Valeria, Carley win as Lap 13 Proves Unlucky for Leaders at Riverside! By Jeremy Mayo

July 9, 2002; Eagle River, WI. - Wild finishes and close racing were the theme as 37 cars took to the Riverside Raceway D-oval on Boone's Building Supply Night.

The heat race of the Miller Lite A-Mods saw Mark Albertus make it three heat wins in a row as he held off the challenge of Guy Carley and Tad Schoonover.

In the first heat of the Street Stocks, John Eckert took command and never let go as he beat out Ryan Glembin and Kevin Maulson. Trouble occurred for Shawn Bialas on the first lap of Street Stock heat number two. While leading on the opening lap, Bialas spun in turn 4 and broke his rear axle. Bialas was done for the evening. With Bialas gone, Fritz Scharf held off Victor Bodamer for the win. Ken Valeria finished third after a flat tire sent him to the infield.

Jim Melton got the lead from the outside pole in Pure Stock heat number one and cruised to victory as Rob Rodziczak had a difficult time passing Dan Melton for second. B.J. Slizewski led every lap in heat number two for the Pures to take victory. The battle was for second, as Ron Reese literally had to hold off Marlys Scharf for the entire eight-lap distance to take second.

Heat number one in the Bandits was a close race between Tim Miller and Mark Schuenemann. Tim Miller was able to negotiate lapped traffic well and held on to victory. Heidi Diers had a strong showing, scoring her best finish of the year, as she finished third. Heat two of the Bandits saw points leader Rich Rosemark get to the front early in the race. Rosemark took victory over Rob LaPointe and Wade Morris.

After Intermission the intensity really picked up, as a substantial number of cautions were the catalyst for some exciting finishes.
In the Miller Lite A-Mod feature, the battle was intense between the hottest driver in the class, Mark Albertus, and the class point leader, Bob Kleinschmidt. For the first ten laps, Kleinschmidt was able to get a wheel inside of Albertus several times, but never had a run that was good enough to complete a pass.

Then, on lap 13 of 15, Kleinschmidt got the run he was looking for and got to the inside of Albertus out of turn 2. They stayed wheel-to-wheel through turns 3 and 4 when Albertus and Kleinschmidt made contact that gave Kleinschmidt the lead and caused Albertus to brush the wall. Albertus, who was not at all happy, drove the car hard in to turns 1 and 2 and slammed into to the back of Kleinschmidt nearly spinning Kleinschmidt out, and giving Albertus serious suspension damage.

The benefactor in all of this was Guy Carley, who was a comfortable distance back in third. When the two leaders got together a second time, Carley took the lead and the victory. Mike Vogt ended up with his best finish of the season in second, while the two principal in the action, Kleinschmidt and Albertus finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

The race in the Street Stock wasn't as wild, but it was close. Kevin Maulson got the early lead but spun off of turn 2 on lap 2. Several cars had to take evasive action to miss Maulson, including Ken Valeria who went to the grass to miss certain disaster.
The lead was handed over to Victor Bodamer but he was closely pursued by five other cars lead by Fritz Scharf. Two consecutive cautions by newcomer Michael Locy on laps 7 and 8 kept the field bunched. On the restart Victor Bodamer was being hotly pursued by Ken Valeria, who got by Scharf between cautions. Valeria wasn't able to get the run he needed, but on lap 13 disaster struck for Bodamer. Bodamer had the lead going into turn 1 when the rear axle broke and the car got airborne. Bodamer was all right but done for the evening.

The fight for the win would also be a fight for the points lead. The drivers in first and second, Valeria and Scharf would become the point leader with a victory. Scharf stayed on Valeria's back bumper on the restart, but that is as close as he would get as Ken Valeria scored his third victory of the season in the class.

Neal Slizewski dominated in the Pure Stock feature, but when nephew B.J. spun point leader Marlys Scharf on lap 10, Neal pulled into the infield, retiring from the feature. The first restart yielded no further progress in the lap count as Jim and Dan Melton got together in turn 4, sending Dan around, and Jim to the back. Ron Reese was the leader on the second restart, but he slowed handing the lead over to Dan Melton, who was put back to second after the spin. Melton's lead would be short lived as on lap 13 Marlys Scharf got to the lead and took her fourth feature win of the season. Dan Melton was able to hold on for second.

The biggest surprise of the night was not the exchange between Albertus and Kleinschmidt, was not the fact that Bodamer broke with three to go, nor was it Neal Slizewski retiring from the race while leading. The biggest surprise of the night was the fact that the Bandits were the only class to run 15 laps caution-free. Rob LaPointe had a stout car and the only person that had a chance of reeling him in was Tim Miller, but his car broke with 13 laps to go. Meanwhile, Heidi Diers was driving very hard to keep point leader Rich Rosemark behind her. She finally lost the battle, but both cars would lose the war as they both spent time on pit road repairing damage. Rob LaPointe was a clear-cut victor as Mark Schuenemann came up for second, and Nick Warwick in his Riverside Debut, finished third.