August 20, 2002; Eagle River, WI. - The chase for the track championships continued last Tuesday at Riverside Raceway. In the Miller Lite A-Mods, the race for the championship went on behind the race leader in both the heat and the feature.
Spencer Bolte took the early lead in the A-Mod heat and would take a comfortable victory. The battle was for second as Bob Kleinschmidt, second in A-Mod points, held off Tad Schoonover, A-Mod points leader, for position. Those two would battle again in the feature, and it was again Kleinschmidt over Schoonover for position. Kleinschmidt would trim the points lead to three. The battle for the win looked to be as good as Jerry Grasse challenged Mike Vogt for victory. The two battled side by side on the final lap and at the line, Mike Vogt held on by six inches. Grasse wouldn't be credited for second, though. On restarts, there is a cone in the middle of the track at the exit of turn two. All drivers must pass to the outside of that cone when the race goes back to green. When the A-Mod Feature resumed on lap 4, Grasse went below the cone and was penalized two positions, in Riverside's version of out-of-bounds. The points battle tightened a little in the Street Stocks as well, but unlike the battle in the A-Mods, the combatants would go at it from the front. Points leader, Ken Valeria entered the night looking to forget the misfortunes of unlucky August 13. He started on a good note as he held on to victory over Fritz Scharf. Not to be outdone, Fritz Scharf got in front of Ken Valeria in the feature and had to hold him of for almost the entire 15-lap race. Scharf would win the feature and trim Valeria's lead to six. Consistency has been the name of the game for Marlys Scharf in the Pure Stocks. She has scored at least 50 of a possible 55 points every night this season. That is why she had a 25-point lead over B.J. Slizewski entering last Tuesday. Scharf would watch heat number one as Jeremy Melton, still showing damage from his rollover on August 13, took the victory. Brian Slizewski, in brother B.J.'s car for the night, tried to dive low to take the win, but spun in turn four and finished fourth. Scharf would do battle in the second heat race and again, she was stuck behind Rob Rodziczak. The two would stage battle for most of the race and it would be Rodziczak crossing the line first. The feature ended up being a three-car battle between Brian Slizewski, Pete Luedke, and the ever-consistent Marlys Scharf. Those cars would be the top three, in some order for all but one lap. In the final laps, Luedke and Scharf fought for second, which allowed Brian Slizewski to pull away and take the win. Luedke would beat out Scharf for second. Marlys Scharf scored 51 points and kept 24 points of her advantage. After Rob LaPointe won the first heat race in the Bandits, Rich Rosemark took to the track looking to gain a further strangle hold on the championship. Rosemark passed Brandon Miller for the lead and checked out to the win. Rosemark was not through yet. Despite starting deep in the field, Rosemark charged up the leader board. Then, on lap 12, Rosemark made the move, took the lead and the win. Rosemark entered this Tuesday 50 points ahead of Jim Nieckula and only had to pick up six points to claim a track championship. Results: August 20 Street Stocks Pure Stocks Bandits |
