Fireworks add to raceway action
Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 6, 2002
A beautiful summer day turned into a perfect night for racing action Friday at Chateau Raceway in Lansing. Lots of good action on the track, along with a fabulous fireworks display, added to the Independence Day weekend celebrations. All six classes were on hand for the action with another good field of cars filling the pits.
Two of the night's six features ere won by drivers who not only scored their first feature wins of the season, but scored sweeps as well.
First-year driver Josh Mattick of Lyle took home a pair of wins in the Chateau Pure Stocks. Mattick had one other heat win earlier this season and had followed it up that night by rolling his car, but not this time. Mattick, who started on the pole, survived a late caution to hold off current points leader Bobby Crews of Austin. Dave Stevensof Albert Lea took third after leading for five full laps. Brad Erickson of Chatfield had the classes other heat win.
The other first-time feature winner was Steve Eischens of Taopi in the Wissota Street Stock class. Steves had a couple of second-place finishes this season, but this night he would turn other drivers' misfortunes into a big win. Scheduled to start inside row four, Eischens moved to inside row two when two of the three cars ahead of him fell out. On the second attempt to start the ace Steve pulled right down the middle of the front row cars of Scott Sterling of Faribault and Luke Stevens of Albert Lea to move to the front, where he stayed from start to finish. Steve had to hold off a late charge from Wayne Barber of New Richland to get the win and complete the sweep on the night. The classes other heat win went to Mark Zvorak of Blooming Prairie, who scored a win in his first trip to the track this season
A trio of drivers scored their third consecutive feature wins. Open Modified driver Bobby Sorenson moved to within two points of Jimmy Davis of Jansesville in the points battle with his win -- his third straight and fourth overall. Davis leading by 10 points entering the night had problems in his heat, then lost three more by finishing third in the feature behind Todd Stinehart of Waseca. Heat wins went to Dennis Hilson of Blooming Prairie and Albert Wytaske of Lansing.
In the Mini Sprint class Ken Boeding of New Hampton Iowa took his third straight and fifth out of a possible six in the class that visits the track every other week. Ken also scored his fifth sweep in the process. The other heat winner was Tom Brown from Wonder Lake Illinois.
Jade Anderson of Owatonna has been dominant of late, taking his third straight feature in and fourth overall in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature. Anderson had to come up with a late effort to get this one. Pete Wytaske of Lansing took the lead off the drop of the green coming from row two to the front out of turn two of lap one. Anderson worked his way to second and pressured Pete while at the same time trying to hold off Bryan Hernandez of Blooming Prairie. Anderson moved to the point with three laps to go bringing Hernandez with him to second. Bryan made it close looking to the outside as the two took the white flag but Anderson held him off for the win, Wytaske finished third. Anderson gets the sweep for the night after taking a heat win along with Greg Pfeifer, Jr. of Austin.
The Mod Lites also had a clean sweeper as Dan Wendt of Spring Valley took home a pair of wins. Dan started outside pole but ran third after lap one. Randy Bryan of Ames Iowa and Roni Van Riper of Glenville jumped out first and second from the inside of the front two rows. Van Riper went to the lead on lap two while Wendt moved up to second. Dan kept digging and moved to the front on lap six than had to survive a late yellow as he held off Brian Shaw of Brownsdale for the win. Shaw leads the track with six feature wins but Dan did held him off for his second feature win. The other heat win belonged to Dave Lewison of Adams.
Next week the track will be treated by a visit from the Northern Vintage Stock Cars, featuring 1930s and '40s Coupes, '60s Super Modifieds and other Vintage Cars from the '40s, '50s and '60s. The group is making its second visit to the track this season -- last time they had a field of 14 cars and are hoping for more this time. The track has a Fall Special set for these cars as they will be running their "Vintage Stock Car Nationals" at the track on September 21.