Rain postponed the running of the Eagle River 30 Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stock Special to August 31. 10 drivers battled it out for the $300 top prize. Lee Christjohn made the race itself a runaway, leading by nearly half a lap when the first caution fell on lap 23, and pulling away on two subsequent restarts to claim the win in his Fire-Up Fireworks Chevy.

The major story was further back in the field. Bruce Belland, Mark Schuenemann and John Kallas entered the night as the three drivers with a mathematical chance of winning the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stock Crown.

Belland had a lack-luster night finishing fifth in both his heat and the feature. Schuenemann and Kallas both had golden opportunities to close the gap, but Schuenemann's engine went sour in the feature and Kallas's car slid back in the closing laps to finish sixth and fourth respectively.

As a result of a decent run in the heat race, Schuenemann closed the gap on Belland to three points entering Sunday Night's Season Championship. Kallas still has an outside chance at the title, closing to within nine points of Belland.

The Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods point race tightened dramatically as well. A rough night for point leader Troy Smart allowed Bob Richardson to close from nine to just one point out of the lead entering Sunday night.

Richardson made up that ground by driving sensationally in the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods feature. Richardson got the early lead from Jerry Grasse. It was a two-man race as Richardson and Grasse came up on the lapped car of Tim Frantz. Frantz could not get out of the path of the hard charging leaders in time, and Richardson touched wheels with Frantz and got airborne.

Amazingly Richardson held on to the lead, but the incident allowed Mickey Nosser, in his first start at Riverside for the season, to close the gap and make it a three-man battle to the finish. Nosser snuck by Grasse on the final lap and tired to dive inside of Richardson coming off of turn two, but Richardson held his ground on the high line and held on for his second
feature win at Riverside in 2004.

In the Pure Stocks, Brian Slizewski sat in his uncles' car and swept the evening's action. Rob Rodziczak maintained a 17-point advantage of Pete Luedke, but his string of consecutive first or second place finishes in features was snapped at ten after Shane Rosinski got loose on the start, making contact with Rodziczak and cutting down his right-rear tire.

The Pure Stocks only completed five laps of their feature due to multiple cautions. It appeared as if the race was going to end short of the advertised distance anyway when Mother Nature intervened, putting rain down on the track, canceling the rest of the night's action at Riverside.

The Bandit/Super Bandit feature will be the first race of the evening this coming Sunday at Riverside. Jordan Kurtti won the Bandit/Super Bandit heat with teammate Eli Gustafson right behind him in second. Gustafson extended his lead over Steve Justin to 11 in the overall Bandit point race.

Riverside Raceway Results: August 31, 2004

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods
Heat: 1st 5-Grasse; 2nd 2-Richardson; 3rd 30-Carley
Feature: 1st 2-Richardson; 2nd 34-Nosser; 3rd 5-Grasse; 4th 30-Carley; 5th 14-Smart

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 23-Maulson; 2nd 55-Tarsi; 3rd 96-Schuenemann
Heat 2: 1st 5-Boettcher; 2nd 1C-Lederer; 3rd 76-Kallas
Eagle River 30: 1st 93-Christjohn; 2nd 5-Boettcher; 3rd 23-Maulson; 4th 76-Kallas; 5th 22B-Belland

Pure Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 21-Br.Slizewski; 2nd 5-R.Valeria; 3rd 190-Jackson
Heat 2: 1st 57-Schuppler; 2nd 63-LaCrosse; 3rd 15-Rodziczak
Feature: 1st 21-Br.Slixewski; 2nd 5-R.Valeria; 3rd 7-Luedke; 4th 8-C.Rosinski; 5th 15-Rodziczak

Bandits/Super Bandits
Heat: 1st 26-Kurtti; 2nd 27-Gustafson; 3rd 49-Justin*
Feature: Rained Out - Will be made up Sunday, September 6

* Denotes Regular Bandit