| Al Schill Sr. of Franklin, WI continued to pull away from his rivals in the point standings after he won his sixth Super Late Model event of the 1997 season at Lake Geneva Raceway. |  |
August 23, 1997; Lake Geneva, WI. - The Saturday night weekly stock car racing program at Lake Geneva Raceway was sponsored by Operation Lifesaver of Wisconsin. The feature races ran first, right after the dash races, due to severe weather that was to arrive at around 9:30 pm. All events ran and at 10:30, the rains came.
| Al Schill Sr. of Franklin, WI continued to pull away from his rivals in the point standings after he won his sixth Super Late Model event of the 1997 season at Lake Geneva Raceway. | |
The 18 car starting field of the super late models started off very rocky, as Dennis Vito and Brian Ulrich diced for the lead. On lap 3, Paul Loppnow in his debut of his new mount, spun causing the first caution. Vito shot out front, with Ulrich, Al Schill and visiting Mike Turcol fighting for second. By lap 7, Schill was second, with the leader feeling the pressure.
Schill showed the crowd that his 30 years of racing was a factor in this race, as the point leader flew in front on lap 8. Building up a comfortable lead, Schill didn't want to see that lap 13 caution as Denny Hiffman, who turned quick time, dumped liquid all around the oval. After a lengthy clean up, rain came for a few minutes, causing another delay. With the green flag out, second place Ulrich dove inside the leader, but Mark Hartline and Terry Patnode want the same position.
Ulrich got wide coming off turn four, then corrected, Hartline and Patnode got involved, as all three smashed hard into the wall. No one was injured, but Ulrich's mount had extensive damage. Patnode drove to the pits, but never returned for the remainder of the event. Hartline, with the help of his crew returned before the next green. This is when things got ugly. Turcol spun in turn two, David Ray Salentine clipped him, before this ended, Turcol was on the infield minus much of his front end. On the trip to the pits some type of liquid ran onto the oval, causing another delay.
Officials placed the cone on the track for the restart. Schill took the outside spot, Vito and Mike Arnold were next row back. As this pair warmed up their tires, they made contact. Both were giving the black flag, for sheet metal hanging. Second in time Jim Kjellander and Jeff Holtz were now behind the leader, as the green flag was displayed. Both held the pace with Schill, until lap 20. The race for second was quite the show for the remaining laps, as Schill won his 6th feature of the season and his second in a row. Holtz grabbed second place on lap 22 and held it to the finish. Ronnie Darnell nipped Kjellander for third, right at the wire, with Arnold recovering for fifth and Joe Fischer just ahead of Chad Barker for sixth.
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Dennis Carlton the defending Herb's Street Stock champion may not be competing every week this season, but when he shows up he's one tough competitor. Carlton won the feature holding back current division point leader Denny Norton Jr. |
The 18 car Herb's street stock feature took two tries to get off the ground, as many jumped the start. Jay Potter slipped in front, with Tim Muller, Mike Kooi, Bob Moeller, Shane Bishop, rookie Lyle Messinger and Dennis Estes all over the leader. The only caution came on lap 7, as Adam Berge who had problems all night, stalled in turn four. Then Tim White smashed hard into the stalled mount. Potter went to the pits for some unknown reason, as Muller became the leader. Kooi and Bishop battled for second, Messinger was third and Zac Deeringer was just in front of Dennis Carlton.
Two laps later Carlton was looking for the lead, taking it before the lap ended. Denny Norton Jr. didn't waste any time, dialing in on the leader on lap 12. Bishop was still third, but Deeringer wanted that spot. The intense pace had many jockeying for a new position. With the white flag out, first place wasn't a factor, but second through sixth was, Norton had everyone breathing down his tailpipe. Coming across the wire, Carlton was just in front of Norton, who had Landry Potter and Deeringer at his side for some three deep excitement. Bishop held back Adam Regnier for fifth, in a very close contest.
With the News Sun paper covering this division tonight, the 102.3 XLC sport truck feature started off with Todd Linendoll out front for just 1 lap. Steve Kamin charged in front on lap 2, with Linendoll just ahead of Ron Ross. Inching into second on lap 5, Ron Ross wasn't a force to be stopped, because 2 laps later he was the new leader.
Dan Ross slipped into second on lap 9, with Butch Edwards Jr. hot on his trail. With just 2 laps to go, Ron was just in front of Dan, but Rolf Tillman who dominates this division was working on Edwards. Before the checkered came out, Ron had Dan right alongside of him. But at the wire, Ron Ross scored his first feature win of the season, Tillman nipped Dan Ross for second, Edwards held onto fourth, with Chad Ross fifth and Kamin sixth, in another close event.
With nearly 100 cars jamming the pit area, the Select Performance Legend cars field of 30, were broken up into a 16 car semi and 20 car feature, with the top six in that semi going to the feature field of the top fourteen in time.
Herman Greinig won the semi and B.J. Goodin won the 20 lap feature, his career win ot the season here.
By popular demand, the first big wheels race of the season will be added to next Saturday nights races. Children 9 years of age and under should bring along their own big wheels to race. The super lates and street stocks will have the sportsman cars to join them at 6 pm for time trials and 7:30 for the first race. Another Champion oval track series show is on Sunday at 1 pm as the pro karts, mini cups and sportsman midgets race. On Monday at 1 pm the annual Midwest Enduro series event takes place, with 301 laps of action.
A moment of silence was taken for a former competitor Hank Havorka of Silver Lake who passed away last Monday.
Racing continues every Saturday Night through October 4th, 1997.
Late
Model Division
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Herb's
Street Stock Division
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HEAT ONE: 1.) Doug Peterson; 2.) Katie Taylor; 3.) Scott
Fickau
HEAT TWO: 1.) Bob Moeller; 2.) Mark Reuter; 3.) Dennis
Estes
HEAT THREE: 1.) Kuxhouse;
2.) Deeringer; 3.) Bishop
XLC
102.3 Sport Truck Division
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Select Performance Legend Cars
20 Lap Feature: 1.) B. J. Goodwin, Waterloo, IA; 2.) UNKNOWN; 3.)
Curt Gnatzig, Menomonee Falls, WI; 4.) Galen Manternach, Nekoosa,
WI; 5.) Jocko Terrault, Ingleside, IL; 6.) Scott Peterson,
Machensney Park, IL
16 Lap Semi-Feature: 1.) Herman Greinig, Addison, IL
Trophy Dash: 1.) Clayton Kruse, Burlington; 2.) Goodin; 3.)
Terrault
Fast Qualifier: Curt
Gnatzig, Menomonee Falls, WI.......18.977 Seconds
Mini-Modifieds
15 Lap Feature: 1.) Duck Wack, Paddock Lake, WI; 2.) Rich
Musgrave, Des Plaines, IL;
3.) Mike Van Houten, Gurnee, IL; 4.) Jeff Schultz, Silver Lake,
WI; 5.) Hermie Schultz, Silver Lake, WI
Heat: 1.) Wack; 2.) Musgrave; 3.) Van Houten
Fast Qualifier: Rich Musgrave, Des Plaines, IL..........18.864
Seconds