8/2/2023
Beaver Dam Raceway
Perfect Night Brings Great Mid-Season Racing to Beaver Dam Raceway
Beaver Dam, WI (8/2/2023) - Old and new winners shined bright in the moonlight as the 5 + 1 divisions of fun brought the heat to Beaver Dam for the N&S Towing Night at the Races. Great racing and a candy drop for the kids capped off a great night.
102 cars signed in at the pit shack on the night as 20 EK Machine Unified Street Stocks, 16 Legends.direct Legends, 21 Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods, 14 N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars, 27 Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds, and 4 High School Racing Association cars prepared to do battle.
Heats rolled out with the EK Machine Unified Street Stocks. Stuart White and Mark Baker would capture wins in the heat races. Two Legends.direct legends heat races would come to the track next with Austin Winkel and Adam Zellmer picking up wins. The singular High School Racing Association heat went to Zach Ziegler. Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods saw their three heat races won by Elijah Koenig, Nick Schultz, and Jimmy Berkevich. The two N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars heats would go to Nick Kufalk and Jeremy Christians. The final heat races, the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds heat races ended with Mike Schmuhl, Dave Schoenberger, and Mike Wedelstadt in victory lane. The B-Main for the Modifieds would go to Reeseville’s Nick Firari.
EK Machine Unified Street Stocks feature was the first feature on track as Jacob Rens and Stuart White started from the front row. The green flag flew on the first feature of the night and Rens and White were indistinguishable on the start, side by side for three laps before White was able to surge past on the high side. Phillip Wuesthoff made the battle for the lead three wide as he tried to go for the race lead. White fell off from the high side and down to sixth. Trouble struck on lap eight as Russ Davison got his car spun around in turn four, causing some evasive maneuvers from other cars and a tractor tire out of place. Wuesthoff was the leader on the restart with Rens and Jesse Krahn third. Krahn moved into second and James Fletcher to third as they tried to track down Wuesthoff. A spin in turn four would bring out another yellow and bunch the pack back together. Wuesthoff, Krahn, and Fletcher the top three got good restarts but Krahn was the best, driving by Wuesthoff for the race lead with five laps to go. The yellow came out once again for some debris. Krahn led the field for the final three laps as Fletcher spun from second into the infield. Krahn picked up his fourth feature win of the season and his second in a row, as well as picked up the points lead. Wuesthoff came home second with a late race run from Larry Richards putting him third.
Legends.Direct Legends were up next with Matt Gritt and Kim Clover starting from first and second. The green flag flew and Gritt made the best start, maintaining the lead with Clover behind. Ryan Sullivan and Adam Zellmer made their way past the top two and into the lead and second on lap five. The 2.0 of Sullivan and 117 of Zellmer fought before a yellow flag ended the fight. The field restarted with Sullivan in the lead, Zellmer second, and Clover third. The green flag came out as Eric Blumer and Austin Winkel moved into the top four. The top four battled for the race lead lap after lap before another yellow flew. With Sullivan, Zellmer, Winkel, and Blumer in the top four, a big fight was expected before drama struck as Winkel and Blumer made contact down the front straightaway, causing Blumer to spin and Winkel to move to the back. That would promote last starting Hayden Schmuhl to third as the field went green. Zellmer was able to pick up another win this season with Sullivan behind in second. Hayden Schmuhl rounded out the top three after a drive train issue in the heat led to him starting at the back.
The third feature of the night saw the High School Racing Association take to the track. Caleb Arneson started from the point with Zach Ziegler second. Ziegler led from the drop of the green as Arneson and Jackson Martindale fought for second. Trouble struck for fourth place Landin Frye as a flat right front caused him to drop out. Martindale had an issue from third as he retired the car from third. The battle would be on for the lead as Arneson closed in on Ziegler for the lead. Arneson would get close but not enough as the driver for Sycamore High School, Zach Ziegler would pick up the feature win.
Beaver Dam Tire and Service IMCA SportMods feature was next on track as Ryan Schmidt and Mark Hoeppner started from the front two spots. The green flag flew with Schmidt the leader. Hoeppner behind was quickly passed by Geoff Zdroik for second and passed by Ryan Kuehn for third before the yellow flew. Schmidt led the field back to green as Kuehn made his way into second. Zdroik and Kuehn swapped second and third for a few laps before a two car incident in turn four brought out a yellow. Schmidt once again led the field to green but another quick yellow slowed everyone down. Schmidt had pressure from Kuehn behind on the following restart. The battles behind the top two heated up as Elijah Koenig and Skyler Woods started to fight for the third place spot. They roped in Kuehn and the battle became for second as Koenig made his way past Kuehn on lap eighteen and Woods worked past Kuehn on lap nineteen. Schmidt loved all the fighting as he became the ninth different feature winner of the season in the division. Koenig ended second and Woods brought it home third.
N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars were next with Nick Kufalk and Kyle Caswell on the front row. After an aborted start, the green came out and right away, the 29P of Brandon Paitrick made a move into the lead before a yellow came out. On the restart, Caswell held the lead for a lap before Paitrick came right back at him. Another yellow would fly as the 38 of Brian Gerber slammed the wall in turn one, ending his night early. Paitrick led the field back to green but this time Karly Stadler and Kenny Richards challenged for the lead. Stadler held the lead until a violent roll down the front straightaway for Tim Paitrick brought out the red. Tim was okay and got a free ride in the ambulance back to the pits for his troubles as the field refired and got back racing. Stadler, the leader with the other Paitrick and Richards behind her, restarted the race. Points leader Kenny Richards wouldn’t wait around as he drove around Stadler for the race lead. The yellow flag came out with four laps to go for a spun car in turn four, which caused a massive restart to follow. Richards the leader, Stadler second, and Jeremy Christians third. The green flag flew and Richards had pressure from Christians. The two would go side by side for the race lead but it would be Kenny Richards who would pick up his seventh feature win of the season, followed by Christians and Stadler.
The final feature of the night, the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds rolled out with Jeff Schepp and Dave Schoenberger on the front row. The green flag flew and third starting Kelsy Hayes made a charge into the lead instantly. Schoenberger would pass her back for the lead by lap three as he started to drive away. A spin in turns three and four collected two cars for the first yellow of the race. Once the field got back set Schoenberger led them to the green. Four cars tangled in turn four on the restart and then two more cars on the following restart. Single file restarts ensued as Schoenberger led once again. Slowly but surely, points leader Brandon Schmitt was closing on the leaders up high, making quick work of Hayes for second on lap nine. A yellow flew on lap fifteen as a spin in turn one packed the field back up for one final restart. Schmitt tried everything he could after the green came back out but it wasn't enough. Dave Schoenberger picked up his first feature win of the season followed by Schmitt and Hayes.
Beaver Dam Raceway will be back in action Tuesday, August 8th with a regular, 5 class show. The headliner will be a $1,000-to-win IMCA Stock Car All Star Qualifier event. All information can be found on wismotorsports.net and the Beaver Dam Raceway Facebook page.
Article Credit: Zack Krueger
Submitted By: Zack Krueger