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LEMIEUX, DORNER AMONG STURGEON BAY OPENING NIGHT WINNERS

LEMIEUX, DORNER AMONG STURGEON BAY OPENING NIGHT WINNERS

(Submitted by Joe Orsini)

(STURGEON BAY, WI) May 25 – 90 cars and stars rolled into The Hill Raceway Sunday night each looking to add a coveted Nathan Bouche Memorial trophy to their hardware case.  With opening night the week prior rained out the annual Memorial Day weekend race was the first chance for the 2024 champs to start their title defenses.

Brett Wenzel began the night with a chance to break his tie with Dave Bouche for most consecutive track championships.  Both drivers currently share the record with 5 consecutive championships in the Stock Car division.  Craig Dorner and Scott Schlafke both entered the 2025 season as two time defending champions.  In the Unified Dirt Street Stocks Jason Geyer put away potential retirement thoughts to defend his 2024 crown.  Each driver closed the night with solid runs as they opened the season.

The Kroll Machine and Fabrication Stock Car main event started with Tucker Bodendorfer leading the opening 6 circuits before Dan Sell Jr. pushed his Ford powered Thunderbird into the top spot.  Disaster soon struck Sell as the 28W car of Will Hoefs slid off the track in turn three and tried to reenter the racing surface just off turn four.  As Hoefs rejoined he slid directly into the path of Sell and second place racer, Brett Wenzel.  The three cars came to a halt just outside of turn four on the bottom.  Wenzel and Hoefs were able to continue but Sell’s run of snakebitten luck continued as he had to be removed from the track on the business end of the wrecker.  On the ensuing restart Rob Waecther Jr. used the outside line to power past Bodendorfer in turn two.

As Bodendorfer challenged back on the inside, Waechter pushed his Baby Blue 72 too hard on the exit of turn four and lost the handle causing the field to, again, scatter around an incident involving the leaders.  As the race restarted with 12 laps remaining Brett Wenzel used the high side to grab the lead away from Bodendorfer.  At the halfway mark Caden Lemieux worked the top line around Wenzel and completed the charge from 10th on the starting grid to 1st.

Lemieux survived two more late race restarts to capture the victory.  Wenzel settled for 2nd, Bodendorfer 3rd, Racer Rick Dix 4th, and Larry Karcz Jr. completed the top 5.

Craig Dorner kicked off his title defense in the T. Simon Jewelers Sport Mod division by jumping from outside of the second row to the lead on the opening lap.  Dorner survived multiple cautions to hold off all comers.  Cole Thomas saw an impressive 2nd place run evaporate on the last lap as mechanical issues finally slowed his battle damaged steel stallion.  Instead Tony Gates secured the runner up spot, Randy Lemieux Jr. was 3rd, Mike Plate Sr. 4th, and Brayden Lemieux completed a hard charge from 17th at the drop of the green to 5th.

The Millies Pub and Grub Unified Dirt Street Stock main event started the night’s features with Bailey Laviolette grabbing the early lead from the outside of the front row.  By lap three though Derek Moede powered past into the top spot.  Moede would hold court the remainder of the race and capture the win.  The Blonde Bomber, Jason Geyer, staved off retirement thoughts with a 2nd place finish, Derek Scrauth had a solid 3rd place performance after moving over from the Grand National division,  Laviolette settled for 4th, and John Denil Jr. finished 5th.

The Dykesville Bowl 4 Cylinder A-main closed out the Nathan Bouche Memorial Night with Chase Ertel leading the opening pair of laps before yielding the top spot to Thomas Schulte.  Ertel refused to back off and hounded Schulte until he regained the lead on lap 9.  Ertel Held on for the win, Schulte was 2nd, Scott Schlafke started his title defense with a last lap pass for 3rd, Kyle Walters had a good night with a heat win and 4th place finish, and Dallas Topel rounded out the top 5.

The Hill Raceway is back in action Saturday, June 14th, with the Therma-Tron-X night at the races featuring the return of the Modifieds.  Racing kicks off at 6:00 PM and adult grandstand admission remains an inflation busting ten dollars!

Kroll Machine and Fabrication Stock Car 20 Lap Feature:

1. 3L-Caden Lemieux[11]; 2. 0-Brett Wenzel[9]; 3. 05-Tucker Bodendorfer[1]; 4. 43-Rick Dix[8]; 5. 36-Larry Karcz Jr[7]; 6. 911-John Adams[20]; 7. 40-Aaron Karcz[6]; 8. 33-Zach Spangenberg[18]; 9. 13-John Anschutz[15]; 10. 24A-Aidan Gretz[19]

Heat 1:

1. 3L-Caden Lemieux[4]; 2. 21-Dave Bouche[6]; 3. 28W-Will Hoefs[5]; 4. 19T-Josh Tuttle[1]

Heat 2:

1. 72-Robert Waechter Jr[1]; 2. 92-Jeremy Johnson[2]; 3. 36-Larry Karcz Jr[3]; 4. 64-Brady Polcen[4]

Heat 3:

1. 43-Rick Dix[5]; 2. 18-Daniel Sell Jr[3]; 3. 0-Brett Wenzel[7]; 4. 13-John Anschutz[6]

Heat 4:

1. 05-Tucker Bodendorfer[1]; 2. 40-Aaron Karcz[3]; 3. 22L-Nathan Lauscher[5]; 4. 39C-Adam Clark[4]

LCQ 1:

1. 111-Shanon Guelette[2]; 2. 24A-Aidan Gretz[1]

LCQ 2:

1. 33-Zach Spangenberg[1]; 2. 911-John Adams[2]

T. Simon Jewelers Northern Sport Mod 20 Lap Feature:

1. 15-Craig Dorner[4]; 2. 5X-Tony Gates[8]; 3. 99-Randy LeMieux Jr[7]; 4. 55P-Michael Plate Sr[9]; 5. 18L-Brayden Lemieux[17]; 6. 19-George Henkel[10]; 7. 49-Roger Laviolette[12]; 8. 4JR-Joel Seegert Jr[6]; 9. 11-Bernie Reinhardt[3]; 10. 19X-Gary Henkel[11]

Heat 1:

1. 15-Craig Dorner[2]; 2. 5X-Tony Gates[1]; 3. 99-Randy LeMieux Jr[4]; 4. 49-Roger Laviolette[6]; 5. 2-Collin Massart[5]

Heat 2:

1. 4JR-Joel Seegert Jr[1]; 2. 55P-Michael Plate Sr[2]; 3. 19X-Gary Henkel[3]; 4. 22L-Nathan LeMay[4]; 5. 00-Rick Lemieux[7]

Heat 3:

1. 91-Cole Thomas[2]; 2. 19-George Henkel[3]; 3. 11-Bernie Reinhardt[6]; 4. 983-Brian Ankerson[1]; 5. 8-Geno Sternard

Millie’s Pub and Grub Unified Dirt Street Stock 20 Lap Feature:

1. 9M-Derek Moede[1]; 2. 3-Jason Geyer[4]; 3. 5S-Derek Schrauth[9]; 4. 22-Bailey Laviolette[2]; 5. 9-John Denil Jr[3]; 6. 40D-Dave DeGrave[6]; 7. 46-Chad Naze[7]; 8. 288-Kevin Luedtke[12]; 9. 8B-Jason Brandes[8]; 10. 3G-Garrett Geyer[18]

Heat 1:

1. 8B-Jason Brandes[3]; 2. 9-John Denil Jr[2]; 3. 25S-Brian Schrauth[7]; 4. 7A-Brady Ascherien[6]

Heat 2:

1. 40D-Dave DeGrave[1]; 2. 3-Jason Geyer[4]; 3. 22-Bailey Laviolette[3]; 4. 95-Aaron Thornton[7]

Heat 3:

1. 7-Tyler Fox[2]; 2. 19-Mitchell Krueger[4]; 3. 46-Chad Naze[3]; 4. 10-Matt Hanson[7]

Heat 4:

1. 5S-Derek Schrauth[1]; 2. 9M-Derek Moede[2]; 3. 288-Kevin Luedtke[6]; 4. 914-Tyler Nettekoven[3]

LCQ 1:

1. 28V-John Vetting[1]; 2. 8D-Nathan Delsart[6]

LCQ 2:

1. 3G-Garrett Geyer[1]; 2. 14-Benjamin Mccoy[2]

Dykesville Bowl 4 Cylinders 15 Lap Feature:

1. 2E-Chase Ertel[2]; 2. 15-Ben Schulte[3]; 3. 7-Scott Schlafke[5]; 4. 68-Kyle Walters[1]; 5. 133-Dallas Topel[4]; 6. (DNF) 21LM-Missy Clark[6]

Heat 1:

1. 68-Kyle Walters[2]; 2. 15-Ben Schulte[5]; 3. 7-Scott Schlafke[6]; 4. 133-Dallas Topel[3]; 5. 2E-Chase Ertel[4]; 6. 21LM-Missy Clark[1]