The Scoop
LACROSSE WINS CAREER MOD FEATURE WIN #139, WEEKEND WRAPUP & REGIONAL DIRT FEATURE WIN TOTALS
Posted on: Sunday August 20, 2023
Luxemburg native Benji LaCrosse captured his 139th career IMCA modified feature win at The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg Sunday. (danlewisphoto.net)
The term G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) gets tossed around often in big league sports like basketball, baseball and football.
However, some folks on the northeastern Wisconsin dirt track racing scene often consider Luxemburg native Benji LaCrosse as a potential G.O.A.T. Sunday night at The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg, LaCrosse captured his seventh IMCA modified feature win of 2023.
LaCrosse, who came out swinging as a winner in the IMCA stock car class his rookie season in the early 2000’s, remains the winningest Wisconsin modified racer of all-time with 139 wins. Veterans Brian Mullen (Seymour) and Green Bay native R.M. “Buck” Van Pay sit second in all time wins, both tied at 129 victories.
This past weekend on the track’s point championship night the promoting group PKS3 which has promoted the stock car racing program at The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay for the last seven years announced this would be their final season operating the third-mile, clay oval.
The track has faced many challenges over the years – the main one being its location. With water surrounding them the Sturgeon Bay oval has always relied upon its core of Door County racers but also racers and fan in nearby Kewaunee and Brown County to help fill both the grandstand and pit area.
A tip of the cap goes out to Martin Kelsey, John Sternard, Brandon Peterson, Melanie and Mike Sargent for keeping the lights on the show rolling in these past seasons. It’s not an easy task whatsoever promoting a race track these days, for multiple reasons. Keyboard warriors, relentless bashing of racetracks, a sense of entitlement among the drivers (across the Midwest) and difficulties finding and keeping staff has left many track promoters and operators (yes there is a difference between the two) wondering if the long hours and financial risk are even worth it anymore.
The final event this promotional group will host a race at John Miles Park will be the Hill Shootout special on Saturday, September 2. There are rumblings of some people potentially interested in taking over the reins at the Door County oval. At any rate it will most certainly be an interesting off season to say the least. Hopefully someone or a group can step in and keep the lights on at The Hill.
FIRST TIME WINNERS – A couple of veteran racers were able to score their first feature wins of the 2023 campaign up at Sturgeon Bay on Saturday. They included Mishicot’s Kyle Kudick (modified) and Shiocton’s Barry “Wildman” Van Straten (stock car).
Third-generation Braison Bennett of Neenah scored his first career super late model feature win at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. (Corey Wenzel photo)
BY THE NUMBERS……..$10,000 is the biggest career payday scored by Tyler Sobieczyk after winning the Captain At The Creek IMCA northern sportmod feature win at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek last week. “T-Sob” has won 8 features so far this year on area ovals. In the region after this weekend Sobieczyk remains tied with Malone’s Tim Warner with eight feature flags on the year. 12 is the number of points separating “The Maverick” Sawyer Effertz and “Lightning Lowell” Bennett in super late model point standings for Wisconsin International Raceway’s “Thursday Night Thunder” action. 6 was the number of late models that competed at Shawano Speedway’s Saturday night program. A bulk of the Shawano regulars opted to chase the Dirt Kings late model tour with shows Friday night at Mississippi Thunder Speedway Friday and Deer Creek (MN) Speedway Saturday. Montrose, Iowa’s Gunnar Frank won the late model feature – his third of the year at Shawano. 4 is the number of straight track stock car division track titles won by Two Rivers’ Brett Wenzel at The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay. 136 is the number of IMCA stock car feature wins earned by Pulaski native Brandon Czarapata following his victory at Luxemburg Sunday night.
OUTAGAMIE – The second to last points night of the 2023 season takes place Friday, August 25 at Outagamie Speedway in Seymour. The action gets underway at 6:30 p.m. at the Outagamie County Fairgrounds. Championship night is set for Friday, September 1 with the two-day Fall Brawl set to take place Friday and Saturday September 8 and 9. You can check outagamiespeedway.com for more information.
LUXEMBURG – Champions will be crowned in all divisions following the final night of point racing at The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg Sunday, August 27. Action gets underway at 5 p.m. at the Kewaunee County Fairgrounds.
KARTING KORNER – Action Auto will sponsor bike giveaway night at GSR Kartway in Clintonville Wednesday, August 23. Karting and lawn mower racing action is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile at Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park Jr 3 driver introductions will take place Friday August 25. The racing program presented by Showcase Kitchens/Witt Family Ford is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
2O23 NORTHEAST WISCONSIN DIRT TRACK FEATURE WINNERS (after August 19, 2023)
(Divisions include late model, modified, sportmod, stock car, grand national and four cylinder. Tracks included will be Seymour, Chilton, Francis Creek, Shawano, Sturgeon Bay, Luxemburg, Plymouth and Beaver Dam. It will include IMCA sanctioned and non-sanctioned classes)
LATE MODEL
Nick Anvelink 5 (Cedar Lake)
Mike Mullen 3
Taylor Scheffler 3 (Farmer City)
Todd Frank 3
Gunnar Frank 3
Ron Berna 2
Mitch McGrath 2
Lukas Postl 2
Brad Mueller 1
A.J. Diemel 1 (Red Cedar, DK)
Justin Schmidt 1
Joel Bennett 1
Troy Springborn 1
MODIFIED
Benji LaCrosse 7
Johnny Whitman 6
Brandon Schmitt 6 (Angell Park)
Mike Mullen 5
Steve Mueller 5 (Wilmot)
Marcus Hoeppner 4
Jeff Schmuhl 3
Todd Dart 4 (Sturgeon Bay)
Matt Klenz 3
Jordan Bartz 3
Jesse Cullen 3
Cole Czarneski 3
Marcus Yarie 3
Lucas Lamberies 3
Steve Schneider 2
Joel Seegert 2 (Wilmot)
Mike Wedelstadt 2
Shawn Kilgore 2
Will Garceau 2
Joel Crowbridge 1 (Wilmot)
Kevin Feck 1
Tim Ward 1
Wyatt Block 1
Brian Crapser 1
Tyler DeBouche 1
Don Scheffler 1
Randy Markwardt Jr. 1
Scott Barnharst 1
Dave Schoenberger 1
Hunter Parsons 1
Jerry Wilinski 1
Mike Carter 1
Travis Hansen 1
Kyle Kudick 1
STOCK CAR
Mitch Meier 8
Kenny Richards 7
Tyler Wilson 6
Kyle Frederick 6
Luke Lemmens 5
Travis Van Straten 4
Tim Warner 3
Eric Mahlik 3
Jared Siefert 3 (Jackson)
Jeremy Christians 3
Brett Wenzel 3
Brandon Czarapata 3
Eric Arneson 2
Tim Mueller 2
Nick Strobbe 2
Trent Nolan 2
Caden LeMieux 2
Devin Snellenberger 1
Dylan Stedjee 1
Travis Stadler 1
Chase Parker 1
Logan Rhode 1
Aaron Stolp 1
Troy Muench 1
Cole Czarneski 1
Rod Snellenberger 1
Nick Buckarma 1
Brady Polcen 1
Vern Stedjee 1
Dan Sell 1
Aiden Gretz 1
Mike Mullen 1
Mitch Stankowski 1
Josh Mroczkowski 1
Jonathan Charles 1
Zach Spangenberg 1
Tyler Derenne 1
Trey Van Straten 1
Alex Crapser 1
Barry Van Straten 1
SPORTMOD
Tyler Sobiesczyk 8
Tim Warner 8 (Escanaba)
Coy Vlies 6
Skyler Woods 5
Zach Raab 5
Jake Carpenter 4
Brady Hashbarger 4 (Iowa)
Cody Rass 4
Randy LeMieux Jr. 3
Cory Kemkes 3
Nick Schultz 3
Tom Schneider 3
Jeff Vlies 3
Jimmy Berkevich 2
Jeffrey Teske 2
Eric Craine 2
Colton See 2
Jonathan Baumann 2
Ryan Schmidt 2
Michael Plate Sr. 2
Matt Radtke 2
Craig Dorner 2
Jeff Steenbergen 2
J.J. Vanderloop 2
Doug Maurer 1
Sean Falk 1
Tim Sheppard 1
Elijah Koenig 1
Tony Gates 1
Mason Woods 1
Derek Fehling 1
Colton VanHierden 1
Andy Welter 1
Dylon Waldvogel 1
Kolton Roehl 1
Nick Kresbach 1
Hunter Larson 1
Barry Maas 1
Max Oreskovich 1
Reagan May 1
James Dahlstrom 1
Chris Budzban 1
Taylor Kuehl 1
STREET STOCK
Paul Diefenthaler 17
Jesse Krahn 6
Shaun Bangart 5
Jared Spaulding 5
Ed Anschutz 4
Justin Jacobsen 3
Larry Richards 3
Cody Potter 2
James Fletcher 2
Jon Schultz 2
Brian Gundrum 2
Presley Harrington 2
Dan Van Pay 2
Courtney Atkinson 2
Travis Zirbel 2
Matt Warner 2
Nick Wunrow 1
Parker Derks 1
Trey Van Straten 1
Justin Jacobsen 1
Jason White 1
Garrett Geyer 1
Phillip Weusthoff 1
Russ Davison 1
Kelly Brown 1
Dave De Grave 1
Jake Binash 1
GRAND NATIONAL
T.J. Smith 6
Will Source 4
Jeff Richards 4
Dan Schumacher 3
Nick Schumacher 2
Brad Weiss 2
Derek Schrauth 2
Dustin Weiss 2
Maverick Ruh 2
Justin Pearson 2
Aaron Streblow 1
Chad Espen 1
Daryl Traber 1
Mark Bailey 1
Ethan Beattie 1
Mike King 1
Bristol Hitsman 1
Ryan Minster 1
Nicholas Goeman 1
Shawn Schmitt 1
Don Singer 1
Luke Scholten 1
Jason Schilling 1
Steve Weber 1
FOUR CYLINDER
Trevor Cronick 8
James Reese 6
Scott Schlafke 6
Calvin Stueck 5
Adam Broehm 5
Tanner Westphal 4
James Riske 4
Thomas Schulte 3
Brian Watzka 3
Roman Blank 2 (Wilmot)
Justin Finlan 2
Nathan Lisowe 2
Kenneth Becker 2
Brad Wedde 2
Carl King 2
Bailey Tate 1
Matt Brehmer 1
Tanner Pari 1
Noah Peschke 1
Brett Deprez 1
Jeremy Czarapata 1
Cody Booth 1
Lucas Hacker 1
Braidyn Cady 1
Kyle Jorgenson 1
Neil Watzka 1
Caleb Barnard 1
Jasper Drengler 1
Jake Peters 1
Skylar Bork 1
Ben Schulte 1