June 7, 2003; Tomahawk, WI. - Some time this year, summer will arrive in full force. Hopefully, the race season
won't already be over with by then. Saturday night racing at Pepsi Raceway Park has had its share of rain and chilly weather this year, worse than normal for the months of May and June. This week, rain washed away the final two events of the evening in Tomahawk and left the Late Model and Bomber feature events uncompleted.

The Bomber feature was five laps old and C.J. Hedges, Jr. had just taken the lead when Robin Smith spun on the frontstretch. Raindrops had started falling before the spin, and the precipitation intensified into a steady rain that soaked the track and ended the night at about 9:30 p.m.

The Pro Stock Bandits were one of the classes that did get their feature race in, and Bob Schult came out on top to finally pick up his first feature of the year. Schult dominated the class last year and led the point standings coming into Saturday, but hadn't taken a feature the first four weeks of the season. The feature was marred by a violent crash midway through, when Lance Dehnel slid up into Nick Erickson, Jr. between turns three and four, making contact and sending both cars head on hard into the turn four retaining barrier. Dehnel had a cut to his knee, but otherwise both drivers were all right.

Elliott Marquardt gave new meaning to the term "hole shot" in winning the Street Bandits feature. Marquardt came from the sixth starting position to take the lead-by the second turn of the first lap.  The young Merrill driver did what almost any good
Bandit driver would have-he shot through the middle and made it three-wide to get to the front. Marquardt drove between the front row cars of Scott Rigney and Jayme July less than half a lap into the 15-lap race, then held a healthy lead the rest of the way to post his first feature win ever.

Trevor Raskie of Phillips posted a clean sweep in the Mini Cup Division. Raskie set fast time and won his heat and the feature. Chris Hoen of Mosinee was second in both races.

PRP will try again next week, with a full program of racing starting with time trials at 5:30 p.m. and racing at 7 p.m.

Results

Late Models
Fast Time: Lyle Nowak, Wausau.
Dash: Mike Witberler, Marathon; Bo Bennish, Gleason; Nowak.
First Heat: Larry Olson, Dorchester; Nick Larson, Tomahawk; Rocky Carlson, Prentice.
Second Heat: Witberler; Matt Schulz, Wausau; Bennish.

Bombers
Fast Time: Tim Nawrocki, Wausau.
Dash: Jim Annala, Westboro; Dustin Ochodnicky, Ogema; C.J. Hedges, Jr., Tomahawk.
Heat: Nawrocki; Annala; Will Garske, Tomahawk.

Pro-Bandits
Fast Time: Bob Schult, Merrill, 14.937 sec.
Dash: Nick Erickson, Jr., Schofield; Schult; Justin Woller, Merrill.
Heat: Schult; Lance Dehnel, Mosinee; Woller.
Feature: Schult; Woller; Bill Martin, Eagle River; Joe Guthman, Merrill; Phil Malouf, Manitowish Waters; Bob
Roberts, Wausau; Erickson; Dehnel; Curt Luedtke, Wausau.

Street Bandits
Fast Time: Bill Powers, Merrill, 16.904.
Heat: Powers; Matt Troutman, Tomahawk; Jeff Swope, Merrill.
Feature: Elliott Marquardt, Merrill; M. Troutman; Keith Troutman, Tomahawk; Glenda Stevens, Tomahawk; Powers.

Mini-Cups
Fast Time: Trevor Raskie, Phillips
Heat: Raskie; Chris Hoen, Mosinee; Jake Jump, Wisconsin Dells.
Feature: Raskie; Hoen; Jump; Randy Braun, Baraboo.