July 16, 2002; Eagle River, WI. - It was a steamy July Tuesday as 38 cars took to the one-third mile Riverside Raceway on Marathon Media Night. The Miller-Lite A-Mods had a high enough car count to have two heat races. In the first, Mark Albertus won his fourth heat race in a row. In heat number two, Spencer Bolte took his first checkered flag of the season with the victory.
The Street Stocks were the next to take to the track for their heat race. John Eckert took the lead from the start and the win, though Ryan Glembin challenged him throughout the eight-lap event. It took a lap and a half for B.J. Slizewski to replace Ron
Reese atop the leaderboard in the first Pure Stock heat race. Slizewski cruised to the
win. Keith Durand and Neal Slizewski got toghther on the opening lap of the second Pure
Stock heat, causing a minor exchange of words. Neal, who sat on the pole, was put back to
the front for the restart and rode The First Bandit heat looked like it would go to class point leader Rich Rosemark. He worked his way to the lead by lap six, but going into turn 3 on lap seven, Rosemark cut a tire and gave the lead back to Frank Luce, who would take the gift victory. Chris Snyder was back, and in his second start of the season, he took a flag-to-flag victory in Bandit heat number two. Following intermission was the feature for the Miller Lite A-mods. Jerry Grasse had the pole for the event and a very stout car. Two cautions slowed the race and allowed the field to catch up to Grasse, but Grasse would pull away on both restarts. The most hotly contested battle was for second between Spencer
Bolte and Mark Albertus. Albertus cleared Bolte going into turn 1 on lap twelve, but Bolte
slid back bye on the inside in turn two, and held on to second for the remainder of the
race. Ken Valeria took advantage of the leader's misfortune again this week in the Street Stock feature. Valeria had charged from his sixth place starting spot to second in just three laps. On lap four, while Valeria was in close pursuit of the leader, John Eckert. Eckert had a tire go down, sending him to the pits, Valeria to the lead, and the caution flag into the air. On the restart, Valeria was strongly challenged by Ryan Glembin. Glembin started to drift back on lap 10 as smoke began to show from underneath his machine. Glembin was saved when a tire problem for Victor Bodamer brought out the caution on lap twelve. Glembin couldn't do anything with Valeria after the restart, as Valeria took his fourth feature win of the season and increased his lead to four points of Fritz Scharf in the standings. Glembin had to hold off Scharf for second. John Eckert was the last car running in fourth position. The drivers were quite restless in the Pure Stock feature as
six cautions slowed the event, and shortened it to thirteen laps. For most of the Bandit feature, it looked like there would be a sweep for the night as the two heat winners, Frank Luce an Chris Snyder battled for the lead. Snyder took the lead away from Luce on lap eight, but his motor began to give way on lap 11, giving the lead back to Luce. Luce was now engaged in battle with Mark Schuenemann and on lap thirteen, Schuenemann won the battle and went on to victory. Luce took second with Jim Nieckula right on his bumper. Point leader Rich Rosemark maintained his advantage with a fourth place finish. Phil Malouf rounded out the top five. The racing for the evening wasn't over yet. After the Bandit feature, the mechanics took the track for bragging rights in the infield. Dennis LaCrosse took the A-Mod Mechanics' race in convicing fashion. Brian Slizewski did the same in the Pure/Street Stock race. The race in for the Bandit mechanics was quite
exciting, though. Joel Miller, in Bandit 47, got around Troy Elliott, in 13, on lap three
of five. Elliott got back around on lap for and took the win. STREET STOCKS PURE STOCKS BANDITS |
