June 23, 2001; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - A perfect night for racing turned out an exciting racing program Saturday night at the Door County Speedway.
The Street Stocks took the track for their feature with Mike Coel grabbing the lead at the start ahead of Al Thornton, B.J. Soquet, Rick Johnson, Jeff Vlies and James Tebon. Johnson hooked up on the outside and pulled into the top spot on lap 4. Coel stayed right behind through half way before Johnson was able to open a lead over the field. Johnson continued alone at the front to collect his first feature win of the season. Coel had his hands full holding the runner up spot but held off Vlies to take the second spot. Thornton, in only his second run this season took fourth. Point leader, Gregg Siebold, was fifth and Corey Haen rounded out the top six. Kerry Douglas took the lead at the start of the Stock Car main, taking the high line to hold off all challengers through several cautions over the first half of the race. Dave Bouche, John Heinz, Brett Wenzel, Eric VanIten Craig Paque and point leader, Benji LaCrosse were bunched up behind. It seemed everyone wanted to run high after the final restart on lap 10. However, LaCrosse stuck tight to the inside and worked his way to the front, taking the lead on lap 11. Once in front, LaCrosse pulled away to collect his third feature win of the season. The battle was for the runner up spot, which stayed close to the finish. Douglas, still in the high groove, held on to take the runner up finish. VanIten was right there in third. Second year driver, Greg Gretz, came from the back of the field to place fourth. Bouche and Paque rounded out the top six finishers. The Modifieds division also had trouble with cautions during the first half of their feature event, but settled in for one of the best finishes ever at the track. Shawn Olson controlled the first lap of the feature before Buck Schmelzer took over and led to lap 7. Dan Ratajczak, was hounding the leader for five laps before taking charge on lap 8. The green stayed out to the finish after lap 11, and Ratajczak was building a slight lead while the field sorted out behind. Todd Dart was working the low line to perfection and moved into the runner up spot on lap 15, and slowly cut into Ratajczak’s lead. As the laps were clicked off, Ratajczak, running high, and Dart, still low, pulled even out of the final turn to take the white flag. Ratajczak pulled ahead down the back chute but Dart got a good run into and more important, out of the final turn for a photo finish at the line. All scorers matched with Dart getting his second feature win of the year by inches over Ratajczak. Rookie Greg Soukup came through the field to place a season best third in the event. Schmelzer took fourth with point leader, George Henkel in fifth and Jared Siefert rounding out the top six. The Bombers closed the nights activities with a bang. On lap 2, Thom Terrien was leading the pack out of turn two, and got crossed up in front of the pack. In the mix up, his car got sideways, and rolled 2 ½ times, ending up on its roof. Thom was OK, but the car will need major surgery to return. Brad Ohnesorge took over the lead on the restart and with the curfew looming, positions would be important. Point leader, Jeremy Wiitila was making a run at the leader when the white flag appeared and on the final lap was able to take over the lead to collect his third feature flag of the season. Ohnesorge held off Lucas Long for the runner up finish. Tracy Koontz was fourth with Scott Reinhardt and James Bosman rounding out the top six. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED IMCA STOCK CAR STREET STOCK BOMBER |
