August 18, 2002; Seymour, WI - Finally, a nice night for racing on Sunday at the Seymour Tri Oval Raceway. One of the nicest nights of the season saw three repeat and two first time winners in feature action on Maroszek Excavating night.
The IMCA Stock Cars were first out tonight with Troy Jerovetz setting the pace for the first 4 laps. Point leader, Jeremy Christians, starting 12, took to the outside and pulled into the lead on the 5th lap and led the rest of the way. By the mid point of the race, Shawn Kilgore, Jason Czarapata, Shawn Wagner and Brandon Czarapata were right behind the leader. A caution with 4 laps left gave everyone a final shot at the leader, Brandon Czarapata pulled alongside the leader on the restart, but was quickly fought back. Christians drove off with his 3rd feature win of the year with Brandon Czarapata taking second. Kilgore took third, Wagner fourth, Jason Czarapata fifth and Tim Van De Hei sixth. The win, coupled with a last place finish by Benji LaCrosse with a blown engine, gives Christians a second straight division track championship, even though there is one point night left. However, the rest of the top 10 are within 16 points of each other. The Street Stock were next with Troy Wilson setting the pace followed by Rick Naparalla, Al Sedo, Tom White,, Darren Otto and Phil Hiles. Otto hooked up on the outside and pulled to the front and took over the top spot on lap 6. For the next 8 laps, Otto pulled away from the field leaving the battle for the runner up spot. Cautions on laps 14 and 15 bunched the field with Wilson still holding second. Lance Arneson was in third with Bob White, Point leader, Mike Coel and Sedo behind. The race for second stayed tight to the finish which allowed Otto to claim his 4th feature win of the season. Wilson ran to his best finish ever holding off all challenges for second. Coel came through for third with Arneson in fourth, Bob White fifth and Shawn Van Ooyen rounding out the top six. A start in next weeks final point show will give Coel his first ever N.E.W. DIRT track championship. Jamie Schmidt led the opening lap of the Modified main before Scott Mullen blasted by on the outside and ran off to hide from the rest of the field until a caution on lap 8 slowed the field and put the rest of the field behind the leader. Schmidt, Dennis Young, R.M. Van Pay, Scott Lewis and Travis Spaulding were lined up behind. On the restart, Young made contact with Mullen in turn 1, which upset the leader and put Young up to the wall, keeping the caution out. Mullen maintained the top spot for the restart, but Van Pay was on the charge under green and took to the inside and after 2more laps, was the new leader. For the rest of the race, Van Pay pulled away to collect his first feature win of the season here. Mullen held the runner up spot to the final lap when the engine let go causing a shuffle with the leaders. Brian Mullen snuck by Schmidt at the line for the second place finish. Schmidt took third, his best run of the season with Lewis, taking a strong fourth, his best run ever here. Jay Schraufnagel and Brad Rohloff rounded pout the top six. Brian Mullen will have to start next weeks program to become a five time Modified track champion. The WISSOTA Late Models ran last with Nick Anvelink pulling into the lead from the pole and running away from the rest of the field. Point leader, Troy Springborn, worked from the middle of the field into second on lap 7 and started the task of closing the gap on Anvelink. Dean Maurer, Randy Markwardt and Terry Casey were in a tight battle for third, running three wide several times before a caution on lap 12 bunched the field. Two laps after the restart, Springborn found his way into the lead. After a lap 15 caution, Casey pulled outside and into the lead down the back chute. Entering the Tri Oval, contact between the leaders sent Casey in the air, but he was able to continue in the lead. Springborn stalled in turn one, bringing out the final caution on lap 17. Casey led to the finish for his second feature win of the year. Anvelink took second with Markwardt third. Tim Buhler took fourth with A.J. Diemel in fifth. Springborn came back to finish sixth. The 4 Bangers closed the show with Tim Heinrich holding off Adam Haegle to become the ninth different feature winner this season. All feature winners also received a special Wisconsin Fans for Auto Racing trophy for their efforts tonight. Next Sunday will be the final point night of the season. The final race of 2002 will be the following week, September 1st with the 6th Annual Miller Lite Shootout. This race has always brought one of the largest fields of cars for the season running for the largest purse of the year. Start times are earlier for the special. Pit gates open at 3pm. with the grandstand at 4pm. Racing will start at 6pm. In the event of rain on the first, the race will be run on Labor Day, September 2nd. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED WISSOTA LATE MODEL STREET STOCK IMCA STOCK CAR 4 BANGER |
