As the regular racing season starts to wind down, with High School football in the air, the mid week specials also start to dry up. However, there are those few tracks that run mid week shows all year long and they proceed right up to the Labor Day weekend when most wrap up their racing seasons.
One of those is the Eagle River Speedway located near the resort town of Eagle River Wisconsin in the big woods of northern Wisconsin. It appears that much of the vacation season has wrapped up here as there were many vacancies noted at the local hotels and motels and things seemed significantly quieter than the last time I was in town. With many of the vacationers in this area from southern Wisconsin and from parts even farther to the South, many of their schools returned into session this week so vacations must be wrapped up before that happens. To the credit of the local and area race fans, even with the tourist dollars not available in big numbers for this week, there was still a very nice crowd on hand for the races on this Tuesday with with one more Tuesday night show to be run plus for the first time, a two day show over the Labor Day weekend.
The program on this night would be their regular show plus one in that the Pure Stocks, a class that races on and off here, would be racing on this night. I'm not sure why they don't race them weekly, actually, as they big a field of cars equivalent to most of the other classes and do have a number of local entrants racing. Interestingly, and something not seem very often anymore, two of the drivers that raced in the Pure Stock class actually also raced in the Street Stock class too. I'm not sure how that works for entry fees etc but I saw it done on this night.
In fact, one of the drivers to do this, Jason Melton, actually only finished one position lower in the Street Stock feature than he did in the Pure Stock feature. This tells me that either the rules between the two classes are very close or that the Street Stocks aren't very fast. You can be the judge on that.
Classes racing would include B Mods, Stock Cars and both Junior Sprints and Micro Sprints along with those mentioned above. Most classes had enough cars for two heats although both Stock Cars and Limited Late Models had just the one heat. The car count was right around fifty.
Racing would begin just a few minutes after the advertised time of 7 pm and the program would move right along all night with the final checkered waving just around the 10 pm point. The track was in what I would say perhaps the best condition that I had ever seen it in. Despite a strong South wind blowing right in our faces, there was just the littlest amount of dust flying into the grandstands off the red clay surface. They used a strategy of misting the cushion after just about every race for a lap or so and then using the next event's cars to roll in that moisture and that seemed to be the ticket to success. Two of the main events featured some three wide racing for the lead and that is rare on this track which is a bit tight and narrow.
The racing was exceedingly smooth on this night too with all nine qualifying events running off without a single yellow flag. In fact, we were into the eleventh race of the night before the first yellow flew and that was for a minor spin. Later there would be a couple of grinding crashes, including one that eliminated nearly half the Street Stock field but overall it was a very smooth night of racing.
After the heats, a brief break was taken to freshen the track and then the feature race action began. The Stock Car feature would see Trentin Bell lead the first half of the race after starting on the outside pole. Point leader David Blackberg and Jonathan Miller would gradually catch him as the race went green to checkered. Just past the halfway point the chasers caught the lead and they went three wide down the front chute with Bell the meat in the sandwich. Blackberg used the outside line to grab the lead and despite plenty of pressure from Miller, he would drive home for the win. Blackberg was not using his regular ride on this night and had secured a ride with another driver, so he did a good job winning in the unfamiliar car. No explanation was given as to why he was in a different car and since I wasn't that familiar with them, I failed to get an answer either.
The Limited Late Model feature would only start five cars yet they managed to exchange the top spot five times among four of the drivers. Josh Nevoraski was the leader early but Travis Friske caught him and would pass for the top spot. Then Austin Zdroik would catch those two and they would go three wide for the top spot with Austin grabbing the lead for a lap before Friske retook the top spot.
The passing wasn't done quite yet though as Austin retook the lead when suddenly point leader Jason Zdroik caught up and he would make what would be the winning pass so after. Austin Zdroik would settle for second with Navoraski nipping Friske by inches for third.
Jason Zdroik is part of the family that owns the track here and along with racing in two classes, he does the watering and grading of the race track as well as running his own well drilling business so he is busy in the Summer.
Hope Eisel, recently returned to the track following a flip at another track, would lead the first lap of the Pure Stock feature. One lap later though, Brent Mindock would storm up from the fifth starting spot to take the lead and once in front, he would cruise to the win. The battle was for second as point leader Devin Fries needed to keep Melton in sight to retain the point lead and since this was the last regular season show for the Pure Stocks, it was do or die.
Fries got shuffled back early but he recovered and would drive past Melton for second late in the race, thus assuring himself the point title in the Pure Stocks.
Dave Dishaw would take the lead on lap one of the M Mod feature and would lead the rest of the way for the win. An early crash would eliminate Jason Zdroik and thus his efforts at taking a pair of wins. Dishaw was cruising up front but when Jesse Aho got into second, he would make a determined run at the leader. Closing to within a car length on the final lap Dishaw would protect the low line and keep Aho behind him to take the win as the pair of Upper Michigan drivers would finish first and second. Finishing third would be the legendary local racer, Beetle Bailey, age 75.
Wrapping up the night was the Street Stock feature. Colin Joliff, "The Flying Finn" would lead the opening few laps but he was running a wild line that would almost cause him to spin on lap after lap. Finally the inevitable happened and he looped it leaving turn four as he was crossed up in heavy traffic and collected five other cars in a grinding crash that would see four of the six done for the night.
Wyatt McIntyre would inherit the lead but just one lap later Jason Eisel would make the winning pass and then pull away for the win over McIntyre and Quentin Morrison.
The crowd left satisfied with an interesting and relatively quick show on a Tuesday night and I'm sure they will be back to watch their friends and neighbors race again next week. Thanks to the Zdroik family and track publicist Joe Verdegan for their help.
In closing, I would like to add my name to those mourning the loss of Bill Haglund. I first met Bill when he was second in charge at IMCA and they were trying to get the Modified division going in our part of the country. Then for years, I worked with him on race papers from Hawkeye to Mid States as well as running into him at tracks all over the country.
In recent years I would often see him at book signings and at tracks selling his books, of which I have all of them and have thoroughly enjoyed reading and re reading them. His loss is a profound one for those of us in racing and particularly those of us trying to preserve the heritage of this sport. I will miss seeing him at the track and reading his responses to various things going on in the world in general. best wishes to Judy and the entire family and friends.
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