Minster rides high groove to Grand National Nationals title
Scribner, Arenz, Jungwirth, Maas claim Manitowoc A main victories
By Jeff Pederson
Pedal Down Promotions
(PEDAL DOWN PROMOTIONS) August 5, 2016 – With extra prize money and additional prestige on the line, Ryan Minster of Sheboygan came through with a stirring late race charge along the rim of the track to claim the 30-lap Grand National Nationals A main victory in Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car racing action at the Manitowoc Speedway Friday, Aug. 5.
In the Modified division, Eric Scribner of Kiel captured his second consecutive 20-lap A main victory. Travis Arenz of Sheboygan netted his third A main triumph of the 2016 campaign in the 20-lap Sport Mod A main. Jeff Jungwirth of Oshkosh claimed the victory in the second and final Street Stock A main of the season at the Manitowoc Speedway, while Chris Maas of Oakfield claimed a wire-to-wire triumph in the 15-lap Sport 4 A main.
Polesitter Kodiak Wirtz of Menomonee Falls and outside front row starter Dan Sorce of Milwaukee led the field to the green flag in the Grand National Nationals main event. Wirtz and Sorce dueled side by side during the opening lap before Sorce surged ahead to gain the lead on lap 2.
As Sorce led the field, fifth starter Mark Fieber of Cascade moved up to assume third place. On lap 6, things really got interesting on the racy, multi-groove track when Fieber dove low, Wirtz stuck to the middle and Sorce road to the top of the speedway to set up a three-wide duel into turn one.
Fieber powered into the top spot before the first caution flag of the race flew on lap 7 for the stalled car of Steven Wirtz of Milwaukee. With scoring reverting to the lap before the caution, Fieber was relegated to third when the race returned to green flag action.
Again, Wirtz (low), Sorce (middle) and Fieber (high) battled three wide on lap 8 with Fieber gaining the top spot up high in turn four on lap 9. Fieber controlled the lead over the next 18 laps of the extended 30-lap event as battles for position raged behind him.
Ryan Minster, who started fourth worked his way into second place lap 11 and quickly set his sets on Fieber. After another caution came out on lap 20 for Kodiak Wirth, who stalled in turn two while running fourth, third starter Steven Weber of Plymouth wrestled second place away from Minster following the restart.
However, the man on the move was 10th starter Nick Schumacher of Eagle, who shot up the high groove and began picking off cars at will. Schumacher assumed second place on lap 21 and was closing on Fieber before a caution flag was displayed for the stalled car of Manitowoc’s Greg Haese in turn 1 on lap 23.
On the restart, the second-running Schumacher attempted to move from the inside lane to the outside lane in turn one, but ended up jumping the cushion. The miscue allowed Minster to streak into second place.
Minster, who came into the night leading the Grand National point standings, then moved up to the ultra-fast outside groove on lap 25 and began to quickly track down Fieber, who stayed tied to the inside lane. Minster pulled even with Fieber in turn 1 on lap 27 before powering ahead in turn four.
Once ahead, Minster pulled away to notch his first Grand National A main victory of the season at Manitowoc, while Schumacher came on strong up high to nip Fieber at the line for second. Fieber came home third, 11th starter Brad Lubach of Kiel placed fourth and Steven Wirtz, who originally started 14th, battled back after stalling out on lap 7 to place fifth.
The 20-lap Modified A main proved to be all Eric Scribner, who posted a dominating half-lap victory for the second week in a row.
Polesitter Mike Klenz of West Bend led the opening lap, before Scribner, who started fourth, surged into the lead along the high groove on lap 2. Scribner wasted no time building up a big full straightaway advantage over Klenz.
In the closing laps, seventh starter Kyle Kudick of Two Rivers outdueled ninth starter Brian Crapser to assume second place. Kudick followed Scribner to the finish line in second, followed by Crapser in third, Modified point leader and sixth starter Jamie Schmidt of Seymour in fourth and Klenz rounded out the top five.
Travis Arenz survived a late-race battled with Manitowoc’s John Rothmund and point leader Brian Bruechert of Kewaunee to capture his third EWC Sport Mod A main victory of 2016.
On the drop of the green flag polesitter Russ Franks and Rothmund engaged in a side-by-side duel with Franks maintaining a slight edge on the first two laps. Rothmund moved ahead on lap three, while Arenz, who started ninth, and the 10th starting Bruechert made their way to the front.
Arenz bolted into the lead on lap 10, but Rothmund stayed glued to his bumper during the remainder of the race with Bruechert and eight starter Cody Schroeder of Manitowoc also in hot pursuit.
Arenz held off all challengers en route to the victory, followed by Rothmund in second, Schroeder was third, Bruechert claimed fourth and fourth starter Jayden Schmidt of Seymour took fifth.
Outside front row starter Mark Baker paced the first nine laps of the A main for the visiting Street Street division before giving way to sixth starter Jeff Jungwirth on lap 10.
Josh McDonald of Hilbert, who started fourth, seized second place on lap 13, before 18th starter Alex Crapser charged all the way up from the rear to assume the runner-up spot one lap later. Crapser followed Jungwirth to the line in second, third starter Adam Crapser placed third, McDonald wound up fourth and Jesse Krahn took fifth.
Polesitter Chris Maas turned in an impressive flag-to-flag victory in the 15-lap Sport 4 main event. Ben Meyerhofer of Menasha worked his way up from the 10th starting spot to challenge Maas for the lead in the closing laps. However, Maas held on to claim his first Sport 4 A main victory at Manitowoc this season in just his second appearance at the track.
Meyerhofer finished second, but was later disqualified, Mike Meier of Chilton, who started sixth, placed third, point leader Shaun Bangart of Chilton placed fourth after starting ninth and Cody Pankow, who started 11th, rounded out the top five.
Walker Bergene of Whitelaw was the Thunder Truck winner.
The evening, which drew a field of 96 cars in six divisions, was presented by Pink Heals of Manitowoc County and Badger Brew and Que.
The EWSC races next Friday, Aug. 12 will feature Past Champions Night and topless night with racers encouraged to compete without a roof on their cars. Action will take place in the Late Model, Grand National, Modified, Sport Mod, Sport Four and Thunder Truck divisions.
Just four nights of racing remain until the Manitowoc Speedway closes for good following the completion of the 2016 season.
Pit gates open at 4:30 p.m. Spectator gates open at 5:30 p.m. with racing to begin at 7 p.m.
Pedal Down Promotions is a full-service public relations and media services company devoted to helping clients effectively communicate with targeted audiences through a diverse array of promotional strategies and methods, including press releases, newsletters, profile and feature articles, website and social media content development, printed media, editing and layout, graphic design and book publishing services.
For more information on Pedal Down Promotions, email pedaldownpromotions@gmail.com, visit www.pedaldownpromotions.com or call 920-323-7970.
GRAND NATIONALS
HEAT 1
1, Dan Sorce. 2, Steven Weber. 3, Nick Schumacher. 4, Jesse James Cullen.
5, Chase Solomon. 6, Daniel Schumacher. 7, Matt Berlin. 8, Luke Scholten
HEAT 2
1, Ryan Minster. 2, Jason Fish. 3, Aaron Streblow. 4, Don Schumacher. 5,
Steve Wirtz. 6, Kevin Hebbe. 7, Brett Wachowiacz. 8, Michael Gilson.
HEAT 3
1, Justin Erickson. 2, Brad Juckem. 3, Brad Lubach. 4, Chris Gilson. 5, Rich
Garb. 6, Gregg Haese. 7, Kenneth Nelson.
HEAT 4
1, Jason Dyer. 2, Kodiak Wirtz. 3, Mark Fieber. 4, Jeffery Krizan. 5, Jonathan
Otte. 6, Nicholas Goeman. 7, Ethan Ross.
B FEATURE 1
1, Jesse James Cullen. 2, Gregg Haese. 3, Daniel Schumacher. 4, Matt
Berlin. 5, Chase Solomon. 6, Chris Gilson. 7, Kenneth Nelson. 8, Luke
Scholten. 9, Rich Garb (DNS)
B FEATURE 2
1, Steve Wirtz. 2, Don Schumacher. 3, Jonathan Otte. 4, Jeffery Krizan. 5,
Michael Gilson. 6, Brett Wachowiacz. 7, Kevin Hebbe. 8, Nicholas Goeman.
9, Ethan Ross (DNS)
A FEATURE
1, Ryan Minster. 2, Nick Schumacher. 3, Mark Fieber. 4, Brad Lubach. 5,
Steve Wirtz. 6, Gregg Haese. 7, Dan Sorce. 8, Steven Weber. 9, Justin
Erickson. 10, Daniel Schumacher. 11, Jason Dyer. 12, Jesse James Cullen.
13, Brad Juckem. 14, Jason Fish. 15, Jeffery Krizan. 16, Don Schumacher.
17, Matt Berlin. 18, Kodiak Wirtz. 19, Aaron Streblow. 20, Jonathan Otte
PROFESSIONAL PLATING MODIFIED RESULTS
HEAT 1
1, Matt Jackson. 2, Mike Klenz. 3, Eric Scribner. 4, Jamie Schmidt. 5, RJ
Gerber. 6, Mark Sehvenemaun.
HEAT 2
1, Kyle Kudick. 2, Brian Crapser. 3, Mark Joski. 4, Randy Markwardt Jr. 5, Jeff
Bodendorfer Jr..
A FEATURE
1, Eric Scribner. 2, Kyle Kudick. 3, Brian Crapser. 4, Jamie Schmidt. 5, Mike
Klenz. 6, Randy Markwardt Jr. 7, Mark Joski. 8, Mark Sehvenemaun. 9, RJ
Gerber. 10, Matt Jackson. 11, Jeff Bodendorfer Jr..
CALIBRE COATINGS UNLIMITED SPORT MOD RESULTS
HEAT 1
1, Brian Bruechert. 2, Russ Franks. 3, Cody Schroeder. 4, Robby Thiel. 5,
Justin Bauer. 6, Jayden Schmidt. 7, Seth Hoeffner. 8, Barry Maas.
HEAT 2
1, Rick Kretschmann. 2, Travis Arenz. 3, John Rothmund. 4, Glen Blanke. 5,
Scott Besaw. 6, Robbie Holst Jr. 7, Andrew Meyerhofer. 8, Kassi Krause.
A FEATURE
1, Travis Arenz. 2, John Rothmund. 3, Cody Schroeder. 4, Brian Bruechert.
5, Jayden Schmidt. 6, Glen Blanke. 7, Robby Thiel. 8, Scott Besaw. 9, Barry
Maas. 10, Russ Franks. 11, Kassi Krause. 12, Seth Hoeffner. 13, Justin
Bauer. 14, Robbie Holst Jr. 15, Andrew Meyerhofer. 16, Rick Kretschmann (DNS)
STREET STOCKS
HEAT 1
1, Ryan Glembin. 2, Adam Crapser. 3, Eric Derks. 4, Eric Scribner. 5, Jason
Jensen. 6, Chloe Baker. 7, George Tabalske. 8, Steven DeKerf Sr. 9, Alex
Crapser.
HEAT 2
1, Mark Baker. 2, Josh McDonald. 3, Jeff Jungwirth. 4, Jesse Krahn. 5, Logan
Schmeck. 6, Lexii Ashcroft. 7, Jason Fairbank. 8, Derek Gagne. 9, Dustin
Nelson.
A FEATURE
1, Jeff Jungwirth. 2, Alex Crapser. 3, Adam Crapser. 4, Josh McDonald. 5,
Jesse Krahn. 6, Lexii Ashcroft. 7, Jason Jensen. 8, Jason Fairbank. 9, Logan
Schmeck. 10, George Tabalske. 11, Steven DeKerf Sr. 12, Derek Gagne. 13,
Dustin Nelson. 14, Chloe Baker. 15, Mark Baker. 16, Eric Scribner. 17, Ryan
Glembin. 18, Eric Derks.
SPORT 4
HEAT 1
1, Shaun Bangart. 2, Chris Maas. 3, Mike Meier. 4, Jim Bangart. 5, Corey
Suttner. 6, Eric Van Rooy.
HEAT 2
1, Ben Meyerhofer. 2, Matt DeWilde. 3, Jason Dondlinger. 4, John
Kubichek. 5, Scott Kafka. 6, Mitchell Fairbank.
HEAT 3
1, Braison Bennett. 2, Mitch Meier. 3, Cody Pankow. 4, Jeremiah Hughes. 5,
Sarah Van der Vaart.
A FEATURE
1, Chris Maas. 2, Ben Meyerhofer (DQ). 3, Mike Meier. 4, Shaun Bangart. 5, Cody
Pankow. 6, Braison Bennett. 7, Mitch Meier. 8, Jim Bangart. 9, Corey
Suttner. 10, Matt DeWilde. 11, Eric Van Rooy. 12, John Kubichek. 13,
Jeremiah Hughes. 14, Sarah Van der Vaart. 15, Jason Dondlinger. 16, Scott
Kafka. 17, Mitchell Fairbank (DNS).
THUNDER TRUCKS
HEAT 1
1, Walker Bergene. 2, Travis Olson (DNS)
A FEATURE
1, Walker Bergene. 2, Travis Olson (DNS)