by Todd Narveson

ARCADIA, Wis. (June 22, 2001) - It was a picture perfect evening for racing at the Fox Ridge Speedway this past Friday night. Again, a very nice crowd turned out for another exciting night of racing.

With the WISSOTA Late Models taking the night off, the fans had a special treat as the Midwest Sprint Car Series rolled into town. This along with the normal dose of WISSOTA Street Stocks, WISSOTA Super Stocks and open wheel Modifieds provided plenty of great racing.

First on the track for their main event was the WISSOTA Street Stocks for their 15-lap race. Shawn Wehlage used the pole position to hold the early lead followed closely by Travis Krause.

Krause dogged the leader until lap four when he shot past Wehlage and took the top spot away. Even a late race caution did not faze Krause as he again pulled away.

It was Krause’s third win of the season at the speedway. Wehlage finished second with Danny Hanson, Darryl Foegen and Brad Dennis finishing in the top five.

Twenty-two WISSOTA Super Stocks answered the bell for their 20-lap feature event. An early yellow as Kevin Glander and Bob Fort got together. Glander lost his nose cone in the process. Fort was placed to the tail and then disqualified for a violation of track line up procedures.

Jason Johnson was shooting for three wins in a row and led early. John Doelle was hot on his heels. Doelle made a hard charge on the cushion and flew by Johnson for the lead in turn two on the sixth lap.

Jon Duffy and Troy Brand had a great battle going on for third as Dave Haberman and Bruce Tourville were door to door for fifth.

Doelle was in control, looking for his first win of the season until a lap thirteen caution bunched up the field and made for an exciting restart. This put Johnson on the rear bumper of Doelle at the drop of the green.

The race resumed and Johnson drove to Doelle’s inside in turn one and reclaimed the lead. Johnson pulled a few car lengths on Doelle as the race drew to a close.

A late race caution set up a three lap dash to the checkered. Johnson again pulled away a bit and won his third straight feature at Fox Ridge. Doelle’s fine run ended in second. Tourville came home third with Haberman and Duffy in the top five.

Les Duellman’s crew was very busy working on their modified before the races tonight. They noticed beforehand while changing gears that one of the axle tubes on the rear end was bent. So they went to work and changed the entire rear end assembly in the car. Their noticing the problem would payoff later.

The feature started with a bang as they stacked up six cars in turn two on lap one. When the race started, Les Duellman took the lead. Duellman was very strong as he quickly pulled away from his fellow competitors.

Bruce Angst held the second spot until lap four when Ron Schreiner made the pass in turn one on lap four. Schreiner tried to close on Duellman a bit but could not mount a serious challenge.

Duellman was dominant for his first win of the season. Schreiner was second with Brad Waits in third. Shane Wehrs had a very good run in fourth as did Dan Hesch who finished fifth.

The final race of the night was the Midwest Sprint Car Series 20-lap main event of the winged warriors. Jimmy Kouba and Roger Rager were in row one. They put on a show early on as they exchange a couple of slide jobs for the lead.

Rager would take the lead and pull away. Kouba then had his hands full with Kent Winters for the second position. The race went seventeen laps until a violent crash red flagged the race.

Alan Gilbertson had something break on his car as he shot off of turn two. He climbed an embankment flew over the top of the railroad tracks and flipped in the air three times before landing near the Trempealeau River. Gilbertson was uninjured in the crash as he walked away from the scene.

When the race resumed, Rager cruised to the win. Winters got by Kouba for the second spot with Kouba winding up third. Kurt Davis and Joe Kouba rounded out the top five.

RESULTS

Midwest Sprint Cars

First Heat-1. Joe Kouba, 2. Mike Sargeant, 3. Joseph Kouba

Second Heat-1. Roger Rager, 2. Jimmy Kouba, 3. Ehren Layton

Third Heat-1. Kurt Davis, 2. Kent Winters, 3. Tom Kamrath

Dash-1. Jimmy Kouba, 2. Rager ,3. Winters

Feature-1. Rager, 2. Winters, 3. Jimmy Kouba, 4. Davis, 5. Joe Kouba, 6. Layton, 7. Sargeant, 8. Tony Hargrave, 9. Rob Caho, 10. Joseph Kouba

Modifieds

First Heat-1. Les Duellman, 2. Brad Waits, 3. Ron Britain

Second Heat-1. Hank Rollinger Jr., 2. Steve Speltz, 3. Paul Hamernik

Third Heat-1. Ron Schreiner, 2. Dan Hesch, 3. Mick Glenn

Feature-1. Duellman, 2. Schreiner, 3. Waits, 4. Shane Wehrs, 5. Hesch, 6. Rollinger, 7. Bruce Angst, 8. Mark Iverson, 9. Dana Lerum, 10. Hamernik

WISSOTA Super Stocks

First Heat-1. Dan Arneson, 2. John Doelle, 3. Jason Johnson

Second Heat-1. Bob Fort, 2. Troy Brand, 3. Jon Duffy

Third Heat-1. Mike Hesselink, 2. Dave Haberman, 3. Brain Fetting

Feature-1. Johnson, 2. Doelle, 3. Bruce Tourville, 4. Haberman, 5. Duffy, 6. Fetting, 7. Hesselink, 8. Matt Durnen, 9. Ben Anderson, 10. Gary Wiersgalla

WISSOTA Street Stocks

First Heat-1. Jeremy Sommer, 2. Lee Hager, 3. Brandon Baker

Second Heat-1. David Nastvold, 2. Phil Wernert, 3. Brad Dennis

Third Heat-1. Shawn Wehlage, 2. Danny Hanson, 3. Travis Krause

Feature-1. Krause, 2. Wehlage, 3. Hanson, 4. Darryl Foegen, 5. Dennis, 6. Sommer, 7. Wernert, 8. Nastvold, 9. Josh Malchaski, 10. Hager