Photo Highlights

Roger Walker (#5) made a sweep of the evenings activities in the WISSOTA Street Stock division.

A week after a wreck that involved half of the Midwest Mod feature field, the Mods had three separate incidents that involved at least three cars.

The scariest of which was the final of the three wrecks. While battling for second position on lap four, Bob Kleinschmidt veered into the side of Ollie Schoonover. The two Mods touched wheels, sending Schoonover's mod out of control.

Schoonover's mod went head on, and partially through the outside guardrail in turn two. Luckily, Schoonover was unhurt in the incident, but it is just the most recent example of how treacherous the class has been the past couple weeks.

Earlier on in the feature, two separate incidents involved three and six Mods respectively.

The first incident on the opening lap when second year driver Tim Frantz got loose front of a pack of cars, triggering a three car incident that involved he, Bob Richardson and Pat Zdroik.

Zdroik got his spot back, but on the very next lap he appeared to make slight contact with Kleinschmidt down the backstretch. Going into turn three, Zdroik's right front tire went down sending he and Kleinschmidt up the track, and causing four other cars to spin behind them, trying to avoid the incident.

There are a few ingredients that have contributed to the rash of big accidents in the class. Certainly a narrow track coupled with a large amount of unforgiving open-wheeled cars increases the chances for pile-ups. But according to track officials, part of the problem may boil down to patients.

When asked to elaborate on the situation, track owner Don Scharf explained, "Everyone is trying to win the race on the first lap. Consequently it takes twenty minutes to complete a lap."

After Schoonover's crash, things finally settled down and Bob Richardson took a commanding lead. It looked as if he had put the hard luck that had plagued him in recent weeks behind him and was poised to win his first feature of the season. That assumption proved to be wrong, however, as his suspension broke and his car plowed into the guardrail in turn one.

Because of the number of cautions in the early laps of the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods features, the race was declared official after Richardson's incident on lap eleven and Pat Zdroik, running second at the time was declared the winner.

In other racing action, it was a strong car count for the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks, but in the Roger Walker was dominant again. Walker won his heat handily and held off a hard charging John Kallas in the feature to complete the sweep.

Walker extended his point lead as Bruce Belland had troubles getting through traffic, finishing third in his heat and seventh in the feature to fall eleven markers behind in the standings.

Rob Rodziczak was dominant in the Pure Stock class as he swept his evening of racing and extended his point lead over Pete Luedke. The surprise of the evening was second year driver Ryan Valeria. With a new engine in his car, Valeria looked like his uncle Ken, using the high line and running well. Valeria earned a pair of career best second place finishes, as the runner-up to Rodziczak in both races.

In the Bandits and Super Bandits, the story continued to be Eli Gustafson and the domination of he and his KGL Racing Team. For the second straight week, Gustafson earned maximum point by winning both of his races. Meanwhile, Justin Lannet, subbing for KGL teammate Jordan Kurtti, kept the 26 car up in the points with a heat race win and a third in the feature.

Racing continues at Riverside Raceway next Tuesday with hot laps at 7:30 and racing at 8:00.

Riverside Raceway Results: June 15, 2004

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods
Heat 1: 1st 2-Richardson; 2nd 2C-Gross; 3rd 5-Grasse
Heat 2: 1st Z1-Zdroik; 2nd 74-Schoonover; 3rd 30-Carley
Feature: 1st Z1-Zdroik; 2nd 5-Grasse; 3rd 30-Carley; 4th 14-Smart; 5th 2C-Gross

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 5-Walker; 2nd 57-Heintz; 3rd 55-Tarsi
Heat 2: 1st 76-Kallas; 2nd 93-Christjohn; 3rd 22B-Belland
Feature: 1st 5-Walker; 2nd 76-Kallas; 3rd 93-Christjohn; 4th 96-Schuenemann; 5th 1C-Lederer

Pure Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 15-Rodziczak; 2nd 5-Valeria; 3rd 01Z-Reese
Heat 2: 1st 17-J.Miller; 2nd 190-Jackson; 3rd 7-Luedke
Feature: 1st 15-Rodziczak; 2nd 5-Valeria; 3rd 7-Luedke; 4th 17-J.Miller; 5th 63-Durand

Bandits/Super Bandits
Heat 1: 1st 26-Lannet; 2nd 10-Schinke; 3rd 37-D.Miller
Heat 2: 1st 27-Gustafson; 2nd 2-Truscott; 3rd 49-Justin*
Feature: 1st 27-Gustafson; 2nd 2-Truscott; 3rd 26-Lannet; 4th 626-Diers*; 5th 2Z-Langdon
* Denotes Regular Bandit