May 24, 2003; Tomahawk, WI. - You have to give the Mid-American Super Trucks traveling series drivers a lot of credit. On Memorial Day weekend, it would've been easy for a number of them to have taken a break from racing and stayed home, or even used the time for a family getaway. Instead, sixteen series drivers from five states came to Tomahawk for the series event at Pepsi Raceway Park. They didn't disappoint either, contesting an entertaining 50-lap feature race won by Iowa's Art Christoffersen on a chilly night in front of a large crowd.
Christoffersen muscled inside Bill Prietzel of Franklin, Wis., to take the lead on a lap 31 restart, and then weathered several restarts and outlasted local favorite Donnie Woller to score his first Super Truck win of the year. Woller was second, followed by Terry Marzofka, another central Wisconsin racing veteran. The feature only had one lead change, but was marked by aggressive battles for position and some great saves of out of control cars. The first 30 laps of the race were the Prietzel and Christoffersen show up front, with the two pulling away to a three-quarter lap lead on the rest of the pack. No other drivers could break free of the pack, as third-place Anthony Brewer clung to the inside lane and was incredibly tough to pass. Several drivers tried, only to end up losing control on the outside and falling back. Prietzel and Christoffersen actually caught the tail end of the pack, but their lead was wiped out by a lap 31 yellow. On the restart, Christoffersen made his move inside Prietzel, and the Cedar Rapids racer then checked out to a quarter-lap lead on the rest of the field, before another yellow with eight laps to go. Christoffersen again took off on the restart, though, getting a huge jump on the field and running away. In the closing laps, Woller, who was stuck behind Brewer and others for much of the race, finally broke free and started to chase down the leader, but came up eight car lengths short at the end. Lyle Nowak won his second Late Model feature of the year, but this one didn't come nearly as easy as the first. The Wausau driver had to battle through a small but competitive field of 10 cars, but was able to outlast John Paszek and Bo Bennish for the win. Nowak started from the back and took the outside lane around Paszek for the lead on lap 19, three laps after Paszek had displaced polesitter Nick Larson for the top spot. Paszek fought back, though, challenging Nowak on the inside for the next few laps until Larry Olson spun on lap 22 to bring out a yellow. Nowak then got a huge jump on the ensuing green flag, and drove away to win by ten car lengths over Paszek and Bennish, who wowed the crowd with several full straightaway dirt track slide saves in his first race at Tomahawk in more than a year. In the Bomber feature, Rib Lake's Brian Bartelt came full circle in just a
week, winning the feature this week after cooking an engine the week before. Bartelt and
crew got his Mercury Cougar on the right track after blowing up in the season opener, and
he beat Tim Nawrocki and Mark Listle to the line for the victory. Bartelt took the lead on
lap 13 of the 30-lap event, working inside Bill Eckert and passing him after several
others had failed earlier. He then withstood a late-race yellow and held on for the win.
Ethan Marquardt finished thirteenth in his final race at PRP. The Merrill native is moving
to Mooresville, N.C., to attend the NASCAR Technical Institute, in training for a possible
career working with a NASCAR Though Woller didn't win the Super Truck feature, he didn't leave the
track empty-handed, winning the Pro-Bandit feature in a truck. Woller was trying out a
truck to compete in the coming Mini-Trucks class at the speedway, but since his was the
only truck present, he competed with the Pro Stock Bandits and won the feature. Woller
took the lead on lap 6 and Racing continues next week with a full program. Time trials start at 5:30
p.m., with racing following at 7 p.m.
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