August 12, 2003; Eagle River, WI. -WRJO Night at
Riverside Raceway featured the return of Duane Dunbar to the Duane Dunbar missed last week's races at Riverside, all but handing the WISSOTA Midwest Mods Presented by Miller Lite championship to Scott Anderson, but Dunbar came back this week with a vengeance. Dunbar jumped to the early lead in took the heat race easily. That domination continued to an extent in the feature. Dunbar was slated to start
third, but Scott Anderson mysteriously pushed up the racetrack and stalled in turn four on
lap one, bringing out the caution, and giving Dunbar the pole. Dunbar used his improved
track position to pull away early.Scott Anderson's mishap sent him to the back of the
pack, but his worked Ken Valeria took the lead in the WISSOTA Street Stock point standings last week with a clean sweep. Valeria's recent domination of the class continued in the heat race as he won from the outside pole, leading every lap. The action began to heat up in the Street Stock feature. Shawn Bialas took the early
lead, with Kevin Maulson hot on his heels. While the battle for the lead shaped up, Ken
Valeria and Fritz Scharf tried to pick their way through the field, battling with John
Kallas for third. On lap nine, Shawn Bialas pushed high in turn four and Kevin Maulson
took advantage with a rare Bialas's feature would end a few laps later when he crowded Fritz Scharf into turn one,
was hit and plowed hard into the guardrail. Meanwhile, Maulson had his own problems to
deal with. Namely, Ken Valeria breathing down his neck. After the restart from the Bialas
caution, Valeria faded with a cut tire and Maulson cruised to his first Street Stock
feature win at Mark Schuenemann has been on a roll as of late, scoring a feature win in the Pure Stock class and TNT's Bomber class in the last two weeks. Schuenemann was able to carry that positive momentum into a win in heat number one of the Pure Stocks. There was controversy in heat number two. Joel Miller led the first seven laps but Rob
Rodziczak wasn't going to make victory easy. On the final lap, Rodziczak decided to go for
the win, driving a little harder into turn three. Rodziczak nipped Miller and Miller lost
control. In the scramble, Marlys Scharf passed the both and crossed the finish line first.
Officials Controversy aside, the feature for the Pure Stocks was thrilling. Dennis LaCrosse was back in car 63 and jumped to the early lead. Mark Schuenemann's hot streak came to a halt as he bowed out of the race on lap 11 with tire problems. Five laps remained and B.J. Slizewski was on the charge. LaCrosse had to hold off Slizewski in the remaining laps and did by a foot as they came to the checkered flag. LaCrosse, who splits time with Keith Durand in car 63, earned his second feature of the season. B.J. Slizewski had to settle for second, and despite failing to win a feature thus far this season, is only six points behind Marlys Scharf, who struggled to a sixth place finish. The Bandit heat raced proved to be one of the best finishes of the night. Eli Gustafson snuck by Heidi Diers on the final lap to take the win.But the night belonged to Dustin Miller. Miller dominated the heat race for the Super Bandits and came back to win the feature and closed to within five points of Phil Malouf for the Super Bandit points. During Intermission, the annual WRJO Celebrity Race was held. This year's competition
added a new wrinkle as the participants rode bikes around the racetrack. Bruce Drew,
representing the Vilas County News-Review, left me in |
