June 3, 2001; Seymour, WI - Following another saturated weekend in Northeastern Wisconsin, N.E.W. DIRT was able to sneak in a full racing program Sunday night at the Seymour Tri Oval Raceway. With no racing anywhere else, a field of 117 cars swelled the pit area and put on a very competitive program.
The Street Stocks started the feature portion of the show running a non-stop event. Darren Otto paced the first 3 circuits before Jesse Colwell pulled into the top spot and started to pull away from the field. Phil Hiles, Dean Kellner, Jeff Vlies and Lance Arenson were working to the front from mid pack. Kellner moved into the runner up spot on lap 10 with Vlies and Arenson right behind. Arenson started to work the outside line and by lap 15 was right battling with Kellner for the second spot. On lap 16, Arenson took control and closed on the leader. Colwell held his inside line and Arneson was working high over the final laps, but Colwell took the top spot with Arenson taking second for the season race in a row here, and is now the early season point leader. Kellner held off Vlies for the third place finish with Jamie Colwell settling in fifth with David Hoerning rounding out the top six. Dave Bouche took charge of the Stock Car main for the opening 5 laps before Jason Czarapata slipped to the inside and took over the top spot. For the next 10 laps, Czarapata pulled the field leaving them to sort out positions. Jerry Wilinski was holding the runner up spot with Jeremy Christians moving into third and Travis Van Straten into fourth. A caution on lap 14 erased the big lead that Czarapata had built and set up a battle for the final 5 laps. Czarapata took control after the restart with Christians hooking on the outside to take over second from Wilinski. Christians could pull even on the back chute but Czarapata would hold the lead each lap. On the final lap, Czarapata got crossed up a bit in the tri oval which allowed Christians the open outside line to take his second straight feature win. Czarapata took the second place finish with Wilinski taking third. Van Straten held off Kerry Douglas for fourth place and Bouche rounded out the top six. The Wissota Late Models had trouble over the first 7 laps with cautions, but the green stayed out after the last restart for an exciting battle for the top spot. Pete Parker was the leader for the final green and stayed there for 2 more laps before dropping out of the race, turning the lead over to defending champion, Troy Springborn. Terry Casey was in the runner up spot and the pair pulled away from the rest of the field. Both drivers ran high and low to try to take control, but the side by side race gave both the lead several different times. Casey looked to have the race in hand on lap 16, but a miscue in the tri oval on the next lap, let Springborn re take the lead and go on to collect his first feature win of the year. Casey settled for the runner up spot with Tim Bennett, in his first run of the season here, taking a strong third place finish . Dean Maurer took fourth followed by Jim Rychtik and Greg Dhein in the top six. It took several tries to get the Modified feature underway and the line up was shuffled as well before a lap was finally completed with Bill Lemmens holding the top spot. Once the field settled down, they clicked off all the laps. Brad Rohloff started the main in the 6th spot, but was involved in and early race incident and finally started in the back of the field. Lemmens held the top spot when the green appeared for good followed by Mike Klenz, Jeremy Hedrick, Joel Schmit, Rod Snellenberger and Scott Mullen. By the mid point, Lemmens and Hedrick had moved away a bit in the first 2 spots. Brad Rohloff had worked through the field into the third spot and set out after the leaders. Rohloff moved into the runner up spot on lap 14 when Hedrick dropped off the pace. Rohloff made his move into the lead on lap 17 and drove off with his first feature win of the season. Lemmens held off Snellenberger for the second place finish with Mike Wedelstadt taking fourth just ahead of Scott Mullen and Dan Deau in the top six. Racing resumes next Sunday night with all four divisions in action starting at 6:30 pm. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED WISSOTA LATE MODEL STREET STOCK IMCA STOCK CAR |
