July 1, 2003; Eagle River, WI. - A huge crowd was on hand as Riverside kicked off the month of July with fireworks on and off the track. The big event of the evening was the Up North Poured Foundations Firecracker 40, the 40-lap feature race for the WISSOTA Street Stocks. Fritz Scharf won the first preliminary heat race. Kevin Maulson was in control of the second heat race, but spun in the late going, handing the lead and the victory to Bruce Belland. Belland; however, failed to go directly to the scales following the race, an illegal move according the WISSOTA rulebook. For the infraction, Belland was disqualified from the heat and Tate Scharf inherited the victory. Fritz Scharf had the pole position for the feature, but failed to take the lead. Dan Zelten charged from the outside pole and took the lead away. A couple of early cautions slowed the pace, but once things settled down, Zelten and Scharf pulled away from the rest of the field. Kevin Maulson's second spin of the feature brought out the caution on lap 24 and bunched the field back up. On the restart, Zelten and Scharf pulled away again, with Zelten maintaining a three car-length lead. The caution would fly one final time on lap 36 setting up a five-lap shootout. On the final restart, Scharf closed to Zelten's back bumper, but Zelten turned it on, pulled out to his largest lead of the night, and took the Up North Poured Foundations Firecracker 40, his first career Street Stock victory. Zelten pulled away from the veteran Fritz Scharf, who finished second. Ken Valeria, Bruce Belland and Craig Tarsi rounded out the top five. Bob Kleinschmidt took the heat race for the WISSOTA Midwest Mods presented by Miller
Lite, with the co-leaders in the points Duane Dunbar and Scott Anderson right behind. The
feature for the Midwest Mods took place right after the spectacular Harry's Fireworks
Show. Duane Dunbar jumped out to the early lead as he looked for his third consecutive
feature victory at Riverside Raceway. Scott Anderson, despite being tied for the points
lead, was still looking for his For the first time in the 2003 season, The Bandits and Super Bandits had enough cars to
be split into two separate classes. The Bandit point leader entering the night was Heidi
Diers, and she looked good early on as she charged through the field in the heat race to
take the win.It looked like Diers would have the car to beat in the Bandit feature, but as
the field took the green, her car never got up to speed. She was put two laps down early
in the race and forced to retire her car from the race. Nick Warwick dominated the heat race for the Super Bandits and took the win, but he was
one of three cars that failed to complete two laps in the feature. The other two were pole
sitter Brandon Miller and Super Bandit points runner-up Dustin Miller. Three cars were
left and points leader Phil Malouf had the lead. Malouf would get a serious challenge from
another The Pure Stocks provided a bit of a surprise on this night. Ron Reese won heat number one, and B.J. Slizewski won the second heat but had to work hard to get around the #63 driven by Dennis LaCrosse. That would be sign of things to come. LaCrosse got the outside pole for the feature due to the car's low point average. LaCrosse took the lead and never looked back. B.J. Slizewski was in hot pursuit, but could not make a pass. LaCrosse took the win over B.J. Slizewski, Marlys Scharf, Rob Rodziczak, and Pete Luedke. Racing continues at Riverside Raceway next Tuesday on Boone's Building Supply Night. |
