The Late Models led off after intermission and put on the best show of the night. Shawano’s Jeff Kurtin took the lead from the outside pole and built a comfortable lead in the opening stages of the 30-lap main event.

The battle was hot and heavy for second place between Michael Stangl of Marshfield and Shawano’s Craig Bartz, who had a close finish in their heat race earlier in the night. The first 21 laps of the race clicked by caution-free, but on that 21st lap, Bartz and Stangl made contact coming out of turn four. Stangl got out of shape and Bartz took second.

Stangl tried to dig hard and get back to Bartz, but jumped the cushion in turn one and smacked the outside guardrail a couple of times bringing out the caution and erasing Kurtin’s advantage.

On the restart, Bartz began to pressure Curtin, diving to the inside several times, but unable to make a pass. Coming to the white flag, the two squeezed to the inside of turn four and Bartz took the lead for the first time by a nose. Curtin tried to fight back in turn one, but spun collecting three cars and ending the race.

The Late Models exemplified the racing adage of it does not matter how many laps you lead, as long as you lead the last one. Bartz only led one lap and won the race. Curtin led the first 28 laps, but wound up eighth because of the spin.

Eagle River’s Chad Boettcher became the first repeat winner of the season at Riverside in the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods. Boettcher led from flag-to-flag in the event with only a little pressure from Jason Zdroik.

Zdroik looked to be making a charge in the closing laps, but his car developed a big push out of turn two with a couple laps to go, ending his shot at the win. Boettcher extended his point lead to 10 over Rob Rodziczak, who held second through the midway stages of the race before a spin dropped him back to fifth.

Chippewa Falls’ Michael Truscott helped his cause in WISSOTA National Points on Tuesday. Sitting fifth in the nation in Street Stocks points, Truscott added a feature win and a nearly perfect night to his tally.

Truscott took the lead from the outside pole in the feature and built up a commanding lead over the battle for second involving Ken Valeria, Jordan Kurtti and John Kallas. Valeria was able to keep his car on the high line and no one could make it past him with the dry-slick track conditions.

Truscott picked up his first win of the season at Riverside to go along with a second place finish in his heat race. John Kallas won that heat race and despite a fourth place finish in the feature, added four points to his cushion over Fritz Scharf for the top spot in Street Stock points at Riverside.

Dicky Carlson made it two straight wins in the Pure Stocks. Despite starting last as the feature winner from the week before, it only took him four laps to make it all the way to the top of the eight-car field.

Carlson was cruising and the battle was going to be for second between Todd Brass and Chad Rosinski, but Rosinski made contact with Brass, bringing out a caution with six laps to go. Brass went on the finish second while Rosinski worked his way back to fifth, but lost one point in his class lead over Michael Diak. Rosinski enjoys a five-point lead after five races.

Someone finally beat Eagle River’s Eric Scharf in the Family Fours. Due to a low car count and for the sake of speeding up the show with impending weather, the Family Fours ran only once, a 12-lap feature before intermission.

Rhinelander’s Mike Kirkham took the lead from the pole while Scharf and Richard Barlowski battled for second in the opening laps. Scharf got by Barlowski and began to close in on Kirkham, but could never make a serious bid for the lead. Kirkham picked up his first feature win of the season, by about a car length over Scharf.

Scharf has won three times this season. Before Tuesday the only time that his car had not won the Family Four feature was when his father Paul drove the car, subbing for Erik who was out of town.

Racing continues next Tuesday at Riverside with Hot Laps at 7:30 and racing at 8:00 PM.

RESULTS: Riverside Raceway – Tuesday, June 26, 2007

FASTRAK Late Models

Heat 1: 1st 27-Justin Hirt; 2nd 11-Jeff Curtin; 3rd 6L-Scott Lewis; 4th 1W-Aaron Wickerscheim; 5th 9-Bob Schmidt

Heat 2: 1st 1ST-Michael Stangl; 2nd 85-Craig Bartz; 3rd 39S-Dennis Schmitz; 4th 95-Jeff Bodendorfer; 5th 27W-Wayne Hirt

Feature: 1st 85-Bartz; 2nd 6L-Lewis; 3rd 27-J.Hirt; 4th 39S-Schmitz; 5th 95-Bodendorfer; 6th 1W-Wickersheim; 7th 9-Schmidt; 8th 11-Curtin; 9th 1ST-Stangl; 10th 27W-W.Hirt

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat: 1st 55-Mike Boyd; 2nd 7M-Jeff McDonald; 3rd 1J-Jason Zdroik; 4th 8-Chad Boettcher; 5th 23M-K.J. Fox; 6th 15-Rob Rodziczak

Feature: 1st 8-Boettcher; 2nd 1J-Zdroik; 3rd 23M-Fox; 4th 7M-McDonald; 5th 15-Rodziczak; 6th 55-Boyd

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat: 1st 99-John Kallas; 2nd 22-Michael Truscott; 3rd 26-Jordan Kurtti; 4th 1-Fritz Scharf; 5th 2-Ken Valeria

Feature: 1st 22-Truscott; 2nd 2-Valeria; 3rd 26-Kurtti; 4th 99-Kallas; 5th 1-F.Scharf

Pure Stocks

Heat 1: 1st 01Z-Ron Reese; 2nd 22C-Michael Diak; 3rd 2T-Todd Brass; 4th 20-Scott Schwinn
Heat 2: 1st 19C-Dicky Carlson; 2nd 50-Steve Locy; 3rd 21-Bill Slizewski; 4th 8-Chad Rosinski

Feature: 1st 19C-Carlson; 2nd 2T-Brass; 3rd 50-Locy; 4th 22C-Diak; 5th 8-Rosinski; 6th 21-Slizewski; 7th 20-Schwinn; 8th 01Z-Reese

Family Fours

Feature: 1st 2-Mike Kirkham; 2nd 44-Eric Scharf; 3rd 31-Richard Barlowski