FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. -- Under beautiful blue skies, with perfect temperatures and a comfortable breeze, race fans converged on Mississippi Thunder Speedway to enjoy top-notch dirt-track action and an evening of family fun as part of Sugar Loaf Ford of Winona Night.

“Big Mike” Walski and Sugar Loaf Ford decided that Friday, June 22, was a great date upon which to throw some extra money at the racers as a reward if they could successfully find their way to Victory Lane at the end of the evening’s feature races. To that end, a $100 bonus was on the line for the winners of the night’s features in the top four weekly divisions which compete at Mississippi Thunder Speedway; therefore, the drivers in the Rivercity Manufacturing USRA Modifieds, Coordinated Business Systems WISSOTA Super Stocks, TheEngineStore.com USRA B-Mods and Jailhouse Saloon WISSOTA Street Stocks each had 100 extra reasons to race just a little bit harder to get to the checkered flag first.

Lucas Schott loves a good dry slick track.

“I really think the throttle control that I learned racing go-karts has helped me the most with racing my A-Mod,” said the 15-year-old Chatfield, Minn., racer several eeks ago after picking up his first feature win of the 2012 season at Mississippi Thunder Speedway. “And when you get a track that’s dry slick, you really have to be smooth with the throttle.”

Schott has shown that a dry slick track is his perfect environment; both feature wins that he’s collected at Mississippi Thunder Speedway (one in 2012 and one in 2011) have come on dry slick racing surfaces. To give you an idea of where this article is headed, Friday’s racing surface slick by the time the Rivercity Manufacturing USRA Modifieds hit the track for their feature event.

Sure, it helped Schott out tremendously that after winning the evening’s second heat race he was lined up on the pole when the green flag waved; but remember, the rest of the 19-car field was lined up right there behind him. And it’s not as if nobody was fast enough to challenge the young hot-shoe; first heat race winner Bob Timm pestered him through about the first half of the 25 lap feature until Schott was able to slowly but surely distance his #69 Schott Hardwood Floors entry from Timm’s #49.

The second half of the race was all about a challenge for the lead that appeared to be coming, but never arrived. Starting from the inside of the fourth row, West Concord, MN’s Steve Wetzstein worked this way through the traffic and once he cleared Timm, he set his sights on the race leader.

Lap after lap it was obvious that Wetzstein was coming with a head of steam and little by little cutting away at the lead that Schott had built up. As the race entered the final five laps, Wetzstein’s #90 was close enough to begin searching for the right opportunities to perhaps close in on Schott and maybe challenge for the top spot . . . a challenge that would never materialize.

As the two leaders raced through turns three and four, preparing to approach the waiving white flag signifying the final lap, Wetzstein’s modified slid sideways in-between turn three and turn four – the only driver who perhaps had any shot at Schott . . . had just spun out.

Schott survived the restart, and green-white-checkered race finish to grab his second USRA Modified feature win of 2012 – and the $100 Sugarloaf Ford bonus! 2010 track champion Josh Angst raced his #99 Culver’s of Winona Modified past Timm to finish second, relegating Timm for a third place finish for the evening.

“That kid can wrestle anything,” shouted Dan Deicher from the from Mississippi Thunder Speedway p.a. system – commenting on the ability of Jacob Bleess to wrestle the B-Mod on the track and other’s his age on the wrestling mat. Similar to Schott, Bleess picked up his first 2012 feature win just a couple weeks ago and was able to make a repeat trip to victory lane Friday night.

Inside of the third row is from where Bleess saw the green flag fly to start the TheEngineStore.com USRA B-Mod feature. Starting ahead of Bleess were current point leader, and first heat-race winner, Erik Kanz in his familiar #23K (outside second row), June 8th feature winner Alex Williamson in his Williamson Amusements #15W (inside second row) and former Late Model and 600 Mod champion Jeff Matejka’s Baehman Law #11B (pole position) but none of that competition ahead of him seem to trouble the 15-year-old for very long.

Bleess used fast and smooth laps to work his way to the front of the field and sailed on to his second feature win of the year. “Fast” is actually a bit of an understatement as the Chatfield, Minn., racer turned in the fastest lap of the entire evening’s feature races – a 16.957-second lap with an average speed of just a tick under 80 mph – helped rocket his #21 EZ Fabricating entry to the front in order to grab the checkered flag.

Kanz crossed the line second just ahead of Williamson and second heat race winner Shaun Walski.

Mississippi Thunder Speedway’s 2012 regular season action continues next Friday night, June 29, with another exciting night of dirt track action. On-track action begins at 6 p.m. with the Sunshine Sanitation A and B Mini Mods on the Lightning Speedway, with competition on the fast high-banked 1/3-mile oval getting underway at 7 p.m. comprised of a complete program from the Rivercity Manufacturing USRA Modifieds, Coordinated Business Systems WISSOTA Super Stocks, The Engine Store USRA B-Mods, Jailhouse Saloon WISSOTA Street Stocks, REDBOX+ 600 Mods, and Elmer’s Auto Salvage M.T.S. Pure Stocks.

Adult general admission is $12 with senior citizen tickets only $10. Student admission (age 13-18) is just $5 while all children 12 and under will be admitted absolutely free. The MTS Family Pass which consists of two adult tickets and up to three kids' tickets (17 & under) is available for only $25 – a $14 savings over the individual purchase of those same five tickets. Also the new “Family Friendly Pit Pricing” is also available for every event. For more details, visit the official Mississippi Thunder Speedway website at www.mississippithunder.com.

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OFFICIAL RESULTS
American Racer USRA Weekly Racing Series
Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Fountain City, Wis.
Friday, June 22, 2012

USRA MODIFIEDS

Heat #1: 1. Bob Timm, 2. Hank Rollinger Jr., 3. Jake Timm, 4. Steve Wetzstein, 5. Lance Hofer, 6. Doug Herrick, 7. Thomas Brink, 8. Tony Peterson, 9. Luke Schilling, 10. Phil Wernert.

Heat #2: 1. Lucas Schott, 2. John Doelle, 3. Steve Lavasseur, 4. Mark Teske, 5. Josh Angst, 6. Dan Bohr, 7. Chris Oertel, 8. Keith Foss, 9. Leroy Scharkey.

Feature: 1. Lucas Schott, 2. Josh Angst, 3. Bob Timm, 4. Jake Timm, 5. Steve Lavasseur, 6. Dan Bohr, 7. Hank Rollinger Jr., 8. Lance Hofer, 9. Mark Teske, 10. Leroy Scharkey, 11. Keith Foss, 12. Tony Peterson, 13. Luke Schilling, 14. Phil Wernert, 15. Doug Herrick, 16. Steve Wetzstein, 17. Thomas Brink, 18. John Doelle, 19. Chris Oertel.

USRA B-MODS

Heat #1: 1. Erik Kanz, 2. Alex Williamson, 3. Tyler Creeley, 4. Brandon Reutzel, 5. Lee Jonsgaard, 6. Josh Appel.

Heat #2: 1. Shaun Walski, 2. Jacob Bleess, 3. Brady Keefe, 4. Jeff Matejka, 5. Robert Carpenter, 6. Matt Appel.

Feature: 1. Jacob Bleess, 2. Erik Kanz, 3. Alex Williamson, 4. Shaun Walski, 5. Jeff Matejka, 6. Lee Jonsgaard, 7. Tyler Creeley, 8. Brady Keefe, 9. Brandon Reutzel, 10. Matt Appel, 11. Josh Appel, 12. Robert Carpenter.