May 28, 2006; Eagle River, WI. -Opening
night felt more like mid-July as hot, humid condition
greeted fans and drivers in Riverside Raceway customary
Memorial Day Sunday Season Opener.
The
hottest battle of the evening was in the Fire-Up Fireworks
WISSOTA Street Stocks. Chad Boettcher was one of several
drivers who used the outside pole during the evening as the
springboard to victory. Boettcher passed pole sitter John
Kallas in the first corner and built up a comfortable lead
in the early laps.
Lee Christjohn was able to get by Kallas just before the
halfway point of the feature and set his sights on
Boettcher. Christjohn cut the lead to four car lengths with
eight laps to go, when Kallas made contact with Cory Casari,
bringing out the caution.
Christjohn hung tight on Boettcher’s back bumper following
the restart, but could never get a solid run as Boettcher
took the win in the opener.
Bob Richardson was another driver that parlayed a second
place starting position to a win. Richardson took the lead
on the opening lap of the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mod
feature and never looked back, cruising to victory over Cody
Schmidt.
The battle in the Midwest Mod feature was for fourth
position. Rob Rodziczak held the position early, but Bruce
Belland looked to take the spot away on lap three, when the
two touched, resulting in a flat tire for Belland.
Belland recovered and for the majority of the race,
Rodziczak, Belland and Bob Kleinschmidt traded positions
back and forth. Belland fell off the pace with three laps to
go and Rodziczak was able to hold of Kleinschmidt for the
fifth position.
Fourteen Pure Stocks showed up on Opening Night, which
proved to be very interesting throughout the evening. In the
heat races, John Johnson and Wayne Nylund where both sent to
the tail end of the lead lap for causing a caution, while
battling for the win on the final lap, handing the victory
to Ryan Valeria.
It took four tries to complete a lap in the Pure Stock
feature. Outside pole sitter Shawn Bialas was able to grab
the lead from Valeria once they finally got in a lap. On lap
two, Johnson and Nylund got together again, with Jeff
McDonald involved as well as the three tried to make it
three wide going into turn one. Johnson went to the back,
while Nylund continued to slowly work his way through the
field.
Nylund moved into the second position by halfway point and
had slipped by Bialas for a lap, but Bialas passed Nylund
back before lap ten, when the caution flew again for
problems with Kevin Maulson Jr.’s car. On the restart,
Nylund blew passed Bialas and pulled away to the feature
victory.
Opening night also marked the debut of the Family Four
class, Riverside’s new version of the four-cylinder class.
Despite a change in the pay structure, and some tweaking to
the rules, last year’s four-cylinder class-champion Larry
Leonarduzzi was still the best on this night. Leonarduzzi
had some company at the front of the pack as the next
generation of Scharf took to the racetrack. Eric Scharf, the
grandson of track owner, and former racer Don Scharf came on
strong to finish second.
Riverside Raceway kicks off its Tuesday Night summer
schedule on June 6. Hot Laps begin at 7:30 with racing at
8:00.
RIVERSIDE RACEWAY RESULTS – Sunday, May 28, 2006
Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods
Heat: 1st 15S-Cody Schmidt; 2nd 2-Bob Richardson; 3rd 0-Bob
Kleinschmidt
Feature: 1st 2-Richardson; 2nd 15S-Schmidt; 3rd 30-Guy
Carley; 4th 15-Rob Rodziczak; 5th 0-Kleinschmidt
Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street
Stocks
Heat: 1st 76-John Kallas; 2nd 5-Chad Boettcher; 3rd 1-Cory
Casari
Feature: 1st 5-Boettcher; 2nd 93-Lee Christjohn; 3rd
1-Casari; 4th 76-Kallas; 5th 9-Neal Slizewski
Pure Stocks
Heat 1: 1st 5-Ryan Valeria; 2nd 7-Jeff McDonald; 3rd 2J-Dan
Vedder
Heat 2: 1st 35-Shawn Bialas; 2nd 8-Chad Rosinski; 3rd
78-Dennis LaCrosse
Feature: 1st 71-Wayne Nylund; 2nd 35-Bialas; 3rd 5-Valeria;
4th 11-John Johnson; 5th 7-McDonald
Family Fours
Heat 1: 1st 64-Larry Leonarduzzi; 2nd 11-John Johnson Jr.;
3rd 87-Jim Deau
Heat 2: 1st 43X-Kevin Cogar; 2nd 8-Randy Charbarneau; 3rd
44-Eric Scharf
Feature: 1st 64-Leonarduzzi; 2nd 44-Scharf; 3rd
8-Charbarneau; 4th 87-Deau; 5th 70-Ken Schram |
