Troutman, the class point leader in TNT Speedway’s Stinger division, was considered one of the favorites coming in, but had to start 14^th in the main event. He took the lead on lap 14 and held on to win the Shootout, which was shortened from 25 to 19 laps because of multiple big accidents.

The accidents severed as an eliminator, knocking several top contenders from competition. The first to bow out was Rhinelander’s Jason Gaylord. Cars stacked up three wide ahead of him in turn two just six laps into the race. Gaylord was collected and sent up the track and hard into the guardrail at the exit of turn two.

Elcho’s Mark Rose, the 2005 winner of the Shootout, held the lead in the early stages of the race, looking to become the first repeat champion while rookie Michael Bedish ran second. Bedish was put to the back for instigating the wreck that put Gaylord into the outside guardrail.

A couple laps later, Bedish got his own up close and personal look at the Riverside Armco. Something broke in the steering of his car and he slammed head on into the turn one guardrail.

Bedish got out and waived to the crowd, but then began to complain of soreness near his collarbone, and was checked out by the EMT’s on site before being released.

Mike Kirkham inherited second, but his shot at the $200 top prize went by the boards on lap nine when he cut a right front tire and limped into the pits.

Rose still held the lead but the Troutman Brothers, Matt and Keith, had begun to work their way through the field, running fourth and fifth respectively by lap 10.

Matt Troutman made his move for second on lap twelve, passing Bill Martin and Nick Visser when the two began to trade paint. On lap 14, Troutman moved outside of Rose and took the lead for the first time.

Meanwhile, Keith had slowed and was fading back in the pack. On lap 15, he wound up being involved in a four-car pileup that started when Rob Schuppler put Jay Wilberding into the turn three fence. Gunard Hoogland also was involved. All four cars dropped out of the race.

Visser, running fourth at the time, also dropped out of the race during the yellow flag with an unrelated problem.

Martin got by Rose on the restart and Richard Barlowski worked his way into contention, battling with Rose for third. On lap 17, Barlowski tried to pass on the inside going into turn one, but pushed up the track and slammed into Rose’s car hard enough to disable both machines.

By now, the race’s 30-minute time limit had expired, meaning that the racers would either complete the final nine laps under green, or the race would end with the next caution flag.

Martin made his bid for the win on lap 20. He closed to Troutman’s back bumper entering and looked high enterinh turn one. Just then, the right rear wheel flew off of Martin’s car, bringing out the caution flag and ending the race.

For Troutman, it was a sweat reward to a long night. Afterward he said that his crew could never pinpoint why his car would not start for the heat race, and that he was nervous having to qualify for the feature through the consolation race, but he was glad it all came together.

It was an unprecedented win in the Shootout. Troutman’s 14^th starting spot was the worst for any winner of the event. Steve Justin’s seventh place starting position last year was the previous mark. Troutman also became the first driver to qualify out of the consolation race and go on to win the Shootout.

2004 4-Cylinder Shootout Champion Eli Gustafson came home second. Dennis Mikkelson, who started 15^th, wound up third. Will Lundberg was fourth. Martin ended up in fifth position, the last car on the lead lap.

Martin said he felt like he had a chance to get by Troutman, but a bad rim on the right-rear tire proved to be his Achilles’ heel.

In all 20 cars competed for a purse of $1,070.

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RESULTS: 6^th Annual 4-Cylinder Shootout – Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Heat 1: 1^st 26-Eli Gustafson; 2^nd 31-David Scott; 3^rd 88-Will Lundberg; 4^th 3-Justin Andrus; 5^th 57-Rob Schuppler

Heat 2: 1^st 2-Mike Kirkham; 2^nd 65-Mark Rose; 3^rd 1-Michael Bedish; 4^th 41-Dennis Mikkelson

Heat 3: 1^st 27-Bill Martin; 2^nd 30V-Nick Visser; 3^rd 28T-Keith Troutman; 4^th 44-Erik Scharf; 5^th 72-Travis Juedes

Heat 4: 1^st 13-Richard Barlowski; 2^nd 58-Jason Gaylord; 3^rd 38-Gunard Hoogland; 4^th 25-Jay Wilberding; 5^th 8-Randy Charbarneau

Consi: 1^st 25-Wilberding; 2^nd 29T-Matt Troutman; 3^rd 41-Mikkelson; 4^th 57-Schuppler; 5^th 44-Scharf; 6^th 3-Andrus; 7^th 72-Juedes; 8^th 8-Charbarneau

Feature: 1^st 29T-M.Troutman; 2^nd 26-Gustafson; 3^rd 41-Mikkelson; 4^th 88-Lundberg; 5^th 27-Martin; 6^th 65-Rose; 7^th 13-Barlowski; 8^th 2-Kirkham; 9^th 30V-Visser; 10^th 25-Wilberding; 11^th 28T-K.Troutman; 12^th 38-Hoogland; 13^th 57-Schuppler; 14^th 1-Bedish; 15^th 31-Scott; 16^th 58-Gaylord

Kallas, Boettcher have Championships in Sight with Wins at Riverside 

EAGLE  RIVER –  As the calendar turns into the month of August, plenty remains to decided at Riverside Raceway in terms of the track championships in the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks and the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods.

But two drivers, John Kallas and Chad Boettcher, went a long way toward having their names inscribed on championship trophies in the respective classes on Tuesday night. Each driver leads the points in their division, and each walked away with their third checkered flag of the season.

Kallas won the first feature of First National Bank Night, leading all 20 laps of the WISSOTA Street Stock main event. He started on the outside pole, drove past Jordan Kurtti on the opening lap and never looked back. Kurtti applied pressure during the first half of the race, but faded in the final ten laps.

Kallas’s nearest competitor in the points, Ken Valeria, had his hands full with Roger Walker. The two battled nose to tail the entire race with Walker pushing Valeria down the front straightaway on a number of occasions, but Valeria held on to the coveted high line, right next to the cushion and Walker could never make it past.

The good news for Kallas is that he now enjoys a 20-point cushion over Valeria in the standings. The bad news, the engine Kallas used to win the race had a major malfunction just as he took the checkered flag and he will probably need to have a different power plant for next week.

The WISSOTA Midwest Mod field caught a huge break when Jason Zdroik, the winner of three of the last four features at Riverside, dropped out of the race on lap six follwing contact with the turn three guardrail.

That left it up to the point leaders to duke it out for the win. Rob Rodziczak led the first five laps, but Boettcher drove past him on the inside out of turn four following the Zdroik caution. Boettcher went on to dominate the final three-quarters of the race and score a convincing win.

Rodziczak held on to second place over Jeff McDonald but saw the gap between he and Boettcher nearly double. What was a six-point gap is now ten.

Rhinelander’s Wayne Nylund dug his old car out of the mothballs Tuesday and was right in contention for a Pure Stock feature win. But Nylund, like everyone else this season, failed to have an answer for Dicky Carlson who scored his sixth feature of the year.

Nylund gave it a great effort though. Carlson took the top spot away from Michael Diak on lap six. A couple laps later, Nylund worked his way past Diak into second. Nylund tired for the lead on lap ten, pulling to the inside of Carlson down the backstretch and appeared to have the spot, but caution came out for Ron Reese, who nearly came to a stop in turn four.

That gave the lead back to Carlson, but Nylund stayed on the back bumper. On the final lap Nylund committed to driving the car deep into turns three and four in a last ditch attempt to win the race, and it probably would have worked under normal circumstances.

But Carlson got loose in turn three and slipped up into Nylund’s line. Nylund had to take evasive action to keep off of Carlson and nearly spun out. Carlson got the win, Nylund was passed by Chad Rosinski for second. 

Racing continues next Tuesday night at Riverside Raceway with a complete show including the 4^th Annual Eagle River 30 WISSOTA Street Stock Special. The 30-lap main event will pay $300 to the winner. Hot laps begin at 7:30 PM, with racing at 8:00.

RESULTS: Riverside Raceway – Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat: 1^st 1J-Jason Zdroik; 2^nd 8-Chad Boettcher; 3^rd 7M-Jeff McDonald; 4^th 15-Rob Rodziczak; 5^th 14-Troy Smart; 6^th RIP1-Bart Porter

Feature: 1^st 8-Boettcher; 2^nd 15-Rodziczak; 3^rd 7M-McDonald; 4^th RIP1-Porter; 5^th 14-Smart; 6^th 1J-Zdroik

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat: 1^st 5-Roger Walker; 2^nd 2-Ken Valeria; 3^rd 99-John Kallas; 4^th 26-Jordan Kurtti; 5^th 50-Jermey Wolfe

Feature: 1^st 99-Kallas; 2^nd 26-Kurtti; 3^rd 2-Valeria; 4^th 5-Walker; 5^th 50-Wolfe

Pure Stocks

Heat 1: 1^st 22C-Michael Diak; 2^nd 19C-Dicky Carlson; 3^rd 01Z-Ron Reese; 4^th 29-Dennis Lacrosse

Heat 2: 1^st 50-Steve Locy; 2^nd 20-Scott Schwinn; 3^rd 71-Wayne Nylund; 4^th 8-Chad Rosinski 

Feature: 1^st 19C-Carlson; 2^nd 8-Rosinski; 3^rd 71-Nylund; 4^th 22C-Diak; 5^th 20-Schwinn; 6^th 50-Locy; 7^th 01Z-Reese; 8^th 29-Lacrosse