August 20, 2004; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - Thunderhill hardcore fans were treated to another great night of feature racing on Saturday night. Without any race event rainouts since the end of May, drivers are now starting to feel that the end of the season is near.  Many competitors race two to three times weekly and it has taken it’s toll on man and machinery.  Although car counts have dropped at times, the action was hot once again right to the end of the night at 9:30 pm with five exciting racing divisions.

Algoma’s James Tebon, looking at a potential rookie of the year title, finally shook off his earlier bad luck and earned himself a feature win at Thunderhill on Saturday night in the Budweiser IMCA Modified class. Another rookie standout in the T Simon Jewelers IMCA Stock Car class, Troy Muench of Green Bay won his first feature race since May 1st.  May’s Sports Center IMCA Hobby Stock Tony Schlei made his trip up from Zion, Illinois worthwhile with his second feature win.   AmericInn Street Stock Aaron Thornton, Maplewood, threaded his way to the front for his sixth main event win and Sport Four’s Ken Malcore of Milwaukee took home his seventh feature event win of 2004.  Miller Lite was the special night’s sponsor and provided special trophy girls for the night and helped fans get a closeup of their favorite drivers in on track introductions of the Budweiser IMCA Modified drivers at feature time.

In the Budweiser IMCA Modifieds, Brussels’ Darrell Massart led the charge from the green flag start with rookie driver James Tebon, Algoma, right in his shadow.   Sturgeon Bay’s Kevin Sternard looked strong and gave Tebon a hard run in the early going, putting on a fantastic race for the fans.  Veteran George Henkel, Sturgeon Bay, kept up with the front runners with a tough showing as well.  Massart had a great run in his earlier heat race win and was now a force to reckon with.

Just past midway of the 20-lap contest, Tebon was able to shake Sternard enough to go after the race leader Massart. Massart appeared to slip up, allowing Tebon to pass.   Sternard and Henkel were quick to follow in hot pursuit of the
new race leader Tebon.  Tebon was quick to set a blistering pace to the end.   But it was former track champion Jared Siefert, Green Bay, that made a last ditch charge to the front passing three cars in the last three laps to finish just behind Tebon.

Tebon’s victory was his first feature win in the IMCA Modified division.   Earlier this season, Tebon had been very close to several feature wins but broke in the final laps.  Siefert had to settle for second place with Sternard in third at the checkers.  Local favorites Todd Dart and Henkel finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Earlier heat winners included Sternard, Massart and Jared Siefert.

The T Simon Jewelers IMCA Stock Cars had a rough going with the fast smooth clay surface.   After the first few laps were done, Fish Creek’s Gary Reinhardt grabbed the race lead with rookie Shawn Havel, Brussels, and Casco’s Matt
Junio in tow.  Havel, an earlier heat race, gave his best to challenge Reinhardt for the lead but came up just short with each attempt to get by the stronger Reinhardt.

Another rookie in the field, Green Bay’s Troy Muench had better luck in handing Reinhardt the runnerup spot as Muench took the lead about midway in the event.   Within two laps, Reinhardt fell back another spot with Havel climbing back into the second place position behind Muench.  Havel set his sights on Muench all the way to the end of the feature.  Muench held on for the win, his second main victory of the season.  Havel finished a strong second, his best finish of the season.   Reinhardt was third.  Points leader and former champion Craig Paque, Algoma, finished fourth with fifth going to Kewaunee’s Shawn Kilgore.

Heat winners in the Stock class included Havel, along with Kewaunee’s Jamie Suchocki and Matt Junio of Casco.

Casco’s Derek Moede and Kevin Luedtke, Sturgeon Bay, paced the first lap of the May’s Sports Center IMCA Hobby Stock feature event.  Last year’s champion, Sturgeon Bay’s Joe Hegnet came up to challenge Moede for several laps, but fell victim to Zion, Illinois’ Tony Schlei about one third of the way into the 15-lap event.

Moede continued his lead all the way up to the ninth lap when Schlei got the best of the Casco driver and passed for the lead and the eventual win.  Schlei won his second feature race in only seven visits to Thunderhill Raceway  for 2004.  Points leader Ed Anschutz of Algoma came all the way up from his tenth place starting position to grab the runnerup spot and finished second with Hegnet finishing third.  Evan Madden, Algoma, and Dave Lane, Green Bay rounded out the top five.

Heat winners included Derek Moede and Joe Hegnet.

AmericInn Street Stock Brussels’ Todd Wagner got a great start in the AmericInn Street Stock feature event, putting himself way out front from the get-go.  No fewer than three drivers put came up to grab the number two spot in the
first ten circuits of the race including Dennis Weidner of Sturgeon Bay, Mike Pierrard of Green Bay and finally Aaron Thornton of Maplewood. 

Thornton snatched the lead away from Wagner with five laps to go and went away with his sixth main event win of 2004.  Forestville’s Von Eytcheson passed three hard-charging cars in the final five laps to finish second.  Last week’s points leader Jeremy Wiitala, Green Bay, finished third and relinquished the points lead back to Thornton by only one point.  Wagner finished fourth with Weidner taking the fifth spot. 

Earlier heat wins went to Thornton and to rookie John Sternard of Sturgeon Bay.

In the Sport 4 division, Milwaukee’s Ken Malcore won the 10-lap feature, followed by Gene Sternard of New Franken.  Green Bay’s Butch Beyers finished third in the feature.  Malcore also won the heat race, his fifth of the year.

Only one more points night remains on the schedule for Thunderhill Raceway with five divisional titles on the line.  Budweiser IMCA Modified, T Simon Jewelers IMCA Stock Car, May’s Sports Center IMCA Hobby Stock, AmericInn Street Stock divisions along with the Sport-4 class compete weekly on Saturday nights, with competition getting underway at 6 p.m. 

Next Saturday night event is Championship Night sponsored by Sportsman Trophy and Engraving!

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 Budweiser IMCA Modified Feature -James Tebon - R    , Algoma; Jared Siefert, Green Bay; Kevin Sternard, Sturgeon Bay; Todd Dart, Algoma; George Henkel, Sturgeon Bay; Dan Ratajczak, Frog Station; Sean Jerovetz, Suamico; Darrell Massart, Brussels; Benji LaCrosse, Luxemburg; Jay Matthias, Luxemburg.
 10 lap heats - 1)Sternard; Chris Derenne, Luxemburg; 2)Massart; Cole,  Baileys Harbor; 3)Siefert; Henkel.

 18 lap T Simon Jewelers IMCA Stock Car feature - Troy Muench - R, Green Bay; Shawn Havel - R, Brussels; Gary Reinhardt, Fish Creek; Craig Paque, Algoma; Shawn Kilgore, Kewaunee; Corey Haen, Sturgeon Bay; Dave Bouche, Algoma; Bernie Reinhardt, Sturgeon Bay; Matt Junio, Casco; Chris Hendricks, Green Bay.
 10 lap heats - 1)Havel; MarkDerenne, Kewaunee; 2)Jamie Suchocki, Kewaunee; Mike Wietor, Green Bay; 3)Junio; B.J. Soquet, Green Bay.

 15 lap May’s Sports Center IMCA Hobby Stock feature - Tony Schlei, Zion, IL; Ed Anschutz, Algoma; Joe Hegnet, Sturgeon Bay; Evan Madden, Algoma; Dave Lane, Green Bay; Marcus Moede, Casco; Tom Brumlic - R, Denmark; Keith Kickbusch - R, Kewaunee; Jeff Lautenbach, Sturgeon Bay; Brandon Peterson, Sturgeon Bay.
 10 lap heats 1)Derek Moede, Casco; Madden; 2)Joe Hegnet; Anschutz.

 15 lap AmericInn Street Stock feature - Aaron Thornton, Maplewood; Von Eytcheson, Forestville; Jeremy Wiitala, Green Bay; Todd Wagner, Brussels; Dennis Weidner, Sturgeon Bay; Mike King Jr. - R, Little Chute; Todd Polster - R,
Baileys Harbor; Scott Reinhardt, Sturgeon Bay; Kevin Damrow - R, Manitowoc; John Sternard - R, Sturgeon Bay.
 10 lap heats 1)Thornton; Weidner; 2)Sternard; Wagner.

 10 lap Sport Four feature - Ken Malcore, Milwaukee; Gene Sternard - R, New Franken; Butch Beyers - R, Green Bay; Chad Williams, Brussels; Charlie Gross - R, Gleason.
 8 lap heat - Malcore; Sternard.