Thunderhill Banquet ends
2000 season! November 4, 2000; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - The Thunder Hill Speedway closed out their 8th season with their annual awards banquet on Saturday night, November 4. The season saw a total of 200 different drivers compete on the 1/3 mile clay oval during the course of the 2000 season. The top 10 drivers in each division were recognized for their accomplishments. The tough IMCA Modified division saw co-champions crowned. Todd Dart, the 1998 title holder, won one feature during the season but was consistent all year to earn a share of the title with Randie Back of Green Bay. Back, was a steady top five runner and ran to 2 feature wins during the season. Back has a tight family run operation with a hand built car. It was his first career title. The third spot went to the 1999 defending champ, George Henkel. Henkel led the standings for a while during the year and was a steady top 5 runner. Newton's Mike Plate had a career high season finishing fourth in the standings with 555 points, only 2 markers out of 3rd. He made every feature, but was the only one in the top 5 without a feature win. Jared Siefert ran his first full season in the Modified division and won a division leading, 3 features during the year. He finished the year in 5th place in the final standings. The IMCA Stock Car division was one of the most competitive in the country in 2000. Second year driver, Benji LaCrosse drove off with his first career title after running a record setting season. He started the year winning the first three features, and later in the year ran to four straight to tie a record set in 1993 by John Gregorich and tied in 1994 by Charlie Kroll. He ran to a division leading 8 feature wins, which ties Gregorich's 1993 all time record of 8 wins for the season. He dropped back in the standings during a slight mid season slump, but finished the season strong to become the 8th different track champion in the division here at the Hill Jay Matthias finished the season winning 2 features and was the only other driver to win more than one this year. He challenged for the title throughout the season and used a strong run of top 5 finishes to challenge and finish second in the points. Defending 1999 champion, Larry Karcz, Jr, had an up and down season but finished strong to take the third place finish. Craig Paque also became one of the elite feature winners during the season taking his win on Sept 2. Matt Junio rounds out the top 5 and despite not winning a feature this season. Junio challenged for the title throughout the year. Gregg Siebold became the first repeat Street Stock title holder. He started the season a bit slow, but continued to plug away and took over the standings near the end of the year. He won 3 features for the year. Former Bomber champion, Kevin "K.J" Jandrin chalked up 2 feature wins this year to finish second in the final points. Gary Reinhardt ended his season in a tie for the third place finish in the standings. After winning the opening night feature, Reinhardt lead the standings for half the season. Rick Johnson won his first career feature on Labor Day weekend and along with a strong consistent season ended in the tie for third place. Former Bomber champion, Aaron Thornton, ran a full season in the mods before joining the Street Stock division this year. He won his first career division feature and finished fourth in the standings. Jeff Vlies finished a strong season at all area tracks in 2000 by winning 2 features and finishing 5th in the standings. Greg Soukup ran strong all season long, leading the points on several occasions before taking command at the end of the year to become the 7th different title holder. He won 2 features during the year to help claim his first career track crown. Jeremy Wiitala challenged for the point lead to the final night. He was the second best division feature winner with 4 for the season. Scott Reinhardt has run strong for the past couple seasons and ran at the front this year while challenging for the title. He finished third in the final standings. Second year driver, Ryan LeMieux won several races this season and challenged for a couple feature wins as well to finish 4th in the standings. John Knudson rounded out the top five spots with his strongest season yet, winning several races and running to the front throughout the year. Rookies were also honored in all four divisions. Shawn Olson won the Modified title finishing 11th in the points. Bernie Reinhardt won one feature and was crowned the Stock Car rookie. Aaron Thornton drove to fourth in the Street Stock division to win the rookie title. Brad Ohnesorge captured the Bomber Rookie honors for the season. The Thunder Hill Speedway would like to THANK all of the drivers,crews, fans and sponsors for their continued support that made the 2000 season a success. Plans for the 2001 season will be announced later. |