The Scoop
FULL HOUSE AT STURGEON BAY ON FAIR NIGHT & UPDATED DIRT FEATURE TOTALS
Posted on: Monday August 18, 2025
Ever since I was a kid, to me there always seemed to be something magical about attending a stock car race during any county fair.
The sport we all love and enjoy, when combined with the aura of the fair, and you’ve got something special.
Last week Thursday, that “magic” was on display full tilt in Sturgeon Bay. The Hill Raceway hosted the Dirt Kings late model special. The fact it was $5,000-to-win drew some hitters from western Wisconsin, and as Terry Anvelink told me in the pits “with these late models, it’s pretty simple. Pay good money and the cars will come.”
On the local racing scene, The Hill has always been somewhat of the underdog of the local tracks. Like veteran track announcer and historian Tom Wagner was always fond to point out, Sturgeon Bay’s got many challenges, mainly the fact they’ve got water on three sides surrounding them. There is a steady base of Door and Kewaunee County race teams that support that track.
So combine the fact that Sturgeon Bay can only draw non-local drivers and fans from the south, along with trying to compete against the massively successful program to the south at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek, John and Adam Sternard (and past promoters) have always been fighting their fight “against the wind” so to speak when it comes to drawing both cars and fans.
But on Thursday, August 14 something happened in northeastern Wisconsin that (at least to my knowledge) hasn’t occurred before. Three area race tracks all hosted a race on a Thursday night.
Granted, Wisconsin International Raceway’s “Thursday Night Thunder” show is one of the premier paved tracks in not only Wisconsin, but the Midwest. Their Thursday night tradition dates back to 1975. Comparing pavement to dirt is sort of like comparing apples to oranges. Yet, there remains some crossover with hardcore race fans who enjoy both dirt and asphalt.
141 Speedway’s Captain of The Creek, which was slated for Aug. 12-13, got pushed back a day due to Mother Nature and had already announced their $10,000-to-win show was being pushed out a day from a Tuesday-Wednesday show to a Wednesday-Thursday event.
While I was in attendance at Sturgeon Bay, other than the car counts (which anyone can find out if they’ve got the MyRacePass app), I cannot say how many race fans attended 141’s big event for IMCA northern sportmods or WIR for that matter.
But, Sturgeon Bay enjoyed a full house. The crowd was a pretty even mix of hardcore race fans (you can spot them pretty easily with the racing shirts) and your typical non-racing family, who in many cases were likely attending their one and only race of the year.
The fact that your $12 fair admission also included your ticket to the races most certainly helped.
When the late models came out to hot lap, the cars pitched sideways nearly around the entire “Circle of Death” oval, I could just look around at the expressions of folks in the stands and you could pretty much tell who was there for the first time. And boy, what an opportunity to showcase your product to a bunch of non-race fans, and potentially grow them.
Overall, well done by The Hill. There were a few hiccups, like multiple yellows in the street stock main. There was some dicking around prior to the street stock feature with moving tires around in corner one to push the groove up higher, away from a minor rut. And as a result, the last race of the night, the sportmod feature, was cut short with trimmed laps.
But overall, it was good to see the folks at The Hill enjoy a successful night. They don’t race every week, and have tailored their schedule to attempt to minimize racing against other tracks as often as they can.
The season is quickly coming to a close. Get out and enjoy some racing at your local tracks. NOTHING beats being there.
2025 REGIONAL DIRT TRACK FEATURE WINNERS (as of 8/16/25)
(Tracks included, but not limited to: Outagamie Speedway, Gravity Park USA, Luxy Raceway, 141 Speedway, The Hill Raceway, Plymouth Dirt Track & Shawano Speedway. We’ll also include feature wins by N.E. Wisconsin drivers scored at other tracks, including out-of-state and series victories. These include both IMCA sanctioned & non-sanctioned wins)
LATE MODELS
Andy Karl 5
Mike Mullen 5
Nick Anvelink 2
Taylor Scheffler 2
Mitch McGrath 2
Troy Springborn 2
Brett Swedberg 2
Lukas Postl 1
Joel Bennett 1
Jayden Schmidt 1
Justin Schmidt 1
Brad Mueller 1
IMCA MODIFIEDS
Johnny Whitman 7
Benji LaCrosse 6
Lucas Lamberies 5
Jesse Cullen 4
Marcus Hoeppner 4
Konnor Wilinski 3
Skylar Woods 3
Cole Czarneski 3
Matt Klenz 2
Tanner Janke 2
Joel Seegert 2
Ethan Braaksma 2 (141 Clash)
Todd Dart 2
Race Van Pay 2
Kevin Feck 2
Mike Wedelstadt 2
Steve Mueller 2
Cody Schroeder 2
Dan Roedl 1
Tony Wedelstadt 1
Geoff Jeche 1
Brian Mullen 1
Steve Schneider 1
Jayden Schmidt 1
Joel Crowbridge 1
Kelsey Wedelstadt 1
Russ Reinwald 1
Dave Zeitler 1
Wyatt Block 1
Adam Crapser 1
Greg Gretz 1
Brandon Schmitt 1
IMCA STOCK CARS
Tyle Wilson 9
Mike Mullen 8
Cole Czarneski 8
Rod Snellenberger 7
Mark Hoeppner 7
Jeremy Christians 5
Benji LaCrosse 4
Devin Snellenberger 4
Luke Lemmens 3
Troy Muench 2
Tyler Schrimpf 2
Nick Buckarma 2
Josh Mroczkowski 2
Kyle Frederick 2
Brandon Schmitt 2
Dylan Stedjee 1
Trent Nolan 1
Phil Mott 1
Trentin Bell 1
R.M. Van Pay 1
Nate Michonski 1
Caden LeMieux 1
Marcus Yarie 1
Shannon Guelette 1
Shawn Kilgore 1
Vern Stedjee 1
Aaron Karcz 1
Travis Welch 1
Daniel Sell Jr. 1
Brandon Czarapata 1
Tyler Wendt 1
Jamison MacDonald 1
Jeremy Johnson 1
Brett Wenzel 1
Casco’s Coy Vlies leads local IMCA northern sportmod racers with eight victories so far in the 2025 campaign.
IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMODS
Coy Vlies 8
Max Oreskovich 4
Brady Harshbarger 4
Cole Thomas 4
Cory Kemkes 4
Craig Dorner 4
Brian Konitzer 4
Tim Warner 3
Tommy Rindt 3
Ryan Schmidt 3
Jay Schaalma 3
Jake Carpenter 2
Cole Slezewski 2
Dylan Schmidt 2
Travis Schmidt 2
JJ Vanderloop 2
Jeffery Teske 2
Cole Magnin 2
Matt Urban 2
Tim Jorgenson 2
Matt Avila 2
Dustin White 1
Jordan Jahnke 1
Jim Zdroik 1
Spencer Long 1
AJ Springborn 1
Robert Wittkopf 1
Nick Kresbach 1
Colton See 1
Bernie Reinhardt 1
Jared Spaulding 1
Trevin Veeser 1
Dan Jung 1
Randy LeMieux Jr. 1
Roger LaViolette 1
John Young 1
Rick LeMieux 1
Chris Kuchta 1
Steve Lorier 1
Kaden Besaw 1
UNIFIED DIRT STREET STOCKS
Trey Van Straten 10
Paul Diefenthaler 9
Jeff Richards 6
Derek Moede 5
Dave DeGrave 4
Ryan Sullivan 3
Shannon Guelette 3
Cory Romenesko 3
Mark Hoeppner 2
Phillip Wuesthoff 2
Kyle Genett 2
Austin Steinke 1
Jason Piron 1
Danny Gracyalny 1 (Eagle River)
Garrett Geyer 1
Jacob Ambrosius 1
Alex Haese 1
Matt Hanson 1
Dan Van Pay 1
GRAND NATIONALS
Jeff Richards 9
Jeff Muehlbauer 5
Jake Richards 2
Brian Gilles 1
Maverick Ruh 1
Tyler Wilson 1
Jeff Steenbergen 1
Bristol Hitsman 1
Nick Schumacher 1
Brad Weiss 1
FOUR CYLINDERS/IMCA SPORT COMPACTS
Skyler Bork 8
James Reese 7
Brian Watzka Jr. 7
Cody Booth 4
Thomas Schulte 4
Adam Broehm 3
Shawn Bangart 3
Brad Wedde 3
Dalton Nelson 2
Clint Malueg 2
Tanner Westphalt 2
Scott Schlafke 2
Bennett Glidden 2
Chase Ertel 2
Seth Collar 1
Ben Schulte 1
Missy Clark 1
Brett Deprez 1
Jeffrey Meyer 1
Scott Blanke 1
Ricky Kaufert 1
Taylor Junk 1
Justin Finlan 1
Tucker Pari 1
Justin Haufe 1
Nathan Bowers 1
Calvin Stueck 1
Justin Haufe 1
TJ Everard 1