by Chris Stepan

ARDCADIA, Wis. (June 8, 2001) - A fantastic night of racing was on tap for the fans at the Fox Ridge Speedway in Arcadia, WI on Friday night, June 8th. A very good field of cars was on hand and a great crowd was in attendance to witness the festivities first hand.

The Super Stocks made their way out onto the speedway for the first main event of the night with last week's winner Mike Hesselink and Bob Fort sitting on the front row. Fort took the lead at the drop of the green, but Hesselink stayed right with him in second. A great battle was going on for third as well between Jon Duffy and Jason Johnson over the early half of the event.

Fort began to pull to a 3 or 4 car length advantage over Hesselink, who was now being hounded by Duffy and Johnson for second. Johnson made the pass on Duffy into third and pulled up alongside of Hesselink in the middle groove to try to snatch second away, which he did on lap 12.

Mark Teske was also making his way toward the front as he appeared in the top 5 and began to battle with Duffy for fourth as the laps wound down. Once Johnson secured second, he began to reel in Fort up front and as the white flag flew, Jason took to the high groove and shot by Fort into the lead, which he would never give up. Johnson raced to his first fin at the speedway with Fort, Hesselink, Duffy and Teske rounding out the top five finishers.

Troy Langowski took control of the Modified feature at the drop of the green with Mike Wedelstadt settling into second on lap 1. Rick Hauser, Shane Wehrs and Nate Wasmund were all engaged in a tight battle for third as Wasmund was hooked up on the low side of the speedway in his # 52. After a lap 3 spin, Wasmund took off and shot to the inside of Langowski into the lead and began to stretch it out over the field in a hurry.

Les Duellman and Leroy Scharkey were also in a battle for position just behind the leaders as Wasmund was now way out front and steadily pulling away from the field. Several cars that were making tremendous progress through the field were Jay Ihrke and Tim Donlinger as they both were forced to qualify out of the b-feature and were both in the top ten before the midpoint of the event.

Back up front, Wasmund was gone as he began to encounter heavy lapped traffic, while Duellman, Steve Speltz and Langowski were still locked in battle for second.

Wasmund cruised to the impressive win over Langowski, who was able to fend off Speltz for second. Duellman and Wedelstadt rounded out the top five. Tom Nesbitt shot out into the lead in the Late Model main event at the start and looked as if he was going to make a shambles of the race, but behind him a thrilling battle was occurring between Bob Timm, Eric Pember and John Henkemeyer for third. Also on the track Tim Buhler and Mike Bear were locked in battle for fifth, as Nesbitt was gone up front. Tom held almost a straightaway advantage over the field, but once Timm secured the second spot, he began to reel in Nesbitt on each circuit.

Paul Brust was making a move as well. He ducked to the inside of Tim Buhler into fifth early in the race and stole the spot away on the backstretch. Meanwhile, Timm had caught Nesbitt up front and was searching for a way around him, but Nesbitt was doing a great job of protecting his lead and he and Timm raced hard for the top spot for several laps until Nesbitt was able to pull back away a bit at about the ? mark of the event.

Timm would not give up however as he came right back after Nesbitt and threw his # 49 into turn one very hard on lap 17, which allowed him to pull alongside Nesbitt for the lead, which he stole away on the next circuit. Timm then stretched his lead to his first career Late Model feature win. Nesbitt had to settle for second ahead of Pember, Henkemeyer and Brust.

Dennis Davis took the lead in the Street Stock feature at the drop of the green as Shaun Wehlage moved into second early, but the man on the move was Jim Randall as he started 12th on the grid and was into 5th on lap 1. Randall then split Daryl Foegen and Jeremy Sommer down the backstretch and stole the third position away on lap 2. He was not however as he quickly reeled in Davis and began to battle with him for second early in the event. Wehlage was running up front and held a good sized advantage as Randall shot by Davis into second at the halfway point of the race and began to reel in Wehlage up front. The caution flew as Nathan Rauter tossed his # 11 onto its roof in turn 2, slowing the action once again. Rauter was not injured, but he was done for the night.

On the restart, Danny Hanson made a move as he snatched third away from Foegen, while Randall and Wehlage were running side-by-side for the lead down the backstretch. Travis Krause was picking off cars left and right after being forced to start at the tail and appeared in the top five on lap 10, while Randall had wrestled the lead away from Wehlage and immediately stretched his lead over the field.

Krause quickly moved into battle with Hanson, Foegen and Davis for third as the white flag flew for Randall up front. Jim raced to his second consecutive feature win at the speedway over Wehlage, Hanson, Foegen and Krause.

Racing resumes at Fox Ridge this Friday with racing action in WISSOTA Late Models, Modifieds, WISSOTA Super Stocks and WISSOTA Street Stocks. Racing action starts at 7pm. For more information, please check out the track's website at www.foxridgespeedway.com.

RESULTS

WISSOTA LATE MODELS

Feature: Bob Timm, Tom Nesbitt, Eric Pember, John Henkemeyer, Paul Brust,

Tim Buhler, Mike Bear, Dean Maurer, Jeff Keeney, Troy Brand

Heat 1: Pember, Nesbitt, Keith Foss, Buhler, Bear

Heat 2: Brust, Timm, Kelly Anderson, Henkemeyer, Todd Frank

MODIFIEDS

Feature: Nate Wasmund, Troy Langowski, Steve Speltz, Les Duellman, Mike

Wedelstadt, Shane Wehrs, Julie McDermid, Bruce Angst, Hank Rollinger, Todd

Scharkey

Heat 1: McDermid, Rollinger, Leroy Scharkey, Eric Scribner, Steve Wetzstein

Heat 2: Speltz, Wehrs, Rick Hauser, Mark Iverson, Eric Throndson

Heat 3: Duellman, Wasmund, Wedelstadt, Dave Wiersgalla, Gary Baxter

Heat 4: Angst, Mike Sorensen, Langowski, Gary Doelle, Mick Glenn

B-feature: Jay Ihrke, Tim Donlinger, Dan Hesch, Jordan Steier, T. Scharkey

WISSOTA SUPER STOCKS

Feature: Jason Johnson, Bob Fort, Mike Hesselink, Jon Duffy, Mark Teske, Dan

Arneson, Josh Rodewald, Jerry Bloom, Scott Rollinger, Dennis Earney

Heat 1: Ben Anderson, Duffy, Fort, Gary Wiersgalla, John Doelle

Heat 2: Johnson, Teske, Kevin Glander, Kelly Anderson, Matt Durnen

Heat 3: Arneson, Rodewald, Bloom, Phil Kendrick, Dustin Wagner

Heat 4: Earney, Hesselink, Rollinger, Lyle Schlomer, Quinn Arnoldy

WISSOTA STREET STOCKS

Feature: Jim Randall, Shaun Wehlage, Danny Hanson, Daryl Foegen, Brad

Dennis, Travis Krause, Derek Sutton, Matt Theisen, Jash Malchaski, Lester

Beardsley

Heat 1: Wehlage, Hanson, David Nastvold, Darran Jonsgaard, Phil Wernert

Heat 2: Randall, Dennis, Nathan Rauter, Malchaski, Dennis Davis

Heat 3: Jeremy Sommer, Foegen, Tony Sass, Theisen, Lee Hager