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Challenge Series Returning to Cedar Lake Challenge Series Returning to Cedar Lake www www www www www .ther .ther .ther .ther .ther acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com www www www www www .ther .ther .ther .ther .ther acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com acingconnection.com May 2018 Vol. 22, No. 1 Inside... Midwest Memories Going in Circles Frostbuster and Icebreaker Action Frostbuster and Icebreaker Action Racing Nuggets

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Page 1: Frostbuster and Icebreaker ActionFrostbuster and ... · Page 3 May 2018 The Midwest RACING Connection May 2018 Vol. 22, No. 1 P.O. Box 22111 St. Paul MN, 55122 651-451-4036 info@theracingconnection.com

Challenge Series Returning to Cedar LakeChallenge Series Returning to Cedar Lake

wwwwwwwwwwwwwww.ther.ther.ther.ther.theracingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.comwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.ther.ther.ther.ther.theracingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.comacingconnection.com

May 2018 Vol. 22, No. 1

Inside...

Midwest Memories

Going in Circles

Frostbuster and Icebreaker ActionFrostbuster and Icebreaker Action

Racing Nuggets

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Page 2May 2018

Page 3: Frostbuster and Icebreaker ActionFrostbuster and ... · Page 3 May 2018 The Midwest RACING Connection May 2018 Vol. 22, No. 1 P.O. Box 22111 St. Paul MN, 55122 651-451-4036 info@theracingconnection.com

Page 3 May 2018

The MidwestRACINGRACINGRACINGRACINGRACING

ConnectionMay 2018Vol. 22, No. 1

P.O. Box 22111St. Paul MN, 55122

651-451-4036info@theracingconnection.comwww.theracingconnection.com

PublisherDan Plan

Contributing WritersDale P. DanielskiJacklyn Daniels-NuttlemanDean RellerJason SearcyCharlie Spry

PhotographersGuy Adams (815-980-0354)Jeff Blaser (715-498-7544)Martin DeFries (651-346-1199)TJ Harron (608-301-5258)Doug Hornickel (920-563-0993)Stan Kalwasinski (219-923-1475)Tom Loos (715-370-7895)Mark Melchiori (414-463-0131)Bruce Nuttleman (612-860-6622)Vince Peterson (612-419-6372)

The Midwest Racing Connection is published six timesduring the summer racing season by

The Plan Company, Inc.All material is copyrighted 2018 and may not be

reprinted without permission. Subscriptions are $20for six issues. Call 651-451-4036.

Cover photos by: Guy Adams, Jeff Blaser, StanKalwasinski, Vince Peterson, and Dan Plan

Dan Plan

Racing According to PlanRacing According to PlanRacing According to PlanRacing According to PlanRacing According to PlanPublisher's NotePublisher's NotePublisher's NotePublisher's NotePublisher's Note Two sides to every story

CEDAR VIEWELECTRIC, INC.

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Lakeville, MN

For our first issue of the 2018 racing season, Ianticipated having about 6 race nights under my beltby the middle of April. As I’m writing this column, Ihave a grand total of one short track event in mypersonal tally for the month of April. With that in mind,I had to scramble for a topic, and came up with thisone.

I’m often amazed at how two people can watch thesame situation, and interpret the situation two separateways. This holds especially true when it comes toshort track racing. I’ve even sat next to a husband andwife at a short track where a wreck occurred, andboth thought the other driver was at fault. One spousewould say the driver on the outside “right-reared” thedriver to cause the wreck. The other spouse wouldclaim the driver on the inside didn’t leave enoughroom. Who’s right? They probably both are right tosome degree. The driver on the bottom could have leftmore room to avoid an incident. The driver in the top

groove could have lifted. But sometimes neither drivergives an inch and we end up with wreck. That’s whythey are race car drivers and why we enjoy going towatch them

The item that brought this topic to my mind was theSuper Late Model race at Nashville FairgroundsSpeedway on the first weekend in April. I wasn’tthere, but social media and Race Monitor kept meabreast of what was going on. Early in the race, therewas an incident on the track between Steve Wallaceand Mason Mingus. Everyone had their own opinion ofwhat happened, and most focused on placing theblame on Wallace and the post-race altercationbetween the two. I’m not convinced Steve was totallyat fault. As they say, it takes two to tango.

From the video clips I saw, there’s no doubt Mingusand Wallace got into each other multiple times. I heardreports of Wallace “right-reared” Mingus to cause thewreck. The video sure looked to me like he was on thebumper of Mingus and not his right-rear. Could thewreck have been avoided? Why sure it could have, butthen I wouldn’t have had anything to write about.

Miscellaneous news & notes:This season marks the 22nd consecutive year ofprinting this publication. The first ten years underpublisher emeritus Rob Hahn, and now 12 years onour own. Things have changed a lot in the 22 years ofpublication, but we’re still here.

A new addition to the contributors of the paper thisyear will be Stan Kalwasinski. I’ve been aware ofStan’s work since purchasing my first ARTGOprogram as a kid back in the 1970’s. Our first issue ofthe 2018 season has a couple of classic ARTGOpictures from Capital Super Speedway (now known asMadison International Speedway). I’m pretty giddy tosee what Stan has in store for the rest of the season.

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Page 4May 2018

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Jason D. SearcySpring has been delayed but, believe it or not, racing isquickly approaching for us in the Great White North.

The Elko Speedway 53rd season opener will be onMay 19th. The NASCAR weekly racing divisions will

be Late Models, Thunder Cars and Power Stocks withINEX sanctioned divisions for the Legends Cars andBandolero’s. ELKO as per usual will race onSaturday nights through September, they have been aNASCAR sanctioned track for thirty years now andfans will see double features every race night.

The 2018 schedule will featurenine different Eve ofDestruction nights with a greatvariety of racing, entertainmentand music. Here is a list ofsome other notable event nightsto mark on your racingcalendar.

The ARCA series will returnfor the fifth time on July 14thwith a 250-lap race televisedLIVE on MAVTV, the laterdate should bolster the crowd,plus the other ELKO divisionswill race that night as well. The previous ELKO ARCAwinners were Brennan Poole in2012, Frank Kimmel in 2013,

Grant Enfinger in 2014 and Austin Theriault in 2017. Other notable drivers include: Ken Schrader, ErikJones, Steve Arpin, Ryan Reed, Chris Buescher andcurrent Cup driver of the #88 Alex Bowman.

The much anticipated Tribute night will be on August18th, the Late Models will be competing for the DwainBehrens memorial clock and the Thunder Cars will bevying for the Scott Kingery distinctive memorialtrophy.

The Bandit Big Rig Series will make its debut atELKO on Aug 25th, they are also racing at HawkeyeDowns (IA) on June 9th and La Crosse (WI) on July28th. With three races in this general area I believewe will see some local drivers considering racing thisseries. Dirt Modified legend Mark Noble has alreadycommitted to racing full time in the #74. These arefull blown Single Axle Semi-Tractors racing on stocktires, transmissions and engines making it anaffordable series and with support from a localcompany Minimizer it seems to be a series on the risenot just an exhibition event.

2018 Racing Preview

Talkin' Racin' continued on page 5

Austin Theriault captured the 2017 ARCA event at Elko

2018 Racing Preview

Iowa Speedway will once again host several national touring events in 2018

Bruce Nuttleman photo

Scott Swenson photo

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Page 5 May 2018

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The Tenth annual Thunderstruck93 event to help fightLou Gehrig’s disease in memory of Dan Ryan will beon September 22nd this year at Elko Speedway withthe main event being a 93-lap race for the Big 8 LateModels.

Iowa Speedway in Newton (IA) will have three bigweekends of racing this year starting off with theNASCAR Camping World Truck Series Saturdayevening at 5:30pm and Xfinity series Sunday afternoonat 3:30pm on June 16th and 17th. The ARCA serieswill be on Saturday night July 7th at 7:30pm and IndyCars at 1pm on Sunday July 8th at Iowa Speedway. The NASCAR K&N series will race Friday night July27th at 7pm and the Xfinity series returns on Saturdayat 4pm on July 28th. Iowa Speedway is fan friendlyand in my opinion, it provides the best racing on theNASCAR circuit.

The Trans Am series will not be returning to BrainerdInternational Raceway (MN) this year but you can seethem at Road America in Elkhart Lake (WI) August23rd-25th.

I know the weather has been brutal this Spring but wecan be comforted by looking forward to the enjoymentof a great racing schedule this summer.

Talkin' Racin' continued from page 4

The Big 8 Late Models will be the featureddivision at Thunderstruck 93 in 2018.

Chris"Cruiser" Marek looks to defend thetitle on his home turf

Martin DeFries photo

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Page 6May 2018

Going in CirclesGoing in CirclesGoing in CirclesGoing in CirclesGoing in Circles

Charlie Spry

Going In Circles continued on page 7

I just love the first race of the season. However, thisyear it seemed like it would never get here, withweather more fitting for the month of February thanApril. It took until the 21st of April for me to see arace with all of the snow we had in the Midwest inApril.

The first race for me in 2018 came at the RockfordSpeedway for their regular season opener. Lots ofnew cars, new drivers, and new paint jobs wereunveiled.

Alex Papini will return full time to the late model warshere at Rockford with a new car. “It’s a Hamke(chassis) car that I got from Tim Sargent. We didn’tbring it home until a short time ago, and we may be alittle behind, but it’s a good car and it is going to befast,” Said Alex. it seems like he already has it dialedin pretty good, as he took the feature win on theopening night. I’m sure he will dial it in even more andbe even faster in the coming weeks.

D.J. Smith seemed to have a good car right out of thebox. He has a different paint color (blue) and a new

number (81). “Maybe the change is good,” Said D.J.“The car seems pretty good and is working well.’ Henoted this before the racing started, then backed thatup with a heat race win and a good run in the featureuntil he got involved in a skirmish which set him back.He and his crew put a lot of time and effort in theracing stuff and he is going to win some features thisseason.

Jake Vanoskey made hard contact with the tire at the“point’ at the pit entrance at turn three during thefeature, which caused considerable damage to his car.Driver is OK, however, and that is the main thing.

Hope this team can get back out at some point thisseason.

Jake Gille has new white colors and channel 13WREX sponsorship. In the past, local Rockfordtelevision stations had always sponsored cars here,then kind of got away from it, now many are returningwith sponsorship dollars.

In the American Short Tracker division, FrancBeldowski has purchased the championship car fromZach Rodriguez, and looks to be the driver to beat thisseason. “Fearless Franc” and teammate Melody Boylehave late model racer Steve Rubeck as car chief, andthis team looks very strong.

AST racer David Russell Jr. has a neat story to tellwith a car that he is racing, which has returned to itshome. “This is the car that my Uncle Don built andraced back in 1993. The front and rear sections arenew, but the mid section is the original car,” saidDavid. “It got sold and went through several owners,and I always kind of kept track of it. Right at the endof the season in 2017 I had a chance to get it back andI jumped at it. It is painted exactly like Don had it. Ihave my own sponsors of course, but otherwise it isthe same. I am doing this as a tribute to my Dad,Grandpa, and Uncle, who got me started in this. Thecar is faster than my old car.” The car looks good out

Guy Adams/HotShot Photography

Guy Adams/HotShot Photography

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Page 7 May 2018

Going In Circles continued from page 6

there and is performing well, as he won a heat raceand finished second in the feature.

The Sportsman division looks to be wide open thisyear. Several rookies will be joining the field, includingformer Roadrunner top runner Richard SchinderlingJr., who is wheeling a very sharp car. Also new are

Adam Cartwright, who hasonly raced a few times priorin this division, TerranceRobinson, who likewise onlyran a couple of times in thepast, and John Featherston.Cartwright looked good inwinning the feature onopening night.

The Roadrunner class couldalso be wide open thisseason. Veterans ArlynRoush and Chad Lounsburybattled for the win on openingnight, with Roush winning.Robby Robinson will beracing here this season afterracing primarily at Tomah-Sparta the past couple of

years and he will be doing his share of winning aswell.The Bandit class will be joining the field quite often onSaturday nights this season, in addition to racing onWednesdays. A good field of cars from varied placeswere on hand for the opener, with veteran NickSchmidt getting the win on opening night.

Overall, it was a fun night. A great way to end thiscabin fever and get another season underway. Did Imention how much I enjoy opening night?

Guy Adams/HotShot Photography

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Page 8May 2018

Upcoming EventsMay 19

Swap Meet - Thermon KingBloomington, MN

Icebreaker at Dells Raceway Park

Jeff Blaser photoJeff Blaser photo

Jeff Blaser photo Jeff Blaser photo

Dells Raceway Park kicked off their 2018 racing season with the annual Icebreaker Super Late Model special, along with the Great NorthernSportsman Series. A large field of Super Lates were in attendance, with defending ARCA Midwest Tour Champion, and current Xfinity driver

Ty Majeski picking up the win. Dalton Zehr and Sklyar Holzhausen rounded out the podium. The GNSS main event was captured by JasonThoma, with Dave Trute and David Borntrager rounding out the top 3.

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Page 9 May 2018

Like us on Facebook, watch us on YouTube, or follow us on Twitterwww.facebook.com/themidwestracingconnection

www.youtube.com/theracingconnection@MidwestRace

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Page 10May 2018

WISSOTA Challenge SeriesReturns to Cedar Lake Speedway

Cedar Lake Speedway will host itsfirst WISSOTA sanctioned event inabout a dozen years. No, hell hasn’tfrozen over, and yes, the Cedar Lakeweekly shows will still run under theNASCAR banner. In speaking withCedar Lake’s Brad Both, “This eventis a collaborative effort by both partiesto bolster the Dirt Late Model divisionin the area.”

The WISSOTA Challenge Seriesevent is scheduled to take place onSaturday August 18th, and will be partof the NASCAR Dash Series. TheNASCAR Dash Series events alreadyfeature an increased. With the additionof a WISSOTA Challenge Seriespoints event, the event is sure toattract the top regional dirt Late Modelpilots. Defending WISSOTAChallenge Series champion, JohnKaanta, also captured the 2017NASCAR Dash title at Cedar LakeSpeedway and will be one of thedrivers to watch. John Kaanta (85) and Pat Doar (11) battle for position in 2017. Kaanta would go on to pick up

championships with the WISSOTA Challenge Series Tour and the NASCAR Dash Series.

Vince Peterson photo

By Dan Plan

Drivers from throughout the upper-Midwest will converge at Cedar Lake Speedway for the WISSOTA Challenge Series event inAugust. Four-wide action (left photo) and top drivers such as Jimmy Mars and James "Nitro" Giossi are expected to be on hand.

Vince Peterson photoVince Peterson photo

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Page 11 May 2018

Frostbuster Kick Starts 2018 Season For Panitzke

Nick Panitzke started off his LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway Late Model title defense by picking up where he left off; victory lane. Panitzke setfast time for the day and took the lead early in the main event to pick up the win in the annual Frostbuster event. Other winners for the dayincluded: Chris Weber – Sportsmen, Adam Moore – Thunderstox, Clayton Hassig – Street Stox and Brandon Lamoine – Hornets.

Dan Plan photo Dan Plan photo

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Page 12May 2018

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Page 13 May 2018

by Stan Kalwasinski

Midwest Memories

Stan Kalwasinski Photo

Stan Kalwasinski Photo

Before the 1979 racing seasonbegan, John McKarns and hiswife, Sue, purchased the four-year-old ARTGO Racing latemodel stock car series fromChicago businessman, Art

Frigo. Frigo and McKarns hadput together the idea in 1975 of

a Midwestern late modelspecial events series in about aone month’s time, presenting

the very first ARTGO event atIllinois’ Grundy County

Speedway on September 7,1975 with Tom Reffner

winning the Wayne CarterClassic. Under the new

ownership of the McKarns’,the ARTGO series would see

10 events held in 1979 withDick Trickle being named the

year’s champion.

The first ARTGO event of the1979 season was held at thethen-named Capital Super

Speedway in Oregon, Wis., ona cold, snowy Sunday – April

8. Before the afternoon’sracing began, (from left toright) John McKarns, TomReffner, Art Frigo, DaveWatson and Dick Trickle

posed for a photo. Reffnerwas named the first ARTGO

champion in 1975 with Watsonclaiming the title in 1976,

Trickle in 1977 and Reffneragain in 1978.

After the 1979 season opening50-lap feature race on theWisconsin half-mile, race

winner Reffner poses withMcKarns with remnants ofsnow still evident along the

back straightaway.

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Page 14May 2018

Tom Carlson wasn’t the only name from the past tosurface with a race car at La Crosse for theFrostbuster. Kevin Nuttleman, the driver with the mostweekly racing wins (106) at La Crosse was backbehind the wheel too. He was slated to run duringOktoberfest in the NASCAR Late Model division,piloting the car of Justin Zmyewski, but rainbombarded the festivities that night, negating the 10-time track champ’s bid. Zmyewski offered up his carfor the La Crosse season opener to Nuttleman again.

A drive train failure cut his racing short during thefeature, but according to my sources, the racing bughas bit Nuttleman again and he may very well show upto run more this season at La Crosse in Zmyewski’scar—provided his work on the farm allows himenough time to do so.

It’s hard for racers to retire. They get twitchy handsand dilated eyes when they hear the sound of enginesroaring and their nostrils are permeated by the headyscent of racing fuel. Sometimes it’s just the burgers atLa Crosse Speedway that cause those symptoms, butfor true racers—horsepower is a legit addiction.

Another hot shoe from days gone by that has shownup periodically to run at La Crosse was there for theopener—Brent Kirchner—and he rounded out the top

Racing NuggetsRacing NuggetsRacing NuggetsRacing NuggetsRacing Nuggets

Jacklyn Daniels-Nuttleman

Raising the Bar & a Burger at La Crosse

There’s been a lot of gloom and doom beingperpetuated about auto racing over the course of thelast several years. For some people, it’s become a bitof a sport to bash on the sport itself. Despite the vitriolthat drips from the pages of social media some dayswhen keyboard jockeys take aim at drivers and racetracks, if you look to La Crosse FairgroundsSpeedway—you can certainly see that the tide mayjust be starting to turn.

In a day when some tracks are struggling to have 10or 12 Late Models show up for their weeklyprogram—La Crosse Speedway had 29 on hand forthe Frostbuster—their season opener on Sunday, April22nd. Now granted, all 29 NASCAR Late Modelsmay not show up every week at La Crosse, but that isstill a very healthy number—with steep competition—for a season opener that could translate into someexcellent car counts for the long haul.

Speaking of the long haul—the reigning La CrosseNASCAR Late Model champion & 2017 Wisconsin

state champion is back making the nearly 300-mileround-trip commute to defend that title. Nick Panitzkemakes the trek each week from Lonsdale, MN toWest Salem, WI to run because he likes thecompetition at the track. He showed he hadn’t lost onebit of his stride, starting the season off with fast time inqualifying—and then backing it up with the featurewin.

Despite finishing second to Panitzke—both in theNASCAR Late Model feature and qualifying—SteveCarlson is poised to reclaim the crown. Obviously,with multiple championships to his name, including the2007 NASCAR Whelen All-American NationalChampionship, Carlson is capable of winning. He’sback and focused this season with a new car and ashe continues to dial the new machine in, he willdefinitely be a threat to capture his share of checkeredflags this year—and maybe even reclaim the title.

Reigning Elko Speedway & 2017 Minnesota statechampion, Jacob Goede even made it to La Crosse forthe season opener and says he will also be comingback whenever possible to compete this year. Heposted a third place finish in the Frostbuster feature—and that was even after sustaining some damage whenhe got an unwanted piece of the carnage from an on-track incident in front of him.

Another Carlson nabbed 4th in the NASCAR LateModel feature—Michael, son of Steve, but the father-son duo weren’t the only Carlsons in the field. Tom,older brother to Steve and uncle toMichael was also back on track at LaCrosse for the season opener and plansto run several more times in 2018. It’sbeen quite a while since he’s beenbehind the wheel at La Crosse—havingtasted plenty of success at the track inthe 80s and 90s. He picked up a 9th placefinish in the feature, so there’s definitelysomething to build upon for his next run.

Racing Nuggets continued on page 15

Kevin Nuttleman (right) returned to competition for the Frostbuster anda trio of Carlsons at Lacrosse Fairgrounds Speedway (below)

Dan Plan photos

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Page 15 May 2018

five with his feature finish.The field was peppered withnames from the past for theFrostbuster: Tony Bagstad,Todd Oliver, KenChristianson, Mike Ehde—allregulars from back in the 90s& early 2000s. It was almostlike a throwback of sorts atLa Crosse.

Even Bobby Wilberg,reigning champion fromMadison Speedway threw hishat into the ring at La Crosse,and plans to show upperiodically wheneverpossible this season in orderto give himself more races togarner more points in theNational standings for theNASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

Yes, the competition is quitethick at La Crosse thisseason—and I haven’t evendelved much into the youngercontingent who are hungry tomake a name for themselves,or even the semi-regularsfrom the track, some ofwhom have feature wins—and even championships totheir credit.

It all adds up to what promises to be a whale of aseason for the NASCAR Late Model division at LaCrosse. When you add in stellar competition in thesupport classes of racing—you’ve got yourself a jam-packed night of entertainment for the entire family.You can judge for yourself when the track resumes

regular season racing on May 12th. They’ll sell you thewhole seat—but you’ll only need the edge! And aburger. You’ll definitely need a burger at La CrosseSpeedway.

Racing Nuggets frompage 14

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2018 Madison International Speedway champion, Bobby Wilberg,(top photo) will take the show on the road in 2018.

Brent Kirchner (bottom photo) was on hand for the Frostbuster.

Dan Plan photo

Dan Plan photo

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Page 16May 2018

Auto Racing Facts,Auto Racing Facts,Auto Racing Facts,Auto Racing Facts,Auto Racing Facts,Observances andObservances andObservances andObservances andObservances and

OpinionsOpinionsOpinionsOpinionsOpinions

Dale P. Danielski

continued on page 17

It was a good day here April 22nd, 2018. First andforemost, racing action finally got underway at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway, West Salem, WI.,after three big snow storms tried to put the kabosh onany outdoor activity for the month. With sunny skies,temps in the ’60s, racing action commenced withplenty of shiny new race cars on hand to do battle,some with names we remember from the past andothers now making their names known in the sport.

NASCAR Late Models were the top division on thebill and 29 of them turned out for the Frostbuster race

here at the 5/8ths mile paved oval track. It appearsthis year will be a repeat of last year at least as far ascontenders go, with last season’s track champion, theup and coming Late Model racer, Nick Panitzke andsecond in points, seasoned veteran Steve Carlsonstarting out the day one and two in qualifying. As itturned out, that would be the finishing order in the 25-lap main event on the day as well, as Panitzke took thetop spot on lap 5 and stayed ahead of Carlson thebalance of the race. Following the two at the finishwas Jacob Goede, Mike Carlson, Brent Kirchner andJerimy Wagner. A first lap skirmish between TyReedy and Bobby Wilberg really shook up the line upfor the restart and several top runners suffereddamage. Panitzke and Carlson were actually forced totake evasive action winding through the grass andsnow emerging relatively unscathed. Others weren’tso lucky as former track Champion, Brad Powellsuffered damage but returned to place 10th. Reedy,due to the initial contact and eventual bout with thewall, was definitely out with major damage. On therestart, Cole Howland took the lead, but his race wasshort lived as he scraped the wall on lap 12 putting himout for the day. After that things went reasonablysmooth and no other major consequences on the trackoccurred.

In the other featured divisions of racing, it was ChrisWeber taking the 15 lap Sportsman Feature win overfast qualifier Steve Bachman and Tom Luethe.Thunderstox main event action found perennial winnerand champion, Adam Moore first followed by JoeyJohnson and Jason Bolster. Street Stocks were also onthe card and it was Clayton Haessig taking that winfollowed by Chris Larson and Matt Moore. TheHornet Feature winner was Brandon Lemoinefollowed by Nate Towner and Jake Schomers.Action in all the divisions was competitive and with

temps jumping right into summer like highs we cananticipate some heated battles the rest of the way!

Here and there...One of those drivers we mentionedon hand from past racing, was Kevin Nuttleman,competing in the NASCAR Late Model Division.Nuttleman had a commitment to race the JustinZmyewski car in last Years Oktoberfest event, butwith that being rained out competed here today.Nuttleman, if as he indicated has competed in his lastrace as of today, did not end it all on too high of anote. Mechanical issues forced the popular racer whohas won 106 Main events through the years at thetrack out of the race on lap 19 relegating him to a 22ndplace finish. Scraping the wall at some point in theevent, Nuttleman recalled, “Yea, we got racing hardwith Tony (Bagstad) and I got a little high.) Noting thedamage on the side of the car, Nuttleman added, “Thenumber has to be taken off anyway (From #NJ4 toZymewsky #97) we just sped up the process!”Always entertaining on and off the track, Nuttleman isleaving the sport with his sense of humorintact...Bobby Wilberg, many time champion driverindicated he plans to race 8 or so times at Lax.Speedway this year. “We can’t get enough shows inat Madison (MIS, Oregon, WI.) to have a chance atthe NASCAR Wisconsin State Championship, so weare racing here too.) Wilberg with his very successfulcareer in racing didn’t make many friends on Sundayas both Ty Reedy (feature race wreck involvingWilberg) and Adam Degenhardt (heat race contact

Dale's pictures from the pastKevin Nuttleman racing at Lax Speedway in 2009. Brad Powell #43 racing at Lax. Speedway in 2010.

Dale P. Danielski photos

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Racing Facts, Observances and Opinionsfrom page 16

with Wilberg) both pointed the finger of fault atBobby...Speaking of old time veteran drivers, it was abattle royal for the top position in heat race numbertwo between the oldest Late Model driver at the track,Don “Thunder Turner”, and the second oldest at thetrack, back in racing after 18 years, Tom Carlson. Thetwo were side by side coming out of the 4th turnheading toward the checkered flag when Carlson wenta bit too wide allowing Turner to cross the finish linefirst by just inches! The 130 some years of life’sexperiences between the two most certainly hadsomething to do with their running up front...Carlsonalso had some others in the field a bit nervous prior tothe start of a race as he was weaving back and forthon the racetrack. According to Carlson, “I waswondering what the car was doing and when the tireswere going to come in.” Ah, yes, a great way to setthe tone with fellow drivers heading into another raceseason.

Melissa Rusch is competing in a NASCAR LateModel this season, a car that Cam Dezelske drove lastyear. She placed a respectable 19th out of the 28feature starters in her debut.

Tony Bagstad, another one of those veteran driversreturning to racing, plans to turn his NASCAR LateModel over to his son this year at the track. “I didn’twant to throw him to the Wolves here today, so we’ll

get him going lateron.We see where TyMajeski returnedhome to take theIcebreaker 100 atDells Raceway Park,Wis. Dells, WI.,Sunday April 22nd.Following Majeskiafter 100 laps wereDalton Zehr andSkylar Holzhausen.

Hoping to check outevents coming up atGolden SandsSpeedway, Plover,WI., Saturday, April28th, The “Thaw”,and at Tomah-SpartaSpeedway, Tomah,WI., Sundayafternoon, April 29th.The Tomah track isunder new promotionwith Greg Oliver atthe helm for 2018.Oliver has scheduled a Super Late Model race at thetrack for September 16th, the first such type of eventin over 20 years. Adding bang for the buck for thisshow, is the fact it will be a Central Wisconsin RacingAssociation “Stars to Legends Tour” race honoringDick Trickle...May racing will find us at the CWRA

Stars to Legends Tour,Albert Getzloff Memorialevent to be held at GoldenSands Speedway May18th. That will be the Touropener for the group.Marshfield MotorSpeedway, Marshfield,WI., will also be having aStars to Legends Tour raceon May 26th...

And in the quote of thecolumn department; “I thinkit’s fair game being able torace that way” Kyle Buschdescribing his bump and runtactic at the Bristol, TN.,Cup race here recently that

Dick Trickle in his 1963 Ford races Dave Marcis in his 1957 Chevy in 1966.(Bob Bergeron photo.)

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resulted in leader Kyle Larson being forced into nomans land and Busch motoring on to the win. Really?

And in the looking back category, back on October7th, 2010, it was Brad Powell winning the 40-lapfeature for La Crosse Late Models as part of theOktoberfest racing weekend. Following Powell were,Steve Carlson, Brent Kirchner, Shawn Pfaff andKevin Nuttleman. Looking back to July 6th, 2002, itwas Kevin Nuttleman winning the 25 Lap Late Modelfeature at Lax. Speedway. Following Nuttleman wereCharlie Menard, Tony Bagstad, Todd Korish and TimNelson. And back on April 28th, 1990 it was NickCarlson winning the 25 lap NASCAR Late Modelfeature at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway nosingout Kevin Nuttleman for the win. Heat race wins wentto Johnny Spaw, Tim Nelson and Nuttleman. TerryMiller won the Beer Stox Feature.

Questions, comments, opinions and other informationwelcome at Starmaker Multimedia 967 10th Ave N SteA, Onalaska, WI 54650 608-783-5827 or [email protected]

Bonus picture from the past

Dale P. Danielski photo

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