Avila Walks Out of Eagle River Ten Grand Richer

 Night two of the first annual Rumble at the River was held on Tuesday night, August 11th at the Eagle River Speedway in Eagle River Wisconsin. Set to be determined on Tuesday night would be the winner of the inaugural ten grand plus B Mod feature along with a second full program of the week for the IMCA Stock Cars plus also a full show for the United Street Stocks of eastern Wisconsin.

Arrival at the track brought news that there had been a big shape up in the finish of the second B Mod feature race on Monday night. Apparent winner Brady Harshbarger was disqualified for having a motor with too much compression, apparently registering far too high on the meter. The announcement was not made until today because they allowed the car to sit overnight and the motor to cool, trying to give Harshbarger as much flexibility as possible but when the motor was checked twice more and registered badly both times, track officials were forced to disqualify him from the race and he did leave the facility. 

I would assume he must now sit out for a period of time and probably pay a fine before he returns to racing. The result of the disqualification moved everyone up on position and allowed Harley Dais to then move into the top five, avoid having to run Last Chance races and allowing him to draw for perhaps the pole position if he was lucky. Dais would eventually redraw the seven spot for the fifty lap main with Jared Siefert, who by the way is trying to sell his Late Model, redrew the pole. Four drivers did not return to race on Tuesday and of course, there were no new drivers due to event rules. 

Five Last Chance Heats and a pair of B Features would quality the rest of the starting field and with local driver Ryan Brown earning the promoter provisional, there would be twenty five starters for the main, probably as many drivers as they have ever started in a race at this track. 

Wisconsin has  rolled out the welcome mat on repeated occasions for Matt Avila with back to back ten grand wins at special events at 141 Speedway. And after Tuesday night, he could add Eagle River as another track that he conquered, having headed back to Iowa with another ten grand after dominating the feature race. 

The thing that some feared when this race was announced was that with its extremely tight racing surface and particularly with many unfamiliar drivers trying to get around it, that things might get wild with much crashing and bashing. Monday's show went fairly well with not more than the normal racing type incidents going on. However , with the big money on the line Tuesday, it was still to be determined just how the racing would play out. 

To be quite honest, Tuesday night's feature race was not particularly entertaining. There were so many yellows, eleven in all, that the race was quite broken with nine green flag laps in a row being the longest stretch of all out racing until the end of the race. It did go on for quite some time and there were numerous spins, flat tires and at least a couple of multi car crashes. No doubt much of that was due to the fact that so much money was on the line and with so many drivers not having many laps here, it was the formula for this type of race to take place. 

Iowa drivers dominated with the top two finishers being Hawkeyes and they were followed by a pair of Wisconsin drivers and then one for the U.P. of Michigan. The record will show that there were three different leaders of the race with Siefert leading the first two laps before he was passed by Jake Sachau who had started fourth. It took Avila a number of laps to get into a challenging position after he started eighth but he gradually worked his way forward, taking advantage of the numerous yellow flags to gain ground. 

By the fourth yellow on lap eighteen, he had cracked the top five and then quickly, in the next two laps, passed both Cole Czarneski and Marcus Dunbar to move into third. One lap later he got Siefert and the race was on for the lead. 

By this point the track was getting very slippery and while Sachau chose to continue running the cushion, Avila switched it up to running low down the chutes and then trying to beat Sachau up the track in the corners. He tried this several times with Sachau crossing him over but finally, just as the race hit the halfway point. Avila's cross over worked and he took over the lead. Siefert was still third at the halfway point, ahead of Shane Bahr and Tyler Vernon. 

The second half of the race went much smoother with only the two yellow flags and more consistent racing but by this time we were down to about half the starting field still racing. The track did go one groove at this point with a lot of laps on the surface and even Sachau gave up trying the cushion, moving to hug the inside tires and hoping that Avila would either screw up or a lapped car might take him out. 

Neither happened though as Avila maintained his lead and didn't have to deal with much slower traffic. He came home the winner with a comfortable cushion over Sachau. Only twelve drivers were running at the finish. 

The Stock Car feature was led from start to finish by Kyle Frederick who dominated all twenty laps. Mitch Stankowski ran second for a number of laps and pushed the leader until Czarneski decided to put on a show. 

Starting tenth, he moved up to the outside of the track, running where no one else would tread, and he quickly made that work and after driving by Hot Rod Snellenberger, he moved to the second spot. 

The race then turned into a good three driver duel with Czarneski and Snellenberger pushing Frederick for the lead. It seemed like Czarneski had the momentum but once he got to second, he seemed to be treading water, not having the forward drive that he has shown earlier and instead of battling Frederick for the lead, he was fighting to stay in front of Hot Rod. 

Frederick, meanwhile, was not bothered by all the other action. He hugged the inside tries, never made a mistake and was very consistent, driving on for the victory. And for a driver with a cushion driving inclination, he never got off the bottom here for two straight nights. Snellenberger drove his way past Czarneski to take second with Stankowski and Jason Zdroik completing the top five. 

The Street Stock feature was a thriller with Quentin Morrison making a last lap pass to get the  win. Morrison had led the majority of the race but lost his lead on the white flag lap, only to make a comeback and lead the only lap that really matters. 

Twenty one drivers started the Street Stock feature with Josh Joslin leading the opening lap. However, he couldn't keep his car on the bottom groove and one lap later Morrison, who started third, was able to drive under Joslin and take over the lead. 

Nick Allard had worked his way up to third behind Jake Brickner at the midpoint of the race and when he made the decision to go up and try the cushion, Allard was really able to pick up speed. Slowly he gained on and then passed Brickner for second and then went after the inside tire hugging Morrison for the lead. 

A slowing driver created a yellow with just four laps to go, just what Allard was looking for. As Morrison continued to guard the inside, Allard again went to the cushion and as the field took the white flag, he surged into the lead. 

However, as good as his run was, the last lap was not his friend. He got too hot into turn three as they raced side by side, badly spun his tires and that allowed the consistent Morrison to drive back under him and take the checkers first. Brickner would settle for third with point leader Jason Eisel and Joslin following. 

In summary, this was a bold move by track owner Pat Zdroik to schedule a race of this magnitude. They did a very good job of preparation however, and you never wouldn't have known that they weren't experienced in running these kind of races. The field of drivers was certainly acceptable , especially for an unknown commodity. The crowd was very large on Tuesday so the local race fans bought into their plan. In the coming months I guess we sill see whether they were satisfied with the event and choose to do it once again next year. 

In any event, thanks go out to track owner Pat Zdroik, all his employees and especially Dawn and Mickey Nosser along with track announcer Joe Verdegan for all their help.

 

Sachau and Harshbarger Top Eagle River Prelims; Stankowski Stock Car Winner

The Eagle River Speedway in Eagle River Wisconsin was the scene of the opening night of the first annual Rumble At The River on Monday night, August 10th, a B Mod two day special that features a fifty lap, ten thousand, two hundred and fifty dollar top prize on Tuesday night.  

Along with the B Mods, the IMCA Stock Cars are running a full show on both Monday and Tuesday night and the local Street Stocks, running Wisconsin Unified Street Stock rules, will also be competing on Tuesday night. 

This is a huge show for Eagle River Speedway and its owners, Pat and Patti Zdroik as never before has this track attempted such a large event, both in terms of drivers competing and in terms of prize money paid out. 

The race track is in a rural area, hacked out of the woods about one mile West of Eagle River Wisconsin and just across the street from the Wisconsin River. Eagle River is a small town with a population of just over two thousand people, located in the North woods of Wisconsin and most famous for the World Championships of Snowmobile racing that are held at another track, the derby track right in town. This is a busy area in the Summer though, with tourists from all over the Midwest on hand to enjoy the boating, fishing, swimming, biking and all things outdoors. 

The Eagle River Speedway has been around since the mid 1970's, first owned by Ken Glembin, hence the original name of the track, KG Raceway. It has had several owners since, with the Zdroiks buying the track several years ago and making some considerable improvements to the facility during that time. They have added classes, cleared up rules, got sanctioned by IMCA for Stock Cars and started to put on special events for Midgets and Sprint Cars. But this is the first time they have ever attempted such a big purse race before. 

The B Mods are a combination of rules, with IMCA, WISSOTA and USRA cars all on hand. Each group must run their own rules package with everyone using either G-60 Hoosiers or American Racer G-60 tires as tires are always the sticking point and the WISSOTA drivers are the ones at this event that get shorted, not being able to use their own tires that are deemed to be too good, I guess. In any event, the three seem to be relatively equal overall and the uniqueness of this track probably cancels out any advantage that one group might have over the other. There certainly seem to be drivers from all groups here on hand, with the purse large enough to overcome any rules shortcomings that some might believe. 

Tech is always a fun thing at an event like this and pre tech resulted in one driver being sent home when the body on his car allegedly did not conform. of course much more aggressive tech inspection will take place after the big money race on Tuesday night. 

The purse in this race certainly caught the eye of many drivers, no matter what the sanctioning body with a top prize of $10,250, $5250 for second, $3000 for third and $500 just to start. For that reason, fifty seven B Mod drivers signed in to race on Monday night from as far away as Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska and Canada. IMCA drivers like Sachau, Reimers, Zdroik, Czarneski, Avila, White and Woodard were joined by WISSOTA drivers like Vernon, Dishaw, Simpson, Rodin, Dalbeck, Truscott,  Koehler and Kitchner while USRA had Wheeler and Dais while wildcards like Siefert and Jake Timm were also part of the field. 

The format for this event saw all drivers draw a number and on set of twelve lap heats was held with the ASCS passing points system used which I believe rewards gaining positions but also docking points for losing spots. The top thirty in total points move into the twin qualifying features, straight up and then a pair of B Features would add five more drivers to each feature, making them twenty car shows which on this tight track, is about all the cars that can be run although I believe Tuesday night's finale is scheduled to start twenty four. 

The top five in each feature make the big show and then all ten will redraw on Tuesday night for starting positions. Everyone else will run again on Tuesday using the same format to fill out the rest of the starting field. 

After a practice night on Sunday, no hot laps were held before the show on Monday night and a one spin rule was used for both the heat races and B Features to try and move things along. 

One worry as this race was announced was that on this tight, less than quarter mile oval that is also uniquely shaped as well as being short, that the program would turn into just a crash fest and that likely kept the entries down some for this year. 

However, based on opening night, that didn't turn out to be the case as there were no more yellows than a normal night of racing at many tracks. Now, we haven't yet seen what the big feature will produce, but so far so good. 

Ironically, the one driver knocked out of racing action was George Dalbeck from Wakefield Mi. He is a weekly racer here, has been one of the big supporters of this event as well as being a sponsor but just one lap into the first heat and an overly anxious driver behind him turned him, creating a multi car crash that took out the front end of Dalbeck's MB. 

The twin twenty five lap qualifying features saw Nick Koehler start on the pole as the passing points lead and he then led the first fourteen laps of the race with Sachau starting third and taking second early. Koehler was riding the rim around the track while Sachau worked low. 

A yellow flag completely changed things as Koehler found the top side to be going away as Sachau drove past him on the restart and would then lead the rest of the way for the win. Koehler faded all the way back to fourth before he could get in line with Chris Budzban and Jesse Denome also passing him. Nick Avila rounded out the top five. However, it didn't really matter on the finishing position as long as you were in the top five. Four yellows slowed the first feature, most for one car spins. 

The second qualifier followed very much the same scenario as the first race. After Brady Harshbarger got the jump on the opening lap, Michael Truscott went to the cushion and drove past into the lead. He then led for the first half of the race until the top side again started to slow down and Harshbarger, who was putting around on the inside, was able to drive under Truscott and take over the lead with Shane Bahr also passing. 

There was one unfortunate late crash that had an impact on the finishing order. Following a late spin that set up a two lap dash to the finish, a scenario that often creates problems, much of the field got stacked up in turn one on the restart with Caleb Woodard, who was in the top five, leaving the track on the hook. 

Harshbarger would continue on to take the win with Bahr second. Truscott, who had faded back to fourth fought his way forward one spot with Marcus Dunbar and Jared Siefert completing the top five. All except the top ten will race once again on Tuesday. 

The IMCA sanctioned Stock Cars were also a part of the program and a nice field of nineteen showed up on a Monday night to race. 

All nineteen started the main event but there was drama just before the start when pole sitter, Hot Rod Snellenberger, failed to show up on the track. Snellenberger, who is by far the driver to beat here, would likely have killed the field had he started up front and just as the green was about to wave, Hot Rod came roaring out of the pits and went to the tail of the field. No word what had delayed him but I'm guessing he had some kind of mechanical issue that either delayed him or perhaps his car wouldn't start. We will see if we can find more out. 

In any event, he turned out to be the driver to watch along with a good battle for the lead. Kyle Frederick started on the outside pole and jumped out to a nice lead early as he rode the cushion to step away from the field. 

However, the "swan song" of the cushion bit him also, as it did for both the B Mod features as the outside gradually started to slow down and the inside line either picked up speedway of just looks so as the outside slowed down. 

In any event, by lap ten, Mitch Stankowski, putting around on the inside, drove past Frederick to take over the lead. At the same time, Snellenberger was on the move, running a high side line that no one else even attempted, but Hot Rod was making it work. While he hadn't cracked the top five by the halfway point, by the time the yellow waved with fourteen laps complete for a spinning driver, he was up to third!

However, both Stankowski and Frederick, who both were running the inside line by now, were quick enough that Hot Rod couldn't reel them in and he settled for third but was certainly "The Show."

Pat Zdroik and Jeff Bodendorfer completed the top five in a race that saw only one driver not go the distance. 

The final checkers waved at just about 10:30 pm, not bad at all given the amount of racing that we saw. A good sized crowd was on hand but not the throng that is usually present for their Tuesday night races but that will probably happen for the main events. Tuesday night, including the big money race, the Unified Street Stocks will also be in action. 

Management here does not believe in streaming races as they want fans to come out to the track, so there will be no way to watch the action live, at least not this year.