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BOUCHE BESTS STURGEON BAY STOCK FOES
Posted on: Sunday September 1, 2024
BOUCHE TOPS STURGEON BAY STOCKERS by Joe Orsini
(STURGEON BAY, WI) AUG. 31 – The Floors by Josh Championship Night at The Hill Raceway started with a somber moment and ended with the jubilation of championship celebrations. Prior to the races kicking off nearly every single one of the 94 cars signed in rolled out to the track to pay tribute to “The Black Stallion” Les Sternard. Les was the father of long time track promoter, John Sternard, and was an integral force behind racing as he helped form and was president of the Door County Racing Association in the 70’s. It proved to be a fitting night to pay tribute to a member of the racing family as the excitement could be felt in the air as champions were set to be crowned.
The Modified division made their second appearance at the track for championship night and The Frogstation Flash, Dan Ratajczak, grabbed the lead on the opening lap of their feature event. Ratajczak already held the point lead heading into the night by virtue of his feature win in the first appearance of the Mods earlier in the season. With Ratajczak in the top spot, Clint Parsons locked up 2nd and held the spot until lap 9 when Racin’ Jason Czarapata snuck by to grab the runner up position. A lap later Kyle Kudick wrestled away 3rd from Parsons. When the checkers flew Ratajczak grabbed his 29th career Sturgeon Bay Modified win, second in the division only to Felix Dart’s 63. Czarapata settled for 2nd, Kudick 3rd, Chris Pigeon 4th, and Parsons 5th.
The Woody’s Signs Stock Car feature saw “The Bulldozer” Dave Bouche grab command of the race at the drop of the green. “Racer” Rick Dix and Scott Reinhardt fell into an immediate battle for 2nd. While that pair battled for position Bouche was unable to open a lead as Dix and Reinhardt proved just as fast side by side as the leader was running alone. While the action was hot and heavy up front point leader, Brett Wenzel, was charging from 11th to try and secure his 5th championship in a row. Wenzel’s drive for five got a major bump on lap 7 when 2nd place point runner, Dan Sell Jr., saw lady luck bite once more as he cut down a tire as caution came out. Sell headed down pit lane and was able to rejoin the fight but at a major disadvantage.
The ensuing restart saw Dix and Reinhardt go back to battling side by side behind Bouche. Dix was running the high line and would pull even with Bouche for the lead but always fell back into the clutches of Reinhardt. When the checkers flew it was Bouche hanging on to secure his 30th total career feature win in Sturgeon Bay (21 in the stock cars and 9 in the street stocks). Dix claimed his own victory of sorts by grabbing 2nd away from Reinhardt, Dan Sell Sr. finished 4th, and Wenzel locked up his 5th consecutive stock car championship with a 5th place finish. In a twist of fate Wenzel joins Bouche as the only two drivers to win 5 straight titles in the modern history of the track.
The Kroll Machine and Fabrication Northern Sportmod A main event kicked off with John Koessl leading the opening lap but Brian Ankerson wasted no time in slicing into the lead on lap 3. Mike Plate Sr. also nipped by Koessl to grab 2nd. By lap 8 2nd place point runner, Jeff “Pepe” Vlies, kept his championship hopes alive by moving up to 3rd. By the halfway mark Vlies worked his way past Plate into 2nd but the valiant effort was for naught as point leader, Craig Dorner, finished just one spot behind Vlies and the one point gained was not enough to stop Dorner from claiming his 2nd consecutive championship. Plate finished 4th and Brett Widdis rounded out the top 5. The win was the first career victory in Sturgeon Bay for Ankerson.
Racin’ Jason Geyer went into the Millies Pub and Grub Unified Dirt Street Stock main event with a narrow, 6 point, lead over “Crazy” Tyler Fox. Travis Zirbel jumped to the early lead at the drop of the green but it was Jason Geyer’s son, “The Muscles From Brussels” Garrett Geyer that flexed that muscle early as the younger Geyer moved into 3rd on lap 2 and then into 2nd on lap 4. Garrett Geyer’s forward progress stalled and eventually went backwards as the younger lost spots to Chad Naze, TJ Everard, and Eddie “The Eagle” Anschutz by the halfway mark. While Zirbel opened up a sizable lead on the field Anschutz drove like a man on fire and took 3rd on lap 11 and then snuck inside Naze to 2nd on lap 12.
With laps winding down Anschutz chopped away, bit by bit, until he was nipping on the heels of Zirbel when the white flag came out. Anschutz’s charge fell short as lap traffic broke his momentum enough that he never got along side Zirbel to challenge for the win. It was Zirbel’s 2nd career feature win in Sturgeon Bay. Anschutz had to settle for 2nd, Garrett Geyer rebounded over the second half of the race to finish 3rd, Naze was 4th, and Everard completed the top 5.
The 4 cylinder event was marred by multiple attempts to get the race started. Once the first lap was complete though it was Adam Broehm at the top of the field. Broehm opened up an insurmountable lead and led wire to wire. It was Broehm’s 6th career feature win. 2nd place in both the race and the points went to Nick Everard who was unable to gain enough spots over 3rd place finisher, Scott Schlafke, to overtake the points lead from Schlafke. Chase Ertel was 4th, and Kyle Walters finished 5th. It was also back to back championships for Schlafke.
The Hill Raceway is back in action Sunday, September 1st, with the first ever appearance of the IRA Sprint Cars in Sturgeon Bay. Also in action will be the Wisconsin Wingless Sprints, and the Stock Cars battling for $1000 to win.
A very Special Thanks to Tom Wagner for the feature win totals for each driver tonight.
Floors By Josh Modified 15 Lap Feature:
1. 73-Dan Ratajczak[2]; 2. 56C-Jason Czarapata[5]; 3. 4K-Kyle Kudick[4]; 4. 29P-Chris Pigeon[7]; 5. 19P-Clint Parsons[1]; 6. 8D-Brian Drexler[8]; 7. 3M-Randy Markwardt Jr[3]; 8. (DNF) Z84-Joe Zeitler[6]
Heat:
1. 4K-Kyle Kudick[6]; 2. 73-Dan Ratajczak[3]; 3. 56C-Jason Czarapata[8]; 4. 19P-Clint Parsons[1]; 5. 3M-Randy Markwardt Jr[4]; 6. Z84-Joe Zeitler[7]; 7. 29P-Chris Pigeon[2]; 8. (DNF) 8D-Brian Drexler[5]
Woody’s Signs Stock Car 20 Lap Feature:
1. 21-Dave Bouche[1]; 2. 43-Rick Dix[3]; 3. 11-Scott Reinhardt[4]; 4. 18X-Dan Sell Sr[9]; 5. 0-Brett Wenzel[11]; 6. 3L-Caden Lemieux[18]; 7. 52-Troy Muench[6]; 8. 99-Jeremy Anschutz[14]; 9. 30-Zach Spangenberg[19]; 10. 36-Larry Karcz Jr[12]
Heat 1:
1. 21-Dave Bouche[1]; 2. 18-Daniel Sell Jr[6]; 3. 36-Larry Karcz Jr[7]; 4. 77-Barry Van Straten[4]; 5. 19-Josh Tuttle[2]
Heat 2:
1. 52-Troy Muench[4]; 2. 25-Tony Bouche[2]; 3. 3-Bill Lemieux[5]; 4. 51-Jeremy Wiitala[8]; 5. 99-Jeremy Anschutz[6]
Heat 3:
1. 43-Rick Dix[2]; 2. 11-Scott Reinhardt[3]; 3. 18X-Dan Sell Sr[5]; 4. 0-Brett Wenzel[6]; 5. 94-Cody Patten[1]
Kroll Machine and Fabrication Northern Sport Mod 20 Lap Feature:
1. 983-Brian Ankerson[3]; 2. 99-Jeff Vlies[10]; 3. 15-Craig Dorner[11]; 4. 55P-Michael Plate Sr[8]; 5. 15W-Bret Widdis[12]; 6. 19-George Henkel[5]; 7. 17H-Scott Howe[13]; 8. 18L-Brayden Lemieux[14]; 9. 11-Bernie Reinhardt[9]; 10. 74M-Brad Miller[7]
Heat 1:
1. 59-John Koessl[2]; 2. 11-Bernie Reinhardt[6]; 3. 15W-Bret Widdis[7]; 4. 49-Roger Laviolette[4]; 5. 17H-Scott Howe[5]
Heat 2:
1. 74M-Brad Miller[4]; 2. 12T-Randy Theys[2]; 3. 9V-Trevin Veeser[1]; 4. 99-Jeff Vlies[6]; 5. 18L-Brayden Lemieux[5]
Heat 3:
1. 19-George Henkel[3]; 2. 15-Craig Dorner[6]; 3. 55P-Michael Plate Sr[5]; 4. 983-Brian Ankerson[7]; 5. 9-Dennis Miesler[4]
Millie’s Pub and Grub Unified Dirt Street Stock 20 Lap Feature:
1. 18Z-Travis Zirbel[1]; 2. 71-Edward Anschutz[10]; 3. 3G-Garrett Geyer[5]; 4. 46-Chad Naze[6]; 5. 88-TJ Everard[7]; 6. 3-Jason Geyer[9]; 7. 121-Shanon Guelette[16]; 8. 3V-Dan Van Pay[15]; 9. 7-Tyler Fox[11]; 10. 8-Tony Everard[8]
Heat 1:
1. 8-Tony Everard[7]; 2. 46-Chad Naze[5]; 3. 71-Edward Anschutz[8]; 4. A1-Adam Goldman[2]; 5. XXX-Ford Malvitz[3]
Heat 2:
1. 18Z-Travis Zirbel[1]; 2. 88-TJ Everard[5]; 3. 7-Tyler Fox[8]; 4. 1K-Derek Kaye[9]; 5. 22-Bailey Laviolette[7]
Heat 3:
1. 3G-Garrett Geyer[4]; 2. 73-James Anderson[2]; 3. 68-Aaron Ploor[1]; 4. 3-Jason Geyer[7]; 5. 3V-Dan Van Pay[6]
LCQ:
1. 121-Shanon Guelette[1]; 2. 9-John Denil Jr[3]; 3. 10-Matt Hanson[8]; 4. 28V-John Vetting[5]; 5. XX-Jeff Krauel[2]
4 Cylinders 15 Lap Feature:
1. 3B-Adam Broehm[8]; 2. 88-Nick Everard[6]; 3. 7-Scott Schlafke[7]; 4. 2E-Chase Ertel[11]; 5. 68-Kyle Walters[13]; 6. 3CT-Cheyenne Topel[5]; 7. 121-Dillon Joski[4]; 8. (DNF) 33V-Trevor Vandehei[1]; 9. (DNF) 5-Carey Leemon[10]; 10. (DNS) X55-Jody Cornelius
Heat 1:
1. 33V-Trevor Vandehei[1]; 2. 5-Carey Leemon[8]; 3. 69L-Juan Panales[2]; 4. 3CT-Cheyenne Topel[3]; 5. (DNF) 7-Scott Schlafke[4]
Heat 2:
1. 3B-Adam Broehm[5]; 2. 88-Nick Everard[3]; 3. 7L-Lonny Schlafke[6]; 4. 121-Dillon Joski[2]; 5. (DNF) X55-Jody Cornelius[1]