6/16/2024
Beaver Dam Raceway
Benji the Best at Beaver Dam
Beaver Dam, WI (June 16th, 2024) - After a fourth-place finish the previous night, Benji LaCrosse had one goal in mind, to pick up the win. The driver who only days earlier won 141 Speedway’s Modified Clash at the Creek $10K, added $3,000 to the pot after picking up the win on the night at Beaver Dam Raceway.
139 cars filled the pits for night one, with 18 EK Machine Unified Street Stocks, 33 Midwest Legends Dirt Series Presented by Legends.Direct Legends, 28 N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars, 23 Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Modifieds, and 37 Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds ready to do battle.
Heat racing and and b-mains started the night off, with Kenny Richards and Paul Diefenthaler picking up the EK Machine Unified Street Stock heat races; Jackson Lewis, Parker Jones, Jordan Miklas, and Ryan Mech picked up the Midwest Legends Dirt Series Presented by Legends.Direct heat races with Hayden Schmuhl and Talyn Neuman taking home b-main victories; the N&S Towing IMCA Stock Car heat races were won by Timothy Ward, Dustin Ward, and Benji LaCrosse while Jesse Krahn won the b-main; Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Modified heat races went to Derek Fehling, Matthew Radtke, and Cole Stichter; Tim Ward, Collin Thirlby, Dan Roedl, and Mike Wedelstadt took home the top spot in the final heats for the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modifieds with Tony Wedelstadt and Cole Czarneski picking up b-main victories.
The first feature of the night, the EK Machine Unified Street Stocks lined up with Josh McDonald and Ryan Sullivan on the front row. McDonald led the field to the green and held onto the lead at the end of lap one. Kenny Richards quickly broke towards the front of the pack, taking the second spot from Sullivan early and the lead from McDonald on lap four. Paul Diefenthaler moved past Sullivan to take over the third place spot as Sullivan began to fall down the order. Diefenthaler came under pressure from James Fletcher pretty fast before Diefenthaler reeled in McDonald. McDonald fell to both Diefenthaler and Fletcher going all the way back to fourth. Kenny Richards ran away from the field putting on an absolute clinic to pick up his first win of the night and third win of the weekend , as well as $750. Diefenthaler brought home second with Fletcher finishing third.
Matthew Radtke started on the pole of the Rich’s Truck & Auto Repair IMCA Sport Mod feature, with David Paskiewicz alongside him. Radtke got the jump on the field but had pressure from Paskiewicz right away. Paskiewicz used the momentum from the high line to shoot past Radtke for the lead. Derek Fehling tried to get involved in the battle for the lead but couldn’t as the top two continued side-by-side racing. Radtke continued to pester Paskiewicz for the lead, taking the top spot many times back before a chaotic collection of cars caused a stoppage in action. Radtke got the race back underway half way in with just ten laps to go. Radtke continued to lead followed by Paskiewicz and Fehling. The mover on the restart was Elijah Koenig, who just 24 hours previous had picked up the win. Koenig began to work on the top three before the caution flew again. Radtke brought the field back to green with six laps remaining. Koenig went right back to work on the front three before yet another yellow flew. Radtke once again got the jump but it was Fehling who jumped right on him, trying to take the lead but cut off. Koenig found some speed and moved past Paskiewicz and then Fehling right at the death. Matthew Radtke picked up the $1,000 win with Koenig and Fehling right behind him.
The N&S Towing IMCA Stock Cars came to the track next and it would be Kenny Richards and Cole Czarneski starting from the front. An even start between the top two was ruined before they could even fight as the yellow came out. On the ensuing restart, Richards jumped ahead of Czarneski. Brandon Schmitt quickly tried to challenge Czarneski for second, and got the spot by lap four before another yellow flag flew. Richards led the field back to green and the battle resumed behind him. Schmitt on the bottom and Czarneski up top, side-by-side for a handful of laps before they swapped spots and Schmitt went to work on Richards. Schmitt attempted to start a high line and work past Richards, but the #9R was strong catfishing the bottom. Schmitt finally found some heat on lap ten and began to fight with the Montello, Wisconsin driver. The top through turns one and two was the strongest, with the bottom in turns three and four the best. Schmitt was able to work by Richards through turns one and two but Richards was stronger in three and four. Kenny Richards was able to get a half-second gap on Schmitt, and complete the four-peat, picking up the win and sweeping his races on the weekend. Schmitt came home second with Czarneski rounding out the podium.
With $3,000 on the line for the Shepy’s Auto Body IMCA Modified feature, Scotte Lemke found himself right where he wanted to be, starting from the pole, while Benji LaCrosse started in second. Chaos ensued on the initial restart, and then chaos ensued on the following restart. As everyone says, the third tries the charm and we were off racing. LaCrosse built a second gap on the field by lap three while Dan Roedl found pressure from the previous night's feature winner Kyle Strickler. The #8 of Strickler made a move under Roedl and then Roedl came back with a slider pretty quickly. Strickler set his sights on LaCrosse for the lead as the pack behind him swapped sliders. LaCrosse began working into lapped traffic and Strickler was able to close in on him. With thick lapped traffic holding up both of the top two, LaCrosse was using all of the track he could to run away from a charging Strickler when he got a gap in traffic and ran away. Benji LaCrosse then ran away from the field in the remaining laps to pick up the win, a $3,000 payday, a pretty cool looking trophy from Vahana Sports Media. Strickler came home second after a strong weekend, with Tim Ward third.
The final feature of the night, the Midwest Legends Dirt Series Presented by Legends.Direct feature pulled to the track. Matt Gritt started from the pole while Glenn Mitchell started second. The green flag flew on the field and it quickly became a three car battle, with Gritt, Mitchell, and Hunter Cardinal going at it before Jackson Lewis broke by to take second only to Mitchell. Two yellows quickly came out for some spun cars. The green flag came back out and Lewis wasted no time to jump to the lead with Mitchell in second and Adam Zellmer now in third. A quick yellow for a car that did a pretty sick 360 and got going again came out shortly after. Single-file restarts ensued and Lewis got the jump on the field once again. Zellmer slotted into the second place spot with Sullivan, Mitchell, Cardinal, Michael Weber, Jordan Miklas, and Parker Jones all dicing it up for third. Sullivan and Weber were the best of that battle, and quickly got to a more intimate fight for the third place position. Weber, who started thirteenth, made quick work of Sullivan and turned his attention to Zellmer while Miklas went to work on Sullivan. The caution flag flew once again for a spin from a car in turn two, bringing the pack back together. The field got back racing and Lewis got the jump once again. Weber and Miklas got to fighting with Zellmer for second with Weber moving past on lap fourteen. Weber set his sights on Lewis for the lead with Weber wanting a repeat of May 11th, where Weber became the first person to beat Lewis in the year during weekly racing at Maquoketa Speedway. With three laps left Weber found something on the bottom and began to close in on the #7L. It wouldn’t be enough though and Jackson Lewis continued his winning ways in 2024, picking up his second Midwest Legends Dirt Series Presented by Legends.Direct and another win this season. Weber brought home second and the hard-charger spot, up +11 spots on the night. Miklas continued his good run of form for the season with a third place finish. Zellmer and Sullivan rounded out the top five on the night.
Beaver Dam Raceway will be back in action this Tuesday, June 18th, for the rescheduled First Responders and Military night. All active and retired Military and First Responders will receive free carload admission to the races with a valid ID at the gate.
All information on future races and this season can be found on wismotorsports.net and the Beaver Dam Raceway Facebook page.
Article Credit: Zack Krueger
Submitted By: Zack Krueger