Rookie Siefert surprise winner in
Mods, July 29, 2000; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - A nice, clear night for Engine Rebuilding night Saturday at the Thunder Hill Speedway saw an engine claim refusal give a second career feature win in the mods, first time feature wins in the stock car and street and a three peat in the bombers along with the Rascal Outlaw cars for a full night of action. After two tries to get the Modified main started, Jared Siefert snuck through to lead the early laps. Following a caution on lap 4, Dave Zeitler powered into the top spot and pulled away from the field. Two more cautions in the first half of the race kept the pack bunched. On the final restart, the race went the distance with Zeitler running in front, Siefert was right behind. Siefert tried to get to the inside but his car worked best outside behind the leader and the pair ran together to the finish, with Zeitler apparently winning his first feature of the season. Siefert was second. The battle for third was between three cars throughout the race with the trio running three wide most of the time. George Henkel, Randie Back and Mike Plate swapped positions during the race and finished in that order followed by Darren Otto and Buck Schmelzer. Following the race, there was an engine claim on the leader, which he denied, giving the win, his second of the season and his modified career, to Siefert.
Rookie contender, Ben Kroll, and Rob Gagne swapped the lead over the first 8 laps of the Stock Car main before the lone caution of the race appeared. On the restart, Jay Matthias flew from his third place spot into the top spot and hooked up on the outside to begin to pull away from the field. Matt Junio pulled into the runner up spot and also took off to stay with the leader. The shuffle continued at the front with Larry Karcz, Jr. taking over third place, point leader, Jason Geyer, moving into fourth Gagne held fifth with Benji LaCrosse running in sixth. Matthias pulled away from the pack to collect his first feature win of the season. The rest of the top finishers were not decided until the checkered. Junio stayed in the runner up spot, with Geyer moving into third on lap 13. LaCrosse started making his move to the front, moving into third on lap 15. He set out to close the gap on the leader, and pulled behind Junio as the white flag appeared. A last lap dive to the inside gave LaCrosse the runner up finish by a bumper at the line. Geyer finished fourth. John Wolf and Karcz rounded out the top six. LaCrosse was running for two division records, a record breaking 5th straight win and record tying 8th season win. His second place finish did move him into the point lead for the second time this season by a one point margin, 401 - 400 over Geyer.
Paul Kuehn led the opening tap of the Street Stock main before Tom Daubner took charge and started to pull away from the field. Phil Faustini moved into the runner up spot on the second lap with Corey Haen, Jeff Vlies and Jay Naze behind. Two cautions on lap 6 kept the field bunched and ready for a final run to the finish. Daubner was running strong on the outside and Vlies moved into the second spot after the restart, and was running better lower on the track. Faustini, James Tebon, Haen and Kevin Jandrin were right behind. Over the final four laps, Vlies started working the inside line and pulled even with the leader several times. As the pair brought the field to the white flag, Vlies was just ahead at the line. Vlies pulled into the top spot when Daubner drifted wide in turn one and two, allowing Tebon to take second away. Daubner, looking for his third straight win, held on for the third place finish, with Faustini, Jandrin and Aaron Thornton rounding out the top six. The win was the first career for Vlies at the Hill. Shawn Graft led the opening three laps of the Bomber main before Don Aregoni, Jr took control. Wayne Moore powered into the runner up spot and challenged Aregoni, taking the lead briefly on lap 7. Aregoni, using the outside line, would not give up and held the top spot for the next few laps, while the positions shuffled behind. Jeremy Wiitala and point leader, Greg Soukup moved into the top three and right up on the leader for the final laps.
Wiitala, dropped low on the track and on lap 13, powered into the lead. Soukup tried to follow but the bite wasn't there to pull off the pass. A red on the final lap, kept the running order the same, with Wiitala taking his third straight division feature win, tying him with two others, Bob Wagner in 1993 and Scott Iverson in 1997, as the only ones to win three straight features. Aregoni held second, with Soukup third. Graft took his best finish of the season in fourth, with Lucas Long and Scott Reinhardt rounding out the top six.
Dave Colletti took the lead on the second lap of the Rascal Outlaw feature and was never challenged, running the full 20 laps to his first feature win at the Hill. Jim Veugeler ran in second for most of the race and made a run at the lead over the final laps that came up short. Jack Schaal made a late race run to take third place over Mark Findley, Greg Findley and John Benkert rounded out the top six. Next week will feature Carrier Temperature Systems as the sponsor for the regular Saturday night program before a special mid week race, on Wednesday night, August 9th, to open the 2000 Door County Fair. There will be no racing at the Hill on Saturday night, August 12th, because of the fair. Weekly racing returns on Saturday, August 19th for the final 5 race schedule of the season. RESULTS IMCA MODIFIED: IMCA STOCK CARS: STREET STOCKS BOMBERS |
