Cold May Night Provides Hot Racing At Manitowoc County Expo Speedway
by Sheila Leamer

Photo Highlights
Sprint Action
Late Model Action
GN Action
Sprint winner, Wayne Modjeski
Late Model winner, Russ Scheffler
McDonald Racing
Manitowoc, WI – May 15, 2009 – Wayne Modjeski of Oak Creek started the 30 lap 360 Sprint Car A-Main on the outside of the front row. Modjeski found himself in the lead after the first completed circuit. The field was slowed on lap 5 for the rides of Eagle’s Scott Conger and Jason Lax of Kiel getting together in turn 2 resulting in both cars retiring to the pits for the remainder of the night. Modjeski set the pace on the restart. Last weeks A-Main winner, Plymouth’s Ben Schmidt, went to the pits on lap 10 with mechanical problems. Modjeski encountered lap traffic on lap 14 and collected the checkered flag. Chasing Modjeski to the line was TJ Luedke of Plymouth, Brian Kristan of Zion, IL, Burnett’s Lance Fassbender, and Paul Pokorski of West Bend. Waupun’s Tim Haddy had an awesome run as he started 20th out of 22 cars and finished 7th.

Pole sitter, Pete Parker of Kaukauna, jumped out to the lead in the 25 lap Late Model feature. The yellow flag flew for a pile up of cars in turn 2. After all was cleaned up, Parker took the green but his lead was short lived. When the cars crossed the line on lap 4, Waukesha’s Russ Scheffler was first to cross. As the field was attempting to complete lap 5, Turk Letizia of Milwaukee lost control of his ride and with no where to go, Green Bay’s Ron Berna went up and over the front end of Letizia’s car and flipped. While making sure both drivers were fine and cleaning up the cars, a brief rain shower moved through halting the race for approximately 20 minutes. When the race was restarted, Scheffler showed the rest of the way to the checkered flag. Following Scheffler was Jayme Zidar of Greenfield, Appleton’s Paul Parker, Dan Sorce of Franklin and Glenbeulah’s Tim Buhler.

Keith Kellenbenz of Manitowoc led the first lap of the 20 lap Grand National feature. On lap 2, Eagle’s Nick Schumacher took the lead until lap 6 when Mike Bastian of Manitowoc took the reigns. Bastian claimed the win followed by Sheboygan’s Jason Winkler, Jerry Brickner of Mishicot, Howards Grove’s Bob Peter, and Dan Schumacher of Milwaukee.

Fourteen year old Ryan Minster from Sheboygan found himself leading the 15 lap Hobby Stock feature for the first 3 laps. Crossing the line on lap 4 was Manitowoc’s Matt McDonald to take the lead from the youngster. Bradley Ruh of Elkhart Lake was reeling McDonald in until the field was slowed on lap 10 for the car of Minster breaking a rear axel and not making it completely off the track. McDonald took the green and on the final lap, Ruh finally caught up and passed McDonald for the win. As Ruh was taking the checkers, Chris Gilson was upside down on the backstretch. Gilson checked out fine by the emergency crew. Rounding out the top 5 were Sheboygan’s Jeff Leonhard, Mike Kaufmann of Manitowoc, and Robert Hensel of Two Rivers.

Race Summary

360 Sprints:

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. Pokorski  2. Brandon Thone (Sheboygan) 3. Brian Kristan (Zion, IL)

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. Joe Wipperfurth (Columbus) 2. Modjeski  3.  Jeremy Schultz (Beaver Dam) 

Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. Fassbender  2. Schmidt 3. TJ Luedtke (Plymouth)  

B-Main (15 laps):  1. Doug Wondra (Oakfield) 2. Dave Lisowe (Chilton) 3. Russ Wetenkamp (Manitowoc)  4. Haddy  5. Kevin Karnitz (Newburg) 6. Randy Call (New Berlin)

A-Main (30 laps): 1. Modjeski 2.  Luedtke  3.  Kristan  4. Fassbender  5. Pokorski  6. Schultz  7.  Haddy  8.  Jeff Wilke (Genoa, IL)  9.  Thone  10. D. Wondra  

Late Models:

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. Zidar  2. Berna 3. Randy Markwardt (Sheboygan)

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. Craig Schueffner (Sheboygan Falls) 2. Buhler 3.  Russ Scheffler

Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. Paul Parker 2.  Bob Cullen (Chilton) 3. Todd Frank

A-Main (25 laps): 1. Russ Scheffler 2. Zidar  3. Paul Parker 4. Sorce 5. Buhler 6.  Markwardt 7. Cullen  8. Pete Parker  9. Kyle Odekirk  (Waldo)  10. Joe Schmidt (Kiel)

Grand Nationals:

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1.  Peter 2. Bastian 3. Jason Dyer (New Holstein)

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. Ben Stumpf (Brillion) 2. Matt Jackson (Sheboygan)  3. Winkler

A -Main (20 laps): 1. Bastian  2.  Winkler 3. Brickner 4.Peter  5. D. Schumacher  6. Dyer 7.  Stumpf 8. D. Schumacher. 9. Chad Ninmer (Cleveland)  10. Brian Rathe (Kewaunee)

Hobby Stocks:

Heat 1 (8 laps): 1.  Adam Krepline (Manitowoc) 2. Ruh  3. Leonhard

Heat 2 (8 laps): 1.  Travis Hansen (Chilton) 2. Kyle Resch (Manitowoc) 3. Jeff Bender (Plymouth)

A-Main (15 laps): 1.Ruh. 2.  McDonald  3. Leonhard  4. Kaufmann 5. Rober Hensel (Two Rivers) 6. Pat Wazny 7.  Resch  8. Bender 9. Krepline 10. Jeff Koehler (Manitowoc)
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