The best race of the night was in the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks, where the headline going in was the return of three-time track champ Ken Valeria. Still, it was another cagey local veteran that stole the show.

Long time WISSOTA Street Stock competitor Fritz Scharf, who plans to run another partial schedule this year in his semi-retirement, took the feature win with a pass of John Kallas with four laps to go.

Scharf stalked Kallas for much of the race and finally made the move to the inside of turns one and two in the race’s closing laps. Kallas was in line for a solid second place finish, but his car went up in a plume of smoke less than two laps later.

Valeria struggled a little bit in his first race in a new car. He finished last in his heat race, but fought back to take third in the feature. He battled with Jordan Kurtti for much of the main event, but could never get past. The Bruce Crossing, Michigan driver took second.

Eagle River drivers Bruce Belland and Chad Boettcher appeared to have evenly matched cars in the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods. They started on the front row of the 20-lap Mod main event. Belland got the advantage from the outside pole, and that was all he would need.

Boettcher hung close, but could not get his car, the championship-winning machine from last year, to handle out of the narrow fourth turn. Belland eventually inched away in a caution-filled race and took the win.

2003 Pure Stock Champion B.J. Slizewski returned for a one-night engagement and cleaned house in the class he used to dominate. Slizewski, driving the car that will be normally piloted by his uncle Bill this season, dusted the field and cruised to easy wins in both the heat and the feature over Rhinelander’s Dan Melton.

Eric Scharf began the defense of his track championship in the Family Four class with a clean sweep on Sunday. Scharf beat out Richard Barlowski and Luke KeSieur in those races.

With a low car count in the class right now, the Family Four division is a great way for beginners to get a taste of dirt track racing. The class is limited to cars with four cylinder engines with eight or 12 valves. For more information on the class, contact Don Scharf at (715) 479-8199.

While there were no major incidents on Sunday, there were a couple of spectacular moments.

Antigo’s Jermey Wolfe went for a wild ride on the second lap of the Street Stock Feature. He was trying to pass Kevin Maulson, Jr. on the outside down the front stretch when Maulson’s car got loose and got into the side of Wolfe. Both cars went scraping down the front stretch wall before hitting the turn one guardrail. Wolfe’s car got up onto two wheels before settling down on all fours.

It was bad luck for John Johnson, Jr. in the Pure Stock Feature. He was running in second just after halfway when his car when up in a big cloud of smoke. Meanwhile, Midwest Mod winner Bruce Belland caught a good break before the races began. Rookie Will Roffers spun in front of him during hot laps coming out of turn four. Belland jammed on the brakes and narrowly missed a head-on collision.

Tuesday night shows at Riverside Raceway begin on June 5. Hot Laps start at 7:30, with racing at 8:00 PM.

RESULTS: Riverside Raceway – Sunday, May 27, 2007


Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat: 1st 8-Chad Boettcher; 2nd 22B-Bruce Belland; 3rd 7M-Jeff McDonald; 4th 28T-Keith Troutman; 5th 15-Rob Rodziczak; 6th 13R-Will Roffers; 7th 44-Kenny Kincaid; 8th 55-Mike Boyd

Feature: 1st 22B-Belland; 2nd 8-Boettcher; 3rd 15-Rodziczak; 4th 7M-McDonald; 5th 28T-Troutman; 6th 13R-Roffers; 7th 44-Kincaid; 8th 55-Boyd

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat: 1st 1-Fritz Scharf; 2nd 99-John Kallas; 3rd 23M-Kevin Maulson, Jr.: 4th 26-Jordan Kurtti; 5th 50-Jermey Wolfe; 6th 8-Ron Van Dusen; 7th 2-Ken Valeria

Feature: 1st 1-F.Scharf; 2nd 26-Kurtti; 3rd 2-Valeria; 4th 8-Van Dusen; 5th 99-Kallas; 6th 50-Wolfe; 7th 23M-Maulson

Pure Stocks
Heat: 1st 21-B.J. Slizewski; 2nd 61-Dan Melton; 3rd 8-Chad Rosinski; 4th 11-John Johnson, Jr.; 5th 20-Scott Schwinn; 6th 50-Steve Locy; 7th 22C-Michael Diak

Feature: 1st 21-Slizewski; 2nd 61-Melton; 3rd 8-Rosinski’ 4th 20-Schwinn; 5th 50-Locy; 6th 22C-Diak; 7th 11-Johnson, Jr.

Family Fours
Heat: 1st 44-Eric Scharf; 2nd 31-Richard Barlowski; 3rd 12-Luke LeSieur

Feature: 1st 44-E.Scharf; 2nd 31-Barlowski; 3rd 12-LeSieur