LaCrosse Leads The Way as Some
Thunderhill Raceway Drivers
Flip Over Track Conditions!
By Dan Lewis
May 1, 2004; Sturgeon Bay, WI. -
Saturday night’s race event at Thunderhill Raceway, went on despite cool wet weather
conditions just days before the scheduled season opener. All of the
track’s five racing divisions had good opening night car counts at both the car show
and Saturday night’s races. A total of 109 cars graced the pits and
started the heat events. Fans were treated to the largest ever car show on the
midway on Saturday afternoon. But it was the WDOR 93.9 FM season opener that
night that got the 2004 season off on the right foot for some while tricky for
others. In two separate main events, drivers IMCA Hobby Stock driver Casey
Groessl and Sport Four Ryan Johnson escaped serious injury after flipping their mounts on
the rough, third-mile clay surface.
Photo Highlights |
Luxemburg’s Benji LaCrosse, in
starting his second year behind the wheel of his IMCA Modified, captured the mod feature
with a
well-earned win over Jeremy Jacobs of Algoma.
Benji LaCrosse (#54) did battle with Jeremy Jacobs (#90) for the lead of the IMCA
Modified feature. LaCrosse would take the lead tne eventual victory.
Darrell Massart of Brussels took home
the first heat win of the season and also took home honors for Best Appearing Car in the
mod class.
Troy Muench of Green Bay swept his heat and feature event, his first night out in
the IMCA Stock Car division.
Jeff Vlies won Best Appearing Car in the
IMCA Sock class.
Even with a top groove and bottom groove
with a lot of bite, drivers still were able to run 3-wide on the first night at
Thunderhill.
Forestville’s Von Eytcheson won the
Street Stock feature as earlier heat race, sweeping his opening night.
Eddie “the Eagle” Anschutz of Algoma started his 2004 season on a high
note, taking the IMCA Hobby Stock feature event win.
Newcomer #3p Todd Polster won the Best
Appearing Car in the Street Stock class.
Sport Four Ryan Johnson, Denmark, escaped serious injury after flipping his mount
on the rough, third-mile clay surface at the end of the night.
Don Mahlberg took home top honors for Best Appearing Car in the class.
Chad Williams, Brussels, came home the winner of the Sport Four feature event.
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Green Bay’s Benji LaCrosse, in starting his second year behind
the wheel of his IMCA Modified, captured the mod feature with a well-earned win over
Jeremy Jacobs of Algoma. LaCrosse was able to take advantage of his second row
starting spot after a heat win earlier in the evening, and took the lead away from
Jerovetz on the ninth circuit. Jacobs had started the race from the front row
and fell back to fourth at one time, worked his way back to finish second with a pass over
Sean Jerovetz with just two laps to go. Jerovetz, of Suamico, finished third
with Green Bay’s R.M. Van Pay and Jared Siefert rounding out the top five.
Earlier heat winners included Darrell Massart of Brussels and Dan Ratajczak
of Frog Station. Massart also took home honors for Best Appearing Car in the
mod class.
Troy Muench of Green Bay swept his heat and feature event, his first night out in the IMCA
Stock Car division. Muench inherited the lead after race leader Craig Paque
was tagged by Pat Davister of Luxemburg on lap seven of the 18-lap event.
Davister was black-flagged from the event. Muench, the 2003 Street Stock
Champion, held off the late-race challenges of Bernie Reinhardt of Sturgeon Bay and Tracy
Koontz of Brussels. Travis Van Straten and B.J. Soquet
rounded out the top five. Heat winners included Jeff Vlies and Bernie Reinhardt.
Vlies won Best Appearing Car in the IMCA Sock class.
Eddie “the Eagle” Anschutz started his 2004 season on a high note, taking the
IMCA Hobby Stock feature event win. The Algoma driver was chasing down Wayne
Moore on lap five when Moore got together with the lap traffic of Casey
Groessl. Groessl got turned around and ended up on his roof escaping serious
injury. Moore continued the event but was put to the back on the restart.
Anschutz was followed past the checkers by Marcus Moede and Keith Kickbush.
Maynard Hegnet and Evan Madden rounded out the top five. Heat winners included
Joe Hegnet, Kickbush and Tom Brumke. Anschutz can also take credit for Best
Appearing Car award.
Forestville’s Von Eytcheson won the Street Stock feature over Sturgeon Bay’s
Aaron Thornton and Dennis Weidner. Eytcheson battled it out early in the main
with Freddie “Andretti” Davister, but it was Eytcheson taking the inside
groove away from Davister for the lead and eventual win. Heat winners included
Jeremy Wiitala, Kevin Jandrin and Eytcheson. Todd Polster won the Best
Appearing Car.
Chad Williams, Brussels, came home the winner of the Sport Four feature event after leader
contender Ryan Johnson flipped his four-cylinder wildly end over end in corner one.
Johnson walked away a bit shaken but in a lot better
shape than his Geo Storm. Williams also won his heat race earlier in the
evening. Don Mahlberg took home top honors for Best Appearing Car in the
class.
IMCA Modified, IMCA Stock Car, IMCA Hobby Stock, Street Stock divisions along with the
Sport-4 class compete weekly on Saturday nights, with competition getting underway at 6
p.m. Next week’s sponsor is The Reef Sports Bar &
Grill. A special night of racing has been slated for Wednesday night, August
11 when the Forest County Potawatomi-sponsored 2nd Annual Dirt Late Model ShootOut opens
the Door County Fair. Thunderhill Raceway is located at John Miles Park, the
site of the Door County Fairgrounds, just off Highways 42/57, and west
on County Trunk T. For more information call 920-743-7052 or 920-746-0387, the
track phone number. The track’s website is www.racethunderhill.com.
RACE SUMMARY
20 lap IMCA Modified feature - Benji LaCrosse, Luxemburg; Jeremy Jacobs,
Algoma; Sean Jerovetz, Suamico; R.M. Van Pay, Green Bay; Jared Siefert, Green Bay; Bill
LeMieux, Sturgeon Bay; Kevin Sternard, Sturgeon Bay; Tim VanDeHei; Green Bay; George
Henkel, Sturgeon Bay; Dan Ratajczak, Frog Station.
12 lap semi-feature - R.M. Van Pay, Green Bay; Jared Siefert, Green Bay;
Dave Zeitler, Luxemburg.
10 lap heats 1) Darrell Massart, Brussels; Todd Dart, Algoma; 2) Ratajczak; Jay Matthias,
DePere; 3) LaCrosse; Randy LeMieux Jr., Sturgeon Bay.
20 lap IMCA Stock Car feature - Troy Muench, Green Bay; Bernie Reinhardt,
Sturgeon Bay; Tracy Koontz, Brussels; Travis VanStraten, Hortonville; B.J. Soquet, Green
Bay; Charlie Kroll, Algoma; Matt Junio, Casco; Dave Bouche, Algoma; Craig Paque, Algoma;
Chris Hendricks, Green Bay.
12 lap semi-feature - Larry Ingebretson, Luxemburg; Charlie Kroll, Algoma; Junio.
10 lap heats 1) Muench; Paque 2) Jeff Vlies, Brussels; Soquet; 3)
B.Reinhardt; Mike Wietor, Green Bay.
15 lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature - Ed Anschutz, Algoma; Marcus Moede,
Casco; Keith Kickbush; Maynard Hegnet; Evan Madden, Algoma; Wayne Moore,
Sturgeon Bay; Jeff Lautenbach, Sturgeon Bay; Joe Hegnet, Sturgeon Bay; Brandon Peterson,
Sturgeon Bay; Derek Moede, Casco.
10 lap heats 1) J.Hegnet; Moore; 2) Kickbush; Madden; 3) Tom Brumlic; M.Hegnet.
15 lap Street Stock feature - Von Eytcheson, Forestville;
Aaron Thornton, Maplewood; Dennis Weidner, Sturgeon Bay; Scott Reinhardt, Baileys Harbor;
Faron Beilke, Oneida; Don Polcen, Sturgeon Bay; James Anderson, Sturgeon Bay; Kevin
Jandrin, Forestville; James Iverson, Sturgeon Bay; Mark Brickner, Sturgeon Bay.
10 lap semi-feature - Anderson; Brickner; John Sternard, Sturgeon Bay.
10 lap heats 1) Wiitala; Weidner; 2) Jandrin; Thornton; 3) Eytcheson; Reinhardt.
10 lap Sport Four feature - Chad Williams, Brussels; Todd
Smith; Ben Daoust; Tyler Smith.
8 lap heat 1) Williams; Greg Banker. |