Charter Raceway Park - Press Release

Saturday night brought the 2008 racing season to an end at Charter Raceway Park. Three of the five divisions had already determined their champions but the Modifieds and Grand Nationals champs were yet to be decided.

Coming into the final night of racing, Jay Schraufnagel held a 19 point lead over Eddie LeMay Jr. Just one week earlier the lead had been almost 40 points so it was still in reach for LeMay but he would have to be perfect. The field got in just two green flag laps before Geoff Zdroik went around in front of a number of cars bringing out the caution. Dylan Koltz led Tim Lemirande and Mitch McGrath on the restart but Ben Godlewski brought out another caution before a lap could be completed. On the next restart, Tim Lemirande got a great jump and by the time the field exited turn two, Lemirande had gotten by Koltz and set off down the backstretch. Mitch McGrath got by Koltz the following lap setting up a two car battle for the lead with Schraufnagel taking third. McGrath got by Lemirande on lap six but couldn’t quite shake him. The yellow came out again on lap 14 for Mike Miller bunching the field up again and giving McGrath a clean track. Schraufnagel and Lemirande tried various lines around the speedway but were unable to chase down McGrath. McGrath picked up the win with Lemirande second and Schraufnagel third. With LeMay finishing sixth, Schraufnagel won the championship for the third time in the last five years.

Don Sorce held an 11 point leading over Roger Lee, the defending Grand National champion, going into the night’s action. He picked up a couple more points in the heats and entered the A-Main with a comfortable, but not guaranteed, lead. Sorce got a break before a lap was even completed. Nathan Persha, the pole-sitter crashed on the first circuit forcing a complete restart. However, with Persha put to the rear of the field, the entire inside line moved up a row moving Sorce a row up on Lee before the first lap went in the record books. Once started, Craig Boettcher jumped out to the lead and looked like he might be a contender for the win. However, Sorce using the inside line as he usually does, got by Boettcher on lap four. Kenny Richards, starting outside row six was running fast and got by Boettcher on lap six taking over the second position. Sorce and Richards battled for three laps until there was contact between the two spinning out Sorce and getting Richards black-flagged for rough driving. Sorce was put to the rear for the restart. With Lee barely in the top 10, it looked like he might still have a chance at the championship. Will Sorce inherited the lead as he had been running third at the time of the caution. It stayed that way for a few more laps until Don Sorce went around again, with help from Eric Grunst. Track officials black-flagged Grunst and put Sorce to the rear. It looked like Will Sorce would get his first feature win, but he got into turn four too hard as he was coming for the white flag and spun out. Larry Richards was the beneficiary of the caution and took over the lead. He held on for the final two laps with Boettcher finishing third. Lee finished tenth but it wasn’t enough to take the championship away from Sorce.

The Street Stock division winner was all but wrapped up going into the feature event. Aaron held a sizable lead over Roger Frank and the rest of the drivers. The seemingly only question was how big the margin of victory would be. The feature event itself held little questions as Jesse Kanas went right to the front and lead all but the first lap. Brent Lepple finished second and Matt Bedkar third. Streblow finished seventh as he wrapped up the 2008 season as the Street Stock champion.

Eric Barth had already locked up his fourth championship in the last five years in the Legends division but wanted to finish 2008 with a win. However, Jeff Steenbergen and the rest of the drivers weren’t about to let that happen. Lap one belonged to outside row one starter Warren Ropp. Brian Peterson took over on lap two after he was able to work past Ropp. Right behind the pair was Steenbergen and Weber. The foursome put on a great show with positions changing several times before Steenbergen took the lead for good on lap six. Weber moved past Ropp on lap ten and tried to catch Steenbergen. However, Steenbergen had too much going for him and picked up the win in front of Weber and Barth.

The Dirt Devil feature was dominated by Steve LeMay but the championship was won by Matt Janke. LeMay led all 20 laps of the feature event which was run with just a single caution on lap three for William Young. LeMay took the checkered flag first in front of Janke and Tim Draheim.
The racing will continue next year starting approximately in April. Watch the track website at www.wismotorsports.com for more information. Charter Raceway Park would like to thank all of their fans and sponsors for their support over the course of the 2008 season. We hope to see you all back in 2009.

MODIFIEDS
HEATS Rob Schmid, Tim Lemirande, Geoff Zdroik, Eddie LeMay
B MAIN 1 Chris Piquette, Nick Firari, Brad McGuire, Brian Crapser, Mark Kelm
B MAIN 2 Dan Tafelski, Ralph Schneider, Scott Magsmen, Nick Woods, Scott Barnharst
A MAIN Mitch McGrath, Tim Lemirande, Jay Schraufnagel, Craig Priewe, Frank Firari, Eddie LeMay Jr, Joe McGrath, Rob Schmid, Steve Mueller, Joel Crowbridge

LEGENDS
HEATS Brian Peterson, Warren Ropp, Kevin Brill
A MAIN Jeff Steenbergen, Brad Weber, Eric Barth, Joel Wyttenbach, Warren Ropp, Brian Peterson, Mike Mueller, Kevin Brill, Aaron Muhle, Joe Johnson
B Main Joe Johnson, Phil Van Tatenhove, Eric Meyer, Dallas Ross, Jimbo Sommers

DIRT DEVILS
HEAT Steve LeMay
A MAIN Steve LeMay, Matt Janke, Tim Draheim, Robert Nelson, Tyler Kontos, Kevin Allard, Josh Borden, Aaron Stolp, Jim Merkel, William Young

STREET STOCKS
HEATS Matt Bedkar, Jesse Kanas
A MAIN Jesse Kanas, Brent Lepple, Matt Bedker, Andrew Araco, Roger Frank, Jon Schultz, Aaron Streblow, Mike McNeil, Brandon Paitrick, Nate Gross

GRAND NATIONALS
HEATS Don Sorce, Craig Boettcher, Kenny Richards
A MAIN Larry Richards, Craig Boettcher, Nick Schumacher, Will Schumacher, Todd Ascherien, Tommy Moore, Brian Gerber, Dan Schumacher, Ross Stalter, Roger Lee
B MAIN Eric Grunst, Ross Stalter, Dan Schumacher, Brian Gerber, Tim Robbins