Career Firsts for Cole and Tuttle at
Door County Speedway! June 1, 2002; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - Following a wet month of May, the weather changed for a warm, sunny day at the Door County Speedway Saturday night that produced three first time season winners and a repeat.
After an opening lap caution, the Stock Cars clicked off 19 straight on the blackened track. Russ Tuttle sat on the pole and quickly took control of the race. With the race green from the second lap, Tuttle was able to pull away from the field and never look back to collect his first career division feature victory. Second place back was the focus throughout the race. Larry Ingebretson, Gary Reinhardt, Brett Piontek, Kerry Douglas and Scott Karcz hooked up in an early race battle. Ingebretson held the spot throughout the race with the field shuffling right behind. Craig Paque pulled into third on lap 5 and pressured for second to the finish, Eric VanIten, Dave Bouche, Larry Karcz, Jr and Pat Davister were tight behind. Tuttle collected the popular victory a ¼ lap ahead with Ingebretson holding the runner up finish with Paque third. Bouche, Karcz and VanIten filled in the top six. Pole sitter, Aaron Thornton, took control of the Street Stock main leading the opening 3 circuits before B.J. Soquet took over with an outside move. Soquet held on until Thornton re-took the top spot on lap 8. Kevin Sternard, Charlie Kroll and Troy Muench puled into the lead pack at the same time which provided a lot of action at the front to the finish. Thornton was able to hold off all challengers to collect his first feature win since June 10, 2000 with Sternard right behind. Soquet, Kroll, Jeremy Wiitala and Muench rounded out the top six. Mike Cole led the way at the start of the non-stop modified feature with Ryan LeMieux, Shawn Olson, Randie Back and Jerry Wenzel behind. Olson and Back moved up behind the lead by lap three and started to pull away as the field strung out around the 1/3 mile. George Henkel moved into fourth on lap 8 and from the mid point to the finish, Cole had his hands full with plenty of pressure from behind. Over the final 5 laps, lapped traffic became an issue as well, but Cole was able to weave through and despite several hard attempts by Olson, was able to hold on to win his first career division feature. Olson, Back and Henkel were behind with Jared Siefert using a last lap pass to take 5th from his dad, Art, who rounded out the top six. Joe Hegnet took command of the Bomber finale and paced the first 5 laps before Corey Haen flew by and pulled away to his second straight division feature win. Hegnet held the runner up spot to the finish, but not an easy task with Scott Reinhardt and Wayne Moore putting on plenty of pressure. Haen took the white flag when a two car spin and stall in turn one brought out the caution, and ending the race with Hegnet in the second spot. Moore took third over Reinhardt with Greg Aregoni taking fifth and John Knudson sixth. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED IMCA STOCK CAR STREET STOCK BOMBER |
