September 1, 2001; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - The Labor Day weekend brought a cool but clear night for racing at the Door County Speedway Saturday. The Streets took the track first with Dave Baenen setting the opening lap pace before B.J. Soquet took over. Corey Haen, Ed Anschutz, Charlie Kroll and Jay Naze dropped in behind. Haen ended Soquet’s stint at the front of the pack on lap 6 and Kroll moved into the top spot on lap 8. Kroll started to pull away from the field until a caution bunched the field on lap 11, setting up a 4 lap dash to the finish.
Kevin Sternard moved into second after the restart and stay with Kroll the rest of the way, but Kroll held the top spot to the finish for his third feature win of the year. Sternard was second with Soquet third, Aaron Thornton fourth, Haen and Mike Soukup in the top six. Scott Derenne led lap 1 of the Modified headliner followed by Doug Maurer, Tony Herbst, Jared Siefert, Dave Zeitler and Mike Plate. Maurer moved into the top spot on lap 2 and began to pull away from the pack. Siefert moved into second on lap 5 and pulled up on the leader. Maurer was running a wider line and left the inside open for Siefert to work in. Siefert continued to pressure the leader and moved into the lead on lap 13, only to have a caution erase the move and put Maurer back into the lead. Zeitler, Herbst, Dan Ratajczak, Darrell Massart and point leader, Todd Dart were behind. Siefert continued to hound Maurer for the rest of the race, pulling even a couple of times, but Maurer met every advance and went on to win his first feature of the season. Siefert held off Zeitler for the runner up spot with Ratajczak taking fourth. Dart was fifth and Randie Back rounded out the top six. Troy Rass grabbed the Stock Car feature lead with Don Aregoni, Jr, Larry Ingebretsen, Kerry Douglas, Jason Geyer and Shawn Kilgore behind. The first of two early race cautions appeared on lap 2, the final on lap 6, which left 14 laps of hard racing. Rass continued to lead after the final restart with Douglas moving into the runner up spot. Pat Davister moved into third. On lap 10, Jay Matthias, using the entire track, moved through traffic from the back and into the fourth spot. The lead battle was very tight with Douglas taking over the lead on lap 11. By lap 15, Matthias was in second with Kilgore, Rass, Aregoni and Geyer set to battle for the final 5 laps. Douglas was running the outer line and Matthias stayed inside, pulling even a couple times. Douglas charged back each time to hold the lead at the line. Kilgore, Rass, Geyer and point leader, Craig Paque were bunched tight behind. When the white appeared, Douglas still held the top spot by a bumper over Matthias. Matthias continued his pressure from the lower line and as the pair entered the final turn, Douglas had his car break lose, and spun in front of the pack. Matthias had to hit the brakes hard to avoid contact, but the mix up was an opening for Kilgore, as he snuck by on the outside and took the checker just inches ahead of Matthias to record his first career feature win. Rass took third place with Geyer, Paque and Aregoni rounding out the top six. The Bomber feature rolled to the track a couple cars short after a tough heat race session that saw two rollovers and crashes. The feature was tight and exciting as well. Shawn Graf was the leader for 2 laps before Maynard Hegnet took charge. Wayne Moore came through traffic to take over the runner up spot from Graf on lap 8. Brad Ohnesorge, Scott Reinhardt and John Knudson were right behind. Point leader, Jeremy Wiitala was making a run to the front when a car re-entering the race from pit lane did not get up to speed. Wiitala rear ended the car and damaged the front of his car, dropping him off the pace to an 11th place finish. Moore was running the inside line and moved by Hegnet into the top spot on lap 12. Hegnet stayed with the leader and on the final lap, was setting up for a final slingshot move out of turn four. His car clipped the inside tire, and was sent into the air, sending the car into a roll in front of the rest of the field. No other contact was made and Moore took the checker for his second feature win of the year. Ohnesorge was the runner up with Graf in third, Reinhardt fourth, Tom Frea and Knudson rounding out the top six. Next week, September 9, the Door County Speedway will host the Annual Street Stock Slam. The feature winner could walk off with a possible $1000 with lap money. The race has been run when the IMCA Cars are in Boone for their season special. The Mods and Stocks that stay home will be competing in a non-point show. The Bombers will also run a special event. The 2001 season will close with a final point night for all divisions on September 15. Todd Dart holds a slim 5 point margin over George Henkel. Dart was the title holder in 1998, with Henkel winning the title in 1999. Dart shared the 2000 championship with Randie Back. The race has been close all season and the two will settle this years title hunt on the 15th. Craig Paque has led the Stock Car points all season but defending champ, Benji LaCrosse has been making a run to the front over the past few weeks, pulling to within 2 before tonights race. LaCrosse had a run in with a lapped car in the feature which dropped him 15 points behind Paque entering the final night. Gregg Siebold has a commanding 31 point margin in the Street Stock division to sew up his second straight and third overall division title. Despite the problem tonight, Jeremy Wiitala holds a strong 18 point lead over Scott Reinhardt in the bomber division entering the final night. Wiitala would have to have a disastrous night to not win the title. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED IMCA STOCK CAR STREET STOCK BOMBER |
