Main
1. B. Lubach
2. L. Lubach
3. Sorce
4. Mueller
5. Goetsch
6. Dahmer
7. Annis
8. Cesar
9. Holm
10. Roe
Late Models
Heat 1
1. Sievert
2. Schueffner
3. Charlie Schmidt
4. Zimmerman
5. Stroika
Heat 2
1. Rezutek
2. Ru. Scheffler
3. Specht
4. Ri. Scheffler
5. Sorce
A-main
1. Russ Scheffler
2. Rick Scheffler
3. Sorce
4. Carman
5. Rezutek
6. Specht
7. Schueffner
8. C. Schmidt
9. TJ Dolhun
10. Stroika
Outlaw Compacts
Heat 1
1. Bauman
2. Tom Schneider
3. Jeremy Miller
4. Riemer
5. Brian Dyke
Heat 2
1. Straub
2. Moehring
3. Kurt Jakubowski
4. Cory Peters
5. Justin Schmidt
Heat 3
1. Weber
2. Pagel
3. Chad Riederer
4. Samantha Portschy
5. Jeremy Goetsch
A-Main
1. Riemer
2. Baumann
3. Moehring
4. Miller
5. Pagel
6. Weber
7. Peters
8. Straub
9. Schneider
10. Goetsch