July 2, 2002; Eagle River, WI. - A record crowd, nearly 1100 people strong, showed up at Riverside Raceway for intense and exciting action on and off the racetrack on Simac's Plumbing and Heating Fireworks night, presented by Harry's Market.
The first heat of the Miller Lite A-Mods kicked things off and it was Mark Albertus, who has been getting better as of late, cruising from the pole to victory. Tad Schoonover made the only pass of the race, passing Guy Carley for second. The tone was set for the kind of racing we would see for the remainder of the night in heat two of the A-Mods. Kenny Smith start from the pole and lead seven of the eight laps, however, Bob Kleinschmidt was in hot pursuit the entire race and made a pass in turn 2 to lead the only lap that really matters - the last lap. Smith had to settle for second, and Mike Boyd rounded out the top three. Heat number one was a sign of things to come in the Street Stocks. Ken Valeria lead
every lap from his outside pole starting spot. Trouble occurred on lap two when Kevin
Maulson looped his car in turn for, collecting John Eckert. Both were done for the heat.
After the restart, the battle was for second with Shawn Bialas taking the spot over Chad
Lederer. Jim Melton got the lead in the first Pure Stock heat and but had a mirror-full of Marlys Scharf the entire time. Scharf tried he best to get around Melton but fell just short in the end. Pete Ludeke finished third. The Slizewskis, Neal and B.J., once again did battle in a Pure Stock heat. Similar to
the week prior, B.J. got within a car length of Neal but could not make the pass. The
Slizewski swept the first two positions as Rob Rodziczak finished third. An excellent battle for the win was staged in heat two of the Bandits. Mark Schuenemann
was challenged by Jim Nieckula, who went to the bottom off of turn 4 on the final lap, but
fell a half of a car length short. Frank Luce rounded out the top three. Ken Valeria got to the lead on lap two of the Street Stock Feature and checked out. Valeria gained the points lead outright by beating out Fritz Scharf, Dennis Squires, Ryan Glembin and Victor Bodamer. Neal Slizewski was able to take the early lead in the Pure Stock feature, but was passed by Pete Ludeke on lap six. Slizewski would have more problems when nephew B.J. spun him out of the way on lap nine, bringing out the caution. On the restart, Ludeke tried to pull away from John Dorion, but couldn't. The two would stage a battle for the win and it was Pete Ludeke holding on to win over Dorion, Rodziczak, point leader Marlys Scharf, and B.J. Slizewski. Upon the completion of the Pure Stock feature, the crew representing Harry's Market put on a well-received fireworks show celebrating America and the 4th of July holiday. The Bandits once again were the nightcap. Many people expected Ryan Burzinski to get to the front and dominate as he did in his heat, but this was not the case. Tim Miller, driving Dustin Miller's car, got the lead on lap two. He would hold it until lap seven when Mark Schuenemann brought out the yellow. On the restart, Ryan Burzinski finally got to the lead but he couldn't pull away. Burzinski was pursued closely by Tim Miller and Jim Nieckula. Either on of the two could have gotten the win if they weren't stuck in a duel for second. Miller won the battle for position over Nieckula. Mark Schunenmann fought back to finish fourth, Phil Malouf finished fifth, and Richard Rosemark maintained his points lead by finishing sixth.
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