June 9, 2001; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - After a two week rain delay, racing returned to the Door County Speedway with a fast paced program Saturday night. With a new format, the divisions will alternate the running order weekly, and tonight, the Street Stocks kicked off the feature racing..
Mike Soukup sat on the pole and led the opening circuit before a flat tire dropped him from the event, turning the top spot over to Ed Anschutz. Eddie started to pull away from the pack a bit. Gary Reinhardt moved into the runner up spot with Rick Johnson, Jeff Vlies and point leader, Gregg Siebold behind. On lap 6, Reinhardt pulled inside of Anschutz and for 2 laps the pair ran door to door before Reinhardt pulled into the lead. Cautions on laps 9 and 11, bunched the pack for a final time. Reinhardt outran the field to collect his first feature win of the season. The battle for the runner up spot was not decided until the finish line with Corey Haen edging into the second spot for his best finish of the season. point leader, Siebold, nipped Anschutz at the stripe for third. Anschutz held off Tom Daubner for fourth with James Tebon rounding out the top six. Buck Schmelzer set the pace for the first 3 laps of the modified main when his car suddenly shut down in turn one on lap 4, sending the field to scramble behind, causing minor damage on a couple cars, but all were able to continue. Bill LeMieux was making a move to the front and then inherited the top spot for the restart. Jared Siefert moved into the runner up spot and 2 laps later took over the lead. Tim McCormick, Randie Back, Dave Zeitler and point leader, Todd Dart, moved behind the leader. For several laps, the pack remained tight, but Siefert was able to find the right groove and started to pull away from the pack, leaving the race for second place. Siefert celebrated his 24th birthday by giving himself his first feature win of the season here. Back took the runner up spot with Dan Ratajczak, who came from the rear of the field after the lap 3 accident, taking third place. Zeitler was fourth with George Henkel taking fifth and Darrell, Massart rounding out the top six. The IMCA Stock Car drivers continued to show why they are in the most competitive division around by clicking off their feature caution free. Dave Bouche jumped into the lead followed by Kerry Douglas, Travis Annoye, Dylan Heilmann, Rob Gagne and Wally Lhost. The entire field stayed bunched together for some great racing for the guys trying to work from mid pack back to the front. The top four ran together and defending champion, Benji LaCrosse was working in a bunch of cars, finally moving into the fifth spot with five laps remaining. Douglas was still hounding Bouche for the lead as LaCrosse worked by Gagne for the third spot. With 2 laps left, Douglas had a tire go down, ending his strong run, which put LaCrosse in second. He closes on Bouche as the white appeared, but Bouche held his line a sped off with his first feature win since July 31, 1999. LaCrosse took a close second and moved into the point lead. Gagne ended a strong run in third with Lhost, Annoye and Bernie Reinhardt rounding out the top six. After a lap 2 caution in the Bomber feature, the green stayed out the rest of the way with John Knudson leading the way. Tom Frea moved into the runner up spot on lap 4 with Ford Malvitz, Ryan LeMieux and Tracy Koontz behind. Knudson and Frea ran side by side for 5 laps before Frea was able to take control and started to pull away from the pack a bit. Frea held the lead to the finish, collecting his first career feature victory. The battle for second stayed close to the finish with point leader, Jeremy Wiitala inching by Koontz on the final lap to take the runner up spot. Koontz held off Knudson to finish third. Brad Ohnesorge and Malvitz rounded out the top six places. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED IMCA STOCK CAR STREET STOCK BOMBER |
