by Chris Stepan

ARCADIA, Wis. (Sept. 8, 2001) - The Fox Ridge Speedway in Arcadia welcomed the Midwest Sprint Car Series back to the track for the third and final time this season. A somewhat small field of Sprints was on hand, but a great field of Modifieds, WISSOTA Super Stocks and WISSOTA Street Stocks filled out the program very well.

The Street Stocks were up first with a pair of Rice Lake drivers sharing the front row. Butch Madsen and Jimmy Randall paced the field to the green flag and Randall got the jump on Madsen when the green flag flew. Randall tried to run away from the field, but Madsen had other ideas and kept the pressure on throughout the first half of the event.

Travis Krause was on the charge early as he stormed from his 12th starting spot up ton fifth on lap 2 and continued to make his move through the field.

After a caution on lap 3, Randall quickly amassed a large lead in his # 1K and left the battle behind him for second. Madsen held the top, but Jimmy Patzner and Krause were now locked in battle just behind Butch for third.

Another caution bunched up the field on lap 8, which allowed Krause to get a great jump on Patzner on the restart and steal third away and set his sights on Madsen, who still ran alone in second. Randall had a big lead built up again while Krause had reeled in Madsen and was beginning to pressure him for second.

One final caution flew at the half-way point, which again saw Krause bolt to the outside of Madsen and take over the second spot. Once in second, Krause came after Randall in a hurry, but could not complete the pass and had to settle for second. Randall completed the sweep and picked up his 11th feature win at the speedway and 20th overall ahead of Krause and Madsen.

Jeff Brauer had a great run coming from the 6th row to edge Patzner at the line for fourth.

Jason Johnson took the lead at the start of the Super Stock feature and looked as if he was going to be able to run away from the field out front.

Curt Myers had other ideas though as he diced his way through traffic from his 8th starting spot into second after only 2 laps. Ben Anderson and Keane Laakson were also locked in a great battle for third just behind the leaders.

After a lap 3 caution, Myers dogged Johnson for the lead over the next lap and a half before ducking to the inside of him and flashing by into the top spot as the leaders raced out of turn four on lap 5. Once Myers was in front, he quickly began to pull away from the field and left nothing to the imagination as he cruised to his 13th feature win of his rookie season ahead of Johnson and Nick Herrick.

First time visitor Adam Hayden took the lead at the start of the Modified feature and held it for the first laps, while Kerry Ledebuhr, Bob Timm, Dan Hesch and Les Duellman were locked in a great battle for second just behind.

Ledebuhr cleared the traffic first and ducked to the inside of Hayden to take over the lead on lap 3, brining Timm with him into second.

Once Timm was in second, he began to dog Ledebuhr for the top spot until he was able to wrestle the lead away on lap 5. Timm then immediately began to pull away from the field and left the battle for second. Duellman moved into pressure Ledebuhr for the runner-up spot, while Hesch and Hank Rollinger were locked in a great battle for fourth for the remainder of the event.

As the laps clipped by, Timm was flying as he was negotiating lapped traffic and continually pulling away from the field on his way to his third win in a row at the speedway. Timm cruised to the win ahead of Duellman, who out dueled Ledebuhr for second. Hesch also was able to hold off Rollinger for fourth at the line.

The MSS Sprint Car feature was the final event of the night and saw Spike Lempelius take the lead after several cautions. Lempelius got out to a large advantage over the battle for second, which was raging on between Tom Kamrath and Ron Smith. Smith was flying around the high side of the speedway and stole second away from Kamrath into the runner-up spot.

Lempelius held a sizeable advantage over the field, but Smith was quickly reeling him in as the race neared the half-way point. Smith slid to the inside of Lempelius up front on lap 11 and assumed the top spot. Joe Kouba was also on the move and slipped by Lempelius into second on lap 11 as well, setting his sights on Smith out front.

Kouba wasted no time reeling in Smith for the lead and pulled even with Ron for the lead on lap 16. The leaders then raced side by side for the next 2 circuits until Kouba secured the top spot and ran away to the checkered to pick up the win.

Kouba capped off a great MSS season with the feature win and the championship by 3 points with his stellar run tonight. Smith came home with a great second place run and Kamrath rallied to round out the top three finishers.

Racing resumes at the Ridge with the upcoming 2-day invitational on Friday and Saturday, October 5th and 6th. The first annual Thunder at the Ridge will feature WISSOTA Late Models, Modifieds, WISSOTA Super Stocks, WISSOTA Street Stocks and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds for the first time ever. A big weekend is planned and should prove to be a great year-ending event. For more information on the event, please call Dave at (608) 323-3132 or the track at (608) 323-3396. You can also get all the information that you need on the track's website at www.foxridgespeedway.com.

RESULTS

MSS SPRINT CARS

Feature: Joe Kouba, Ron Smith, Tom Kamrath, New Powers, Ehren Layton, Spike Lempelius, Rob Caho Jr., Greg Kamrath, Joseph Kouba, Roger Rager

Heat 1: Joe Kouba, Smith, T. Kamrath, Caho Jr., G. Kamrath

Heat 2: Layton, Powers, Lempelius, Joseph Kouba, Rager

Dash: Lempelius, Smith, T. Kamrath, Powers, Joe Kouba

MODIFIEDS

Feature: Bob Timm, Les Duellman, Kerry Ledebuhr, Dan Hesch, Ross Prochnow, Bruce Angst, Hank Rollinger, Dave Wiersgalla, Troy Langowski, Adam Hayden

Heat 1: Timm, Mark Iverson, Tim Ludwigson, Ledebuhr, Mike Anderson

Heat 2: Angst, R. Prochnow, Hesch, Langowski, Brent Prochnow

Heat 3: Rollinger, Wiersgalla, Duellman, Hayden, Ron Britain

WISSOTA SUPER STOCKS

Feature: Curt Myers, Jason Johnson, Nick Herrick, Mark Teske, Keane Laakson, Bill Clemens, Ben Anderson, Wayne Engen, Scott Lawrence, Jon Duffy, Dan Arneson

Heat 1: Duffy, Johnson, Troy Brand, Lawrence, Matt Durnen

Heat 2: Teske, Clemens, Anderson, Arneson, Brad Lutz

Heat 3: Dennis Earney, Engen, Laakson, Lyle Schlomer, Kevin Glander

Heat 4: Myers, Gary Wiersgalla, Herrick, John Doelle, Quinn Arnoldy

B-feature: Jon Van Minsel, Dennis Dunbar, Jesse Hanson, Dan Nissalke, Dustin Wagner

WISSOTA STREET STOCKS

Feature: Jim Randall, Travis Krause, Butch Madsen, Jeff Brauer, Jimmy Patzner, Darryl Foegen, David Stearns, Tony Sass, Ron Hanestad, Greg Erickson

Heat 1: Hanestad, Brauer, Foegen, Tom Hund, Stearns

Heat 2: Bob Fort, Danny Hanson, Sass, Patzner, Brad Dennis

Heat 3: Randall, Madsen, Krause, Mike Prochnow, Lee Hager