Maurer masters Mods, August 19, 2000; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - One repeat and three first time feature winners highlighted racing action on Jaconi Appreciation night at the Thunder Hill Speedway on Saturday night.
It took a couple tries to get the modified feature in the books and then a couple cautions shuffled the field before the second lap could be recorded. When the field settled down, the laps clicked off with Doug Maurer taking over the lead from Jeremy Jacobs on the second lap with Bill LeMieux moving into the runner up spot on lap 4. Maurer and LeMieux both pulled away from the pack while leaving distance between them. Jacobs, Mike Plate, George Henkel, Dan Ratajczak and Todd Dart were in the pack behind. A two car spin on lap 13, bunched the field and erased the gap the leaders had build. Maurer now had his hands full when racing resumed fighting off LeMieux first and then Ratajczak. The lead pair pulled away from the pack with Ratajczak trying to get to the inside line. Maurer matched move for move and was able to pick up his second feature win of the season with Ratajczak right behind for the second place finish. Plate completed a strong run that started in the back with Ratajczak by finishing in third. LeMieux took fourth with R.M. Van Pay, making a rare Saturday night appearance, in fifth and point leader, Dart, holding down the top six spots.
Ben Kroll powered into the top spot when the Stock Car feature took the green and immediately started to pull away from the field. Don Aregoni, Todd Smith, Greg Gretz and Brett Wenzel were behind. A multi car spin out of turn four on lap 8 took out several of the front runners and erased Krolls lead. Kroll was now followed by Matt Junio, Pat Davister, Smith, Scott Karcz, Bernie Reinhardt and point leader, Benji LaCrosse. The race stayed green to the finish with Junio and Davister battling hard for the runner up spot until both fell victim to flat tires by lap 14. Karcz took over the runner up spot but LaCrosse worked through traffic to move into the runner up spot on lap 15. By this time, Kroll had pulled to a several length lead that LaCrosse started to nip away at over the final laps. When the white flag appeared, Kroll still held a car length advantage and LaCrosse ran out of laps to mount a challenge. Kroll captured his first career stock car feature with LaCrosse right behind at the line. Scott Karcz took the third place finish with Craig Paque in fourth, Larry Karcz, Jr. was fifth and Todd Smith rounded out the top six.
After the Street Stock main opened with a first lap multi car crash, Charlie Kroll moved into the top spot on the restart with Tom Daubner taking second, Chris Hendricks third, Aaron Thornton and Kevin Jandrin right behind. Jandrin was hooked up on the outside and moving forward when the steering column broke entering turn three on lap 7, sending the car speeding to the pit lane guard rail. Jandrin was able to get the car stopped before slamming the rail, but was out of the race. Kroll again set the pace after the restart with Daubner, Thornton, point leader Gregg Siebold, and Gary Reinhard behind. Kroll drove away for his first career Street Stock win here at the Hill with Daubner taking the runner up finish a couple car lengths back. Thornton held off Siebold for the third spot with Reinhardt and Phil Faustini rounding out the top six. It took the Bombers a couple tries to record their first feature lap with Shawn Graft finally leading the way. James Anderson, Ford Malvitz, Brad Ohnesorge and Wayne Moore were right behind. Ohnesorge moved into the runner up spot on lap 5 and after a couple laps was fight behind the leader. Debris on the track brought out the lone caution during the race and bunched the field on the leader for the final half of the race.
Graft, Ohnesorge and Moore pulled away from the pack a bit for a tight battle for the top spot. Ohnesorge tried the inside but Moore went to the outside sometimes three wide. Graft was able to hold off all charges and drove to collect his first career feature win with Ohnesorge retaking the runner up a lap from the finish for his best finish of the season. Moore took third with point leader, Greg Soukup taking fourth. Jeremy Wiitala and Malvitz rounded pout the top six. The Rascal Outlaws will make their final showing as part of next weeks program. RESULTS IMCA MODIFIED: IMCA STOCK CARS: STREET STOCKS BOMBERS |
