September 3, 2004 Chateau Raceway End of Season Report by Matthew Grage

After 17 Friday Nights of racing action the 2004 Racing Season came to a conclusion this weekend at Chateau Raceway in Lansing.  249 drivers took part in 323 races with 89 drivers coming finishing the season with at least one win.  Keith Devonshire of Austin became the final driver to win at least one race this year when he won his heat in the Chateau Pure Stock Class.  The classes big winner on the night was Dave Stevens of Albert Lea who picked up his seventh feature win of the year.  Dave worked by early leader Rodd Wehr of Austin on lap four on his way to the win.  Wehr, who held on for second ahead of 2004 Track Champion Shane Christianson of Claremont, did pick up a heat win on the night.

        In the Classic Dwarf class Brian Kiehne of Harmony capped his 2004 Season Championship season with his seventh feature win of the year and his sixth sweep of the year after also taking home a heat win on the night.  Kiehne lead all drivers this year with a total of 19 wins, heats and features.  The classes other heat win on the night went to Jeff Jech of Austin.

        Greg Pfeifer Jr of Austin capped off a strong final five weeks to the season as he captured the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature event.  Greg took three feature wins over the final stretch of the season including Friday Nights.  He also took home his heat win giving him a sweep for the night.  Other heat winners were Heather Rayman of Austin and Nolan Bachman of West Concord.  The night’s consy winner was Tyler Clark of Rochester.   The Classes 2004 Champion never made it to the track for the feature after developing mechanical problems after his heat.  Bryan Hernandez of Blooming Prairie none the less did pick up the Championship hardware for the second time in three years as the Trophies and Awards for the track were handed out before the nights racing action. 

        WISSOTA Street Stock Point Champion for 2004, Steve Eischens of Taopi capped his year with another feature win giving him six for the year.  He also scored a sweep as he also had a heat win on the night.  It was the second time this year he has pulled off the double.  Steve came up with a late pass to deprive Jason Augustin of Hollandale his first feature win of the year.  The classes other heat win went to Deven Sutter of Lyle.  Deven picked up a special award on the night as well as his second place trophy for the class.  He was named the Chateau Raceway Sportsman of the year.  Going into last week’s final night for track points he loaned a motor to Eischens to race for the championship.  Steve used Devens motor that night to pick up a feature win that assured him of getting the Championship hardware.  The award was renamed at the start of the night in memory of Jim Dahle of Hayfield who lost his life at another track during the season while driving in the Classic Dwarf Class.  The official title of the award is now called "The Jim Dahle Memorial Sportsmanship Award", named in honor of the man who raced just for the enjoyment of being on the track. 

        Todd Scharkey of Kasson was also given a special award on the night.  The Open Modified driver lowered the Track Speed Record not once, not twice, but three times during the season.  The new electronic scoring system introduced at the track this year recorded Todd as posting the fastest lap of the year, 16.013, just a shade under an average lap of 75 mph on the 1/3 mile oval.  On the track Todd showed why he owns that record as he posted his seventh feature win and seventh sweep of the year.  In all Todd took home sixteen wins on the year but the last one may have been the most impressive.  Starting in row three Todd moved to second on the first lap.  He had moved to second on the second lap when a caution came out before the lap was completed setting him back to second for the restart.  On the restart he quickly shot back to the front and as the field went caution free the final 24 laps he proceeded to lap all but two cars.  And at the end of the race Denny Barwald of West Concord and Brad Waits of Zumbrota who finished second and third were now much more than a straightaway ahead of him.  Matt Stark of Austin also scored a heat win in the class.  The 2004 Track Champion Jimmy Davis of Medford never took a lap on the night except to pack the track.  While on the track his engine started making noises that alarmed him so he shut it down and kept it off the track so as not to completely take it out.

        The final night of the season is usually a fun night with plenty of extra racing at the conclusion of the night with "Sponsor Races".  Mechanics, Sponsors and anybody else can get into cars and go out for a few short races.  However it lasted just one race this year.  Six Pure Stock cars pulled out for the first race and just a few laps into it Jim Kiffmeyer of Wanamingo got high off of turns one and two rolling the car.  Crawling from the car he said he was OK but said his ribs were sore.  For precautionary reasons the decision was made to send him in the ambulance to Austin Medical Center to be checked out.  Without an Ambulance on site the other 40 or 50 people signed up to race would have to wait until next year as the time that would be needed for the Ambulance to get back and forth to town would be too long to keep everybody just sitting around, so the season was concluded.

        At the beginning of the night along with the awarding of trophies to the top five in each class, the Rookie of the year awards for each class and the other special awards a moment of silence was held for a former Track Champion who passed away this week.  Don McAllister of Mapleview raced from the time the track opened in 1956 through the early 70's ending his career in the Late Model Class.  Don was the Chateau Modified Class Champion in 1964. He passed away Tuesday August 31 at St Mary’s Hospital in Rochester at the age of 75.  He was a 13 time feature winner during his racing career at Lansing and was famous for his pink cars with the number 11 that he drove over the years.

Chateau Raceway Classic Dwarf Race Results
Heat 1	Heat 2	Feature
1. Brian Kiehne 2. Matt Aarsvold 3. Roni Van Riper 4. Drew Jech 5. Dave Anderson 6. Dan Tufte 7. Mike Gaines	1. Jeff Jech 2. Kevin Bigalk 3. Jeremy Wangen 4. Joel Kath 5. Shayne Johnson 6. Gary Goslee 7. Tom Gandy	1. Brian Kiehne 2. Drew Jech 3. Jeff Jech 4. Roni Van Riper 5. Matt Aarsvold 6. Mike Gaines 7. Kevin Bigalk	8. Joel Kath 9. Dan Tufte 10. Shayne Johnson 11. Jeremy Wangen 12. Dave Anderson 13. Tom Gandy 14. Gary Goslee

September 4, 2004 Deer Creek Speedway End of Season Report by Bill Nelson

What an incredible prelude to the 6th Annual Featherlite/USMTS Fall Jamboree we had last night. Pretty hard to describe some of the racing action for the 40-lap feature as I couldn’t even come close to follow all of the position changes especially during the last 5 lap dash after a late caution. Drivers from 9 states were represented during the heat race action with Chris Moore making the long haul up from Mississippi to race. The first time visitor to the track was running solidly in third place when his rear end decided to disintegrate after a great run. 56 Modifieds checked into the track to battle for the $2000 first prize and to tune up their cars for the Jamboree.

The WISSOTA Midwest Modified Feature was up first with Nick Kramer leading early on. Behind him the pack was dicing it up in a big way as they were three and four wide early battling for positions. With two laps completed the first caution flew as Joe Dengler stalled in turn four. Also Jerry Young started on fire and pulled off the track to the attention of the safety crew. Kramer led on the restart with Tim Siercks, Ron Houdek and Jeff Brauer in his first night in a Midwest Modified running three wide for second. Houdek cleared into the second spot and quickly caught Kramer up front. On the next circuit Houdek moved outside of Kramer to take over the lead. Flyin Bryan Hernandez was living up to his nickname as he moved from fifth to third on the next lap running the high line around the track. Vince Corbin, Joe Bunne, Brauer and Siercks were in a four car race for the fifth position as Hernandez worked under Kramer to take second. Corbin took the fourth spot on his charge forward from the tenth spot. Bryan Siercks took the sixth spot while Tyler Clark moved from fourteenth to fifth during the long green flag run. At the line it was Houdek with the win, Hernandez second and Kramer third.

The Classic Dwarf Car feature pulled onto the track with David Marso getting the early advantage. Rick Utley and Drew Jech raced for second with Matt Aarsvold solidly in fourth. Jech gained the spot as Aarsvold moved up to battle with Utley. With ten to go Utley slipped up allowing Aarsvold to move into third. The field started to spread out with Marso gaining a huge lead. Lapped cars started to come into play as the laps wound down allowing Jech to gain on Marso. With five to go Brian Kiehne worked into the top five. With three to go the caution flew as Utley looped his car in two. On the restart Marso jumped out to a good lead with Kiehne working the bottom of the track. Kiehne was able to reel Marso in and coming out of four to the checkers took the lead beating Marso by about 1 foot at the line.

Adam Stockhausen led the first lap of the WISSOTA Super Stock race with Bobby Swanson and Adam Hensel dicing it up for second. Dustin Nelson held in the middle of the track and while exiting turn four on the second lap Nelson split Swanson and Hensel. Behind the front group the cars were all over the track with everyone trying to find a fast way around. Nelson moved up to race with Stockhausen as those two ran side by side for the lead. These two were running the lower half of the track when Hensel got the push worked out of his car while entering the corners and got hooked up on the high side. Hensel shot by both of them on the highside with thirteen to go and started to check out on the field. With ten to go Hensel held a full straight lead as a caution flew for the spinning Duffy machine. Nelson kept the bottom of the track working on the restart as Tory Brand and Mark Oeltjenbruns were in a heated battle for fourth. Nelson pulled alongside of Hensel a couple times in the next handful of laps but Hensel was too strong up top. A late caution flew with four to go. On the restart Hensel kept his lead with Nelson second. Behind him Oeltjenbruns, Brand and Stockhausen raced for the final podium position. Brand gained the advantage following Nelson and Hensel to the line.

Les Duellman won his heat race earlier in the evening and redrew the outside front row starting spot beside Mike Sorensen. Duellman moved into the lead at the drop of the green with Sorensen in second and Corey Dripps and Mark Noble racing for third. The first caution of the event flew with five laps completed as Al Hejna spun in turn two. Duellman led on the restart with Dripps moving into second and Sorensen third. Sorensen was making the bottom of the track work early on as he fought back to the underside of Dripps. The field stayed two and three wide for most of the next ten laps until the field spread out slightly. Duellman and Dripps pulled out to good leads as Jason Hughes worked his way forward after starting eighth. With twenty eight laps to go Hughes worked into fourth as Dripps and Duellman both brushed the wall in turn four as the high line worked closer to the wall. The top two held a full straight lead as Hughes moved past Sorensen into third. Over the next twenty laps Hughes slowly reeled in the lead duo as they worked lapped traffic. Chris Moore and Noble had a great race for fifth position. With twenty laps to go Dripps broke the upper left “A” frame on his car and continued on with a bent front end. This allowed Hughes to move into a battle with him. Those two duked it out for the next 10 laps until the fourth running Moore broke his rear-end bringing out the second caution with ten to go. Dripps pulled off during the caution with Duellman continuing to lead. Another restart with five to go saw an all out mad dash to the front for the field. The last five laps were some of the best racing I have seen in a long time with three and four wide battles becoming the norm. The fourth through twelfth positions swapped a lot during the last run. Jon Tesch, Johnny Bone Jr. and Bruce Hanford gained a lot of ground while Sorensen, Noble and Todd Scharkey dropped back during the dash. When the forty laps were complete Duellman came home with the win after leading every lap of the race. Kelly Shryock patiently waited his chances and moved into the second spot followed home by Hughes.

Deer Creek Speedway Classic Dwarf Race Results
Heat 1	Heat 2	Feature
1. Brian Kiehne (7) 2. Roger Torgerson (1) 3. Drew Jech (6) 4. Curtis Luhmann (5) 5. Matt Aarsvold (2) 6. Bernie Swanson (3) 7. Gavin Wangen (8) 8. Paul Hagerude(4)	1. Jeff Jech (1) 2. David Marso (3) 3. Rick Utley (7) 4. Todd Kiehne (6) 5. Kevin Bigalk (4) 6. Jeff O’Connor (5) 7. Joel Kath(2)	1. Brian Kiehne (8) 2. David Marso (2) 3. Drew Jech (1) 4. Matt Aarsvold (4) 5. Roger Torgerson (6) 6. Jeff Jech (9) 7. Todd Kiehne (5) 8. Curtis Luhmann(10)	9. Kevin Bigalk (7) 10. Rick Utley (3) 11. Jeff O’Connor (12) 12. Joel Kath (14) 13. Gavin Wangen (13) 14. Bernie Swanson (11) 15. Paul Hagerude (dns)