7/12/2023
Beaver Dam Raceway
Steenbergen Cashes in With Big Win; New and Repeat Winners Fill the Night
Beaver Dam, WI (7/11/2023) - $1,000 is a lot of money, no one knows that better than Jeff Steenbergen. The driver from Johnson Creek, WI made away with the large check as a special $1,000-to-win SportMod race made headlines during EK Machines Night at the Races at Beaver Dam Raceway.
100 cars signed in at the pit shack on the night as 21 EK Machine Unified Street Stocks, 20 Legends.direct Legends, 25 Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods who would battle for the $1,000, 13 N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars, and 21 Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds prepared to do battle.
Heats rolled out with the EK Machine Unified Street Stocks going to Craig Lepple, Russ Davison, and Rob Maule. Three Legends.Direct legends heat races would come to the track next with Griffin McGrath, Hayden Schmuhl, and Eric Blumer all picking up wins. Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods saw their three heat races won by Jeff Steenbergen, Colton See, and Andy Klosterman. The two N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars heats would go to Karly Stadler and Brandon Paitrick. The final heat races, the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds heat races ended with Matt Klenz, Don Scheffler, and Jeff Schmul in victory lane.
The first feature of the night, the EK Machine Unified Street Stocks, saw Craig Lepple and Mark Baker on the front row. After a waved off start, Lepple took command off the start as the field behind him began to fight. Three wide fights for second and back made the feature a sight to see. Russ Davison, Phillip Wuesthoff, Larry Richards, Jon Schultz, Jesse Krahn, and Dustin Ward all put on a show battling for any position they could get. The first caution of the race would come out as the 25P of Davison got spun around in front of the field. Schultz tapped out, admitting fault and moved to the rear as the field refired in the hands of Lepple. The driver after the restart to watch was Larry Richards, who was making a charge from his eighth starting spot. Another yellow would come out regrouping the field just past halfway. Lepple and Wuesthoff battled on the restart with Wuesthoff the better of the two and moving into the lead. Calamity claimed four cars on lap twelve as Ward, Jason White, James Fletcher, and Nate Gross got collected in turn two. Wuesthoff led the field on the restart as Krahn followed in second and Richards third. The top two fought as another yellow came out. Richards surged through on the restart, passing Krahn for second and then Wuesthoff for the lead with three laps remaining. Larry Richards didn’t look back as he drove into the night to pick up another feature win of the season with Phillip Wuesthoff and Jesse Krahn second and third.
The Legends.Direct Legends feature lined up with Brady Ascherien and Faith Zellmer on the front row. Ascherien led the field for the first few laps before the yellow flew for Jeff Schmidt spinning out in turn three. The field restarted but an incident on the restart collected Austin Winkel and Adam Zellmer, two big contenders. Once the green flew again, it was the 64 of Griffin McGrath who rushed to the front of the field and to the lead. He was challenged by teammate Michael Weber and the 2.0 of Ryan Sullivan with a fresh new engine. Sullivan would get out of shape in turn four, spinning off track without a caution, taking him out of contention. The yellow did come out for a muffler coming off in turn four and a slow Brady Ascherien. McGrath led from the restart with Weber, Jordan Miklas, and a hard charging Blumer back to the front. McGrath held out for eight laps to pick up his first win of the season as Weber and Blumer rounded out the top three.
Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods $1,000 to win feature was led by Mark Hoeppner and Matthew Roehl. Trouble struck early for the 9R of Roehl as he got turned around heading into turn three, ending his night early. The race restarted but soon went back yellow and some cars tangled. The 84 of Hoeppner led the field back green but the 1K of Elijah Koenig quickly took the lead. Skyler Woods and Jeff Steenbergen made their way past Hoeppner and into second and third. They battled for countless laps before Steenbergen was able to break away and set his sights on closing down the gap to the Koenig. Heartbreak would strike for Koenig with just two laps to go as he got tangled up with lap traffic. Steenbergen would inherit the lead and wouldn’t look back, leading the final two laps and picking up the $1,000 check in victory lane. Jake Carpenter and Timothy Warner finished second and third.
N&S Towing IMCA Stock Car feature saw Travis Stadler and Chris Loewenhagen on the front row. The field would have to retry the start due to the 1S getting the car upset out of four and spinning in front of the pack. Rod Snellenberger would lead the field at the end of lap one with the 9R of Kenny Richards second. The top two battled for the lead as Richards tried all he could on the bottom, with Snellenberger up top. Richards would capture the lead just before the yellow came out at the halfway point. Richards was best on the restart as the 19S of Aaron Stolp and Jeremy Christians worked their way into second and third. It was a three car battle for the win for seven laps but it was the 9R of Kenny Richards who was best of the best and took home another feature win, with Stolp and Christians taking home the rest of the top three.
The Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds feature was last up with Don Scheffler and Tom Robbins first and second. Scheffler got the better start but was quickly slowed down by a yellow flag for a spun car in turn one. Scheffler led the field back to green as Dave Schoenberger and Matt Klenz battled for the second spot. The second and third place cars tracked down Scheffler in only a few laps and the race was on. A yellow came out just after the halfway point for a car spun in turn three. The following restart would be critical for the top three as any inch given could spell disaster for the driver. Scheffler got an okay start, but it was Schoenberger who broke out and charged to the lead. Scheffler came back at him though before a yellow came out. Jeff Schmuhl tapped out for the incident and moved to the back as the field went green. Schoenberger, with the lead, had pressure from Tony Wedelstadt, who took the lead on lap fifteen. Scheffler wasn’t backing down though, as he charged to the back of Wedelstadt and with just two laps remaining, he made his way past Wedelstadt for the lead. Don Scheffler would pick up his first feature win of the season and first win at Beaver Dam in a few years, almost forgetting to pull into victory lane. Tony Wedelstadt finished second and Dave Schoenberger third.
Beaver Dam Raceway will be back in action Tuesday, July 25th with a regular, 5 class show. All information can be found on wismotorsports.net and the Beaver Dam Raceway Facebook page.
Article Credit: Zack Krueger
Submitted By: Zack Krueger