Marion’s Bob Schmidt had led the race from the get go and was looking for a clean sweep on the evening, but felt pressure for most of the race from Marshfield’s Mike Stangl.

Several times, Stangl tried to get under Schmidt in turns three and four, but fell back in line. With seven laps remaining, Stangl tried the inside again, only to get loose and relinquish second to Hirt.

Two laps later, Hirt forced the issue, sneaking to the outside of Schmidt and holding on to take the lead. He would stretch that advantage over the final five laps to claim the checkered flag. Schmidt held on to second over Mike Stangl, Aaron Wickerscheim and Scott Lewis.

The rest of Auto Value Night at the racetrack was a night for repeat winners as three drivers – Jason Zdroik, Cory Crapser and Dicky Carlson – made it back-to-back wins at Riverside.

Zdroik had his way in the Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods feature. On lap two, Zdroik threaded the needle between K.J. Fox and Chad Boettcher in turn two to take a lead he would never relinquish.

Boettcher, the class point leader, tried to chase Zdroik down most of the way, but could never get any closer than a couple of car lengths.

Meanwhile, Boettcher’s nearest competitior, Rob Rodziczak had a difficult time making it around Fox and Will Roffers. He eventually would get past but was never in contention for the win, finishing fourth and falling six points back with five nights remaining.

Crapser, who still sits atop the National WISSOTA Street Stock Point Standings, put on another championship performance on the D-shaped oval. He crushed the field in the Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stock feature, winning by nearly half a lap.

The battle to see who would finish second was a great one as Hurley’s John Kallas dueled with Eagle River’s Ken Valeria. The top two in class points duked it out for much of race with Valeria constantly on Kallas’s back bumper. But all the rubber laid down on the track from the Late Model feature made passing a challenge and Valeria could never make the pass.

Kallas won the race for second, but still lost a point off of his lead thanks to a third place finish in the heat race. He now sits 18 points ahead of Valeria.

There was a breathtaking moment in the Pure Stock feature. All seven cars were tightly bunched to start lap two when Scott Schwinn, running third at the time overdrove turn one. His car jumped the cushion, pushed up the track, slammed into the guardrail and rolled over.

Schwinn was okay and actually climbed back in the car and wanted to get back in the race. But after stalling the car a couple of times, he thought better and retired for the night.

Once things settled down Dicky Carlson made a statement again. In what has become a habit, Carlson started last but worked his way up through the field. He moved to second on lap seven and passed Dennis Lacrosse for the lead two laps later.

Carlson pulled away to record his second straight feature win at Riverside and fifth of the season, all coming in his last six starts. But, by virtue of missing the first race of the season, Carlson is still 37 points behind leader Chad Rosinski, who took home second on Tuesday.

Erik Scharf returned to victory lane in Riverside’s Family Fours. Scharf worked his was around teammate Michael Bedish on the third lap and went on to claim his fifth feature of the season.

Scharf, despite having a smaller engine should still be considered one of the favorites next Tuesday night when Riverside Raceway puts on the sixth annual 4-Cylinder Shootout.

The race is open to all 4-Cylinder racecars that compete at Riverside Raceway, TNT Speedway in Three Lakes, Adventure Mountain Speedway in Greenland, MI and Norway Speedway in Norway, MI.

The main event will be 25-laps, with $200 going to the winner. Hot laps begin at 7:30, with racing at 8:00 PM.


RESULTS: Riverside Raceway – Tuesday, July 31, 2007



FASTRAK Late Models

Heat: 1st 9-Bob Schmidt; 2nd 27-Justin Hirt; 3rd 1W-Aaron Wicerkscheim; 4th 1ST-Mike Stangl; 5th 27W-Wayne Hirt; 6th 6L-Scott Lewis; 7th 11-Jeff Curtin

Feature: 1st 27-J.Hirt; 2nd 9-Schmidt; 3rd 1ST-Stangl; 4th 1W-Wickerscheim; 5th 6L-Lewis; 6th 11-Curtin; 7th 27W-W.Hirt

Miller Lite WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat: 1st 1J-Jason Zdroik; 2nd 8-Chad Boettcher; 3rd 23M-K.J. Fox; 4th 15-Rob Rodziczak; 5th 13R-Will Roffers; 6th 7M-Jeff McDonald; 7th 17-Wayne Dean; 8th 14-Troy Smart

Feature: 1st 1J-Zdroik; 2nd 8-Boettcher; 3rd 17-Dean; 4th 15-Rodziczak; 5th 13R-Roffers; 6th 14-Smart; 7th 7M-McDonald; 8th 23M-Fox

Fire-Up Fireworks WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat: 1st 2-Ken Valeria; 2nd 07-Cory Crapser; 3rd 99-John Kallas; 4th 50-Jermey Wolfe; 5th 26-Jordan Kurtti

Feature: 1st 07-Crapser; 2nd 99-Kallas; 3rd 2-Valeria; 4th 50-Wolfe; 5th 26-Kurtti

Pure Stocks:

Heat 1: 1st 29-Dennis Lacrosse; 2nd 50-Steve Locy; 3rd 19C-Dicky Carlson; 4th 20-Scott Schwinn

Heat 2: 1st 22C-Michael Diak; 2nd 8-Chad Rosinski; 3rd 22-Charlie Jackson; 4th 01Z-Ron Reese

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

Family Fours

Heat 1: 1st 1-Michael Bedish; 2nd 44-Erik Scharf; 3rd 6 7/8-Scott Krueger; 4th 41-Dennis Mikkelson ($)

Heat 2: 1st 2-Mike Kirkham; 2nd 13-Richard Barlowski ($); 3rd 18-Bobby Sheldon ($); 4th 26-Leo Nippa

Feature: 1st 44-Scharf; 2nd 2-Kirkham; 3rd 1-Bedish; 4th 26-Nippa; 5th 6 7/8-Krueger; 6th 13-Barlowski ($); 7th 18-Sheldon ($); 8th 41-Mikkelson ($)

($) Denotes 16-Valve Car (does not receive points)