August 5, 2001; Seymour, WI - The hot, summer weather helped present another smooth, fast track Sunday night at the Seymour Tri Oval Raceway along with two first time and two repeat feature winners.
The IMCA Mods were first up tonight with Chris Derenne taking charge for the opening 4 laps. A four car spin in the first turn brought out the first caution of the race and on the restart, Mike Wedelstadt powered onto the top spot with Brian Mullen moving into second on the next lap. Wedelstadt was hooked up on the high side of the track and Mullen was a length or two behind as the pair started to pull away from the pack. Derenne, Scott Mullen, Brad Rohloff, point leader, R.M. Van Pay, Travis Spaulding and Jared Siefert ran together the rest of the way. Wedelstadt controlled the lead to the finish to win his first career tri oval feature with Mullen right behind. Spaulding ended the run in third with Scott Mullen moving into a tie for the point lead with a strong fourth place finish. Rohloff and Siefert rounded out the top six. The Stock Cars were next with several cautions slowing a very competitive feature event. Kyle Fredrick set the pace early with point leader, Jeremy Christians taking to his favorite spot, the high line, to move quickly from the middle of the pack to the lead on lap 3. He started to pull away from the pack with Jason Czarapata, Benji LaCrosse and Travis Van Straten moving up to battle for the runner up spot. A caution on lap 8 bunched the field and for the rest of the race, the top six cars ran under a blanket. LaCrosse was running second when a lap 12 caution bunched the field again. LaCrosse was running high right behind the leader until the restart, when he took his car to the low side and took over the top spot for a lap. The leaders ran side by side until a final caution on lap 15 set up an exciting finish. LaCrosse again took the low line for the final restart and this time pulled into the top spot. He then pulled wide with Christians, Brandon Czarapata, Jason Czarapata, Tim Van De Hei and Dave Bouche behind. Brandon Czarapata was working well down low and Christians remained to the top of the track. LaCrosse was in the middle as the trio battled for the final three laps for the win. As he has done several times before this season, Christians saved a little bit for the final lap. Out of the tri oval to the finish, he found enough bite up top to pull off his fifth feature win of the season by a bumper over LaCrosse. Brandon Czarapata was alongside for third with Van De Hei in fourth. Jason Czarapata was fifth and Bouche rounded out the top six. Josh Wirtz led the opening lap before Bob White pulled into the top spot of the Street feature. Jeff Treml moved into the runner up spot on lap 3 and pulled right behind the leader. The pair started to pull away from the pack with Darren Otto, Dave Verhagen, Rich Kyllonen, and Lance Arneson battling behind. Once Otto moved into third he started to clip away at the lead margin and was closing on them when a pair of cautions bunched the field on lap 12 and 13. Ottos run was ended with engine trouble during the first caution which put Jamie Schmidt up into the third spot for the restart. Schmidt took the car low and pulled into the lead after the restart and held off White, Treml and Charlie Van Ooyen over the final five laps to win his first division feature since June 14, 1998. White took second with Van Ooyen third and Treml fourth. Marc Marcille was fifth and David Charles rounded out the top six. The Wissota Late Models ran last, and it took three tries to get the first lap recorded. Mike Babino finally led the first lap before Terry Casey moved into the top spot on the second lap. Pete Parker, Nick Anvelink and point leader, Troy Springborn pulled behind the leader. By the mid point of the race, Casey was still controlling the lead with Parker running inside and Springborn tight behind. On lap 11, the trio got bunched even tighter with a lapped car and Springborn was able to come pout on top. Parker stayed with the leader and took the outside line to take over the lead three laps later. Parker pulled ahead while Springborn and Casey battled for second. Three laps from the end, Springborn had a tie rod break resulting in a mechanical black flag. Parker took his second feature win of the season with Casey in second. Anvelink took third with Tom Naeyaert fourth. Gordie Seegert and Jim Rychtik rounded out the top six. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED WISSOTA LATE MODEL STREET STOCK IMCA STOCK CAR |
