Schlafer, Mueller and Rezutek Ride the Rim to Capture PDTR Mains
By Eric Mueller
(Plymouth, WI)—Cooler temperatures came, but the racing action heated up the air this past Saturday night at the Sheboygan County Fair Park for Plymouth Dirt Track Racing. 116 cars took the green flag on Cornwell Tools Night, and first in the rotation was the Grand National division.
Four qualifying heat races greeted race fans to start the evening and were won by Jeremy Sauter of Random Lake, Brad Dahmer of Sheboygan Falls, Brad Lubach of Elkhart Lake and Dave Holm of Kewaskum. In the B-main Randy Brunette of Chilton and Abe Meinert would trade the lead for several laps, while the battle for the final two transfer positions would be between four drivers. After a late race restart after a spin involving the third place car, the race would finish with Brunette, Meinnert, Mark Fieber and Paul Perronne making the main event.
The 25 lap A-main drew the cheers for Loren Lubach as he started on the outside of the front row and gathered the lead down the backstretch and would hold the lead thru lap 2 when last week's feature winner Brad Lubach was collected in a four wide pass down the backstretch bringing out a yellow. Brad Lubach would return but would finish 19th. When the race restarted Loren Lubach would hold off the charge of Matt Yancey, Luke Scholten and Brad Mueller until another yellow on lap 5. On the restart Lubach and Mueller went door to door, but Mueller would begin to fade for the moment as Yancey jumped back into second after restarting fourth by lap 8. Another yellow flag flew on lap 10 for Yancey as the drive shaft fell out in turn one. The race would go green until the end, but the restart set the tone for the remainder of the event, Mueller Grabbed the lead running the cushion and took a half strait away advantage over Lubach and Jeremy Sauter. Lap traffic at the white flag bottled Mueller up on the high side as Lubach and Sauter were charging. Mueller would go on to win by a car length over Lubach. Sauter finished third followed by Luke Scholten and Brad Dahmer.
The Late Model division was second in the rotation with three heat races captured by Dan Source of Franklin, Kyle Odekirk of Waldo, and Russ Scheffler of Waukesha. Australian Nathan Disney was transported to a local hospital after crashing in the second heat race, no further details were available.
The B-Main saw George Scheffler take the checkered flag over Craig Schueffner, Al Atkinson, subbing for Disney, and Scott Specht. Scheffler would not make the call, and that put Scott Sohrwheide as the alternate to the main event.
The 25 Lap A-main got the green flag with Bill Rezutek and Joe McGrath starting on the front row, as they would race side by side for the first three laps until Rezutek would claim the lead as defending track champion Dan Sorce moved into the second spot. The red flag would fly for Sheboygan Falls Scott Specht as he flipped his car in turn one after going to the inside three wide down the front stretch, just running out of real estate. Specht was uninjured. On the restart Rezutek, Sorce, TJ Dolhun and Cleveland's Jim Schmidt would take the green up front with Russ Scheffler working traffic to get up to the fourth spot by lap 10. As Dolhun would fade for the moment, Schmidt and Sorce would race side by side for three laps. On lap 13 Scheffler would dive to the bottom and go three wide slicing his way into second around Sorce and Schmidt. The race would finish under green the rest of the way and by lap 18 Rezutek was dicing his way through lapped cars, three-wheel dancing on the rim while Scheffler would get bottled up on the bottom. Rezutek nearly lost the car into a spin with just two laps to go but was able to gather the car up and go on to take his first PDTR Late Model victory. Scheffler remained in second, followed at the line by Sorce, Dolhun and Schmidt rounding out the top five.
In Sprint Car action, the four qualifying heat races were won by TJ Luedke of Plymouth, Scott Conger of Eagle, KenJay Fiedler of Sheboygan Falls and Earl Possi of Escanaba, MI. Twin B-mains again would transfer three cars each, and with the passing at a premium the racing was close. In the first Twin-B, Brain Portschy of Oostburg took the lead on lap two and would hold on with Lance Fassbender of Burnett and Doug Wondra of Oakfield transferring into the A-main. In the second Twin-B, Adam Miller would take the lead early and would take the checkered flag over Andy Klumb, and Aaron Schipper to transfer to the main event.
The 25 Lap A-main would go green with Robbie Pribnow on the point down the backstretch and he would hold that lead until a restart for the stalled car of Scott Conger on lap 6. Possi moved into second with Danny Schlafer into third by lap 7 after the restart. By lap 11 Pribnow started to lap cars as a spin by Waldo's Jack Parrish one circuit later on lap 12 would bunch the field. On the restart Schlafer would get by Possi and start to hunt down Pribnow, Both were rim riding around lapped traffic with Possi and Tim Melis in tow. Schlafer would attempt a crossover pass off of turn two but would make contact with Pribnow, folding the leader's left front suspension. As the yellow flew, Schlafer would take the lead with just a few laps left on the restart followed by Possi, Melis and last week's winner Troy Wondra in fourth. Once the green flag came back out, Earl Possi made the best attempt he could on the bottom, but the cushion was the fast way around for the evening. Schlafer would go on to win followed by Possi, Wondra, TJ Luedke, and Ben Schmidt of Plymouth who would wind up fifth. Schlafer later apologized to Pribnow from victory lane.
The 15 lap Outlaw compact feature was shortened to 6 laps due to time limit, but Seven Weber made the best of all three restarts to hold of the charge of Jason Juech and Jeremy Miller. Curtis Moehring and Shaun Marquardt rounded out the top five.
Next week Saturday night at Plymouth Dirt Track Racing is the second annual "Hales Corners Reunion night, Presented by Suburban Drywall", honoring the closed facility and their fans. Gates open at 4:30pm with races starting at 6:00pm following opening ceremonies.
RESULTS
Sprint Cars
Heat 1
1. Luedke
2. Terry Marten
3. Shane Wenninger
4. Robbie Pribnow
5. Tony Wondra
Heat 2
1. Conger
2. Parrish
3. D. Schlafer
4. Doug Wondra
5. Ben Schmidt
Heat 3
1. Fiedler
2. Tr. Wondra
3. Al Schlafer
4. Mark Wernes, Jr
5. Brian Portschy
Heat 4
1. Possi
2. Tim Melis
3. Mark Schleicher
4. Adam Miller
5. Alister Strohs
B-Main 1
1. Portschy
2. Fassbender
3. D. Wondra
B-Main 2
1. Miller
2. Klumb
3. Schipper
A-Main
1. D. Schlafer
2. Possi
3. Tr. Wondra
4. Luedke
5. Schmidt
6. Wenninger
7. Al Schlafer
8. Terry Marten
9. Wernes, Jr
10. Fassbender
Grand National
Heat 1
1. Sauter
2. L. Scholten
3. Dean Horneck
4. Troy Theobald
5. Jestin Danes
Heat 2
1. Dahmer
2. L. Lubach
3. Brian Kaat
4. Greg Kempf
5. Randy Brunette
Heat 3
1. B. Lubach
2. Mueller
3. Yancey
4. Jason Roe
5. Paul Perronne
Heat 4
1. Holm
2. Brian Goetsch
3. Doug Teunissen
4. Will Sorce
5. Tony Wiltzius
B-main
1. Brunette
2. Meinnert
3. Fieber
4. P. Perronne
A-Main
1. Mueller
2. L. Lubach
3. Sauter
4. L. Scholten
5. Dahmer
6. Goetsch
7. Kaat
8. Roe
9. Teunissen
10. Horneck
Late Models
Heat 1
1. D. Sorce
2. McGrath
3. Rezutek
4. Zach Emmons
5. Rick Scheffler
Heat 2
1. Odekirk
2. Jim Schmidt
3. Zimmerman
4. Jim Lavey
5. Tim Carmen
Heat 3
1. Russ Scheffler
2. TJ Dolhun
3. Ray Reiss
4. Charlie Schmidt
5. Ron Eiler
B-main
1. G Scheffler
2. Schueffner
3. Disney/Atkinson
4. Specht
A-main
1. Rezutek
2. Russ Scheffler
3. Sorce
4. Dolhun
5. Jim Schmidt
6. Charlie Schmidt
7. Rick Scheffler
8. Odekirk
9. Disney/Atkinson
10. Joe McGrath
Outlaw Compacts
Heat 1
1. Tim Sauter
2. Jason Juech
3. Shaun Marquardt
4. Seven Weber
5. Jeremy Miller
Heat 2
1. Jay Reimer
2. Cory Peters
3. Curtis Moehring
4. James Pagel
5. Josh Moen
Heat 3
1. Kurt Jakubowski
2. Justin Schmidt
3. Tyler Kulow
4. Chris Bauman
5. Chad Riederer
A-Main
1. Weber
2. Juech
3. Miller
4. C. Moehring
5. Marquardt
6. Moen
7. J. Schmidt
8. Bauman
9. Reimer
10. Pagel