On Friday night October 2nd. the Second Annual Small Car World Championship takes place, as Rascal Outlaws, mini modified, Illinois/Wisconsin Dwarf cars, Wisconsin Allison Series, WIN Region Legend cars, Formula Indy and North Michigan Indy cars, GEM Pro Karts, mini cup cars and River Valley karts take to the paved oval at 6 pm. for time trials and the first race at 7:30 sharp.
Drivers from soine 5 different states will participate. The birth of this show last season produced some 137 drivers. Scott Miller from the North Michigan indy cars toured the oval with the fastest lap ever turned by any race car, clocking a time of 15.843 seconds. 10 year old Dale Darnell of Beach Park ,Illinois competes against the guys on a regular basic, in the River Valley Karts, winning many events. Clayton Kruse of Burlington is the masters point leader, Joe Houpt in the pro, and Kristie Goben, semi-pro in the WIN region legend cars. Dr. Ken Johnson from Paddock Lake another crowd favorite leads the mini modifieds, while Chris Blawat is the current point leader in the Formula Indy cars. Making his debut in a Rascal Outlaw open wheel car will be former LGR late model driver, Matt Bentz.
The clash of champions race for the super lares and limited late models will top off that evening.
On Saturday many new faces will take to the track with time trials for all other divisions at 3 pm. Heading the entries for the Midwest Modifieds will be 1971 and 72 champion, Jack Ashenbrenner from Franklin. This driver ruled the old quarter mile in the Sportsman division during the early 70's. Coming out of retirement in this season Jack races on the dirt and wants to try the one third mile oval. 2 years before Ashenbrenner won that first title, another young driver by the name of Al Schill Sr. won his first title here, in a modified.
Schill is the defending super late model champion and current point leader. Schill won his first late model title here in 1975, the year before Conrad Morgan who sent in this year's first entry, won the crown. Lots of entries are now pouring in according to Dave Kamholtz the track marketing director at the raceway. "It looks like another great show, thanks to all these drivers, that have already entered", Kamholtz stated. Last Year 403 drivers raced in different events. Last years super late model feature went to Al Schill Jr. another former champion here in 1996. Schill Jr. still competes occasionally and is a top runner in the NASCAR RE/MAX Challenge Series this season.
Other former champions here, that are expected are, Eddie May 1986, Jamie Wallace 1992 and Fran Prestay 1994 and 1996 king pin, besides Schill Sr. and his son Al Jr. and Morgan.
In the limited late models, Rick Nelson, Madison Speedway champion, will have his work
cut out for himself as the Jefferson regulars like Andy Wendt 1998 champion, point
runner-up Scott Null, Roy Aitchison will all be looking at a win. Columbus 151 speedway
champion Scott Patrick, runner up Mike Langsdorf, former super late model driver Jim
Grzanna and others will give the field a total
balance. Another entry is Nick Wendt, Andy's son a top rookie at Jefferson Speedway this
year.
The all new Midwest Cruisers will make their debut after catching on at nearby Wilmot Speedway. This will be their second appearance of the season. The Slinger regulars will make this an interesting division.
The super stocks are always in full force, with Ken Olson, always a crowd favorite. 1998 Jefferson champion Dave Oswald has raced here before in the small cars and will give Olson a run for the money, as this driver was runner up at Columbus also in addition to winning the Jefferson Sportsman title.
The interest in the 4 cylinder classthis season is quite high, LGR sport truck drivers will have the Rockford American Short trackers, like 1998 champion George Bohn, Brett McCoy , Tim Melvin and others trying to win the Saturday night only events. Jefferson international regulars Darnell Mepham 1998 point runner-up at Jefferson Spedway, Mike Cusick , Jim Pankow, and Justin Nottestad who has had a fantastic season in the 4 cylinder cars is expected to be here. Because of the response at Rockford last Friday, the division could take into a Saturday and Sunday affair.
The super late models will see many Grundy, Illiana, Wisconsin International Raceway, Slinger and Norway drivers taking on the 30 plus regulars tlere. Former clash winner Pat Echlin, Grundy champ John Brolick, Conrad Morgan Slinger champ, Billy Skinner Jr. Grundy regular, Jim Stankowski Norway who came down during the regular season. Also entered are John Nutley and Pat Echlin who have won Saturday night features. Terry Baldry the 1997 Fox River Racing Club late model champion and former Classic winner and others will make a two day dream for race fans.
"It's too bad the CWRA cars can't come, but another event is running that day too" , added Kamholtz. The LGR super stock drivers will fall under the street stock rules. Champion John Janssen, runner-up Tommy Nevoso and third place Adam Regnier are eager to take on the visitors.
Time trials on Saturday have moved up to 1 pm. because of the early entry totals. Racing will begin at 6 pm. On Sunday over 265 laps of feature action will begin at 1 pm. One on challenge races will top off a day of thrills and excitement.
For more information either call Kamholtz at 414-248-8566 or visit our website at WWW.RACINGONLINE.COM/LGR