by Chris Stepan

ARCADIA, Wis. (April 27, 2001) - The much anticipated and highly awaited grand opening of the state of the art Fox Ridge Speedway in Arcadia, WI had finally arrived on Friday, April 29th and under beautiful sunny skies and 75* temperatures, Dave Hesch and his family saw their dream become a reality in front of a capacity crowd.

After qualifying heat races were run, WISSOTA Street Stock drivers had their chance to write themselves into the record books as the first division to crown a winner on the high banked 3/8 mile clay oval. Daryl Foegen shot out into the lead at the drop of the green flag as Dave Lamont and Darran Jonsgaard immediately began to work on each other for second. Jonsgaard was able to wrestle the position away from Lamont and quickly began to look to the inside of Foegen for the top spot.

As the battle for the lead was on, another scramble was ensuing on the backstretch as Travis Krause, Phil Wernert and former 2-time WISSOTA Street Stock National Champion, Scott Paulson were engaged in a tussle for third.

Paulson cleared traffic first and set his sights on the leaders. It did not take Scott long before he had caught Jonsgaard and slipped under him into second.

Once Paulson was into second, he picked up the pace even more as he reeled in Foegen with relative ease and blasted to the outside of Daryl through turns 1 and 2 into the lead on lap 6. Paulson then stretched his lead over the next 10 circuits as the field began to get strung out a bit, but the race really got interesting when Paulson came upon a lapped car, which proved to be too tough to tame, as Scott drove into the back of the slower car and cut down a tire, ending his chances of picking up the win and handing the lead back over to Foegen.

On the restart, Jeremy Sommer was up to battle Foegen for the win as the lead duo circled the speedway for the next 3 laps door to door. As the white flag flew, Sommer made one last bid for the win, but Foegen was not going to be denied his first career win at the speedway. Sommer came across the stripe in second with David Nasvold, Andy Hoch and Jonsgaard rounding out the top five.

The Super Stocks were up next and as the green flag flew, Jon Duffy shot into the lead with Josh Rodewald and Bob Fort locked in ballet for second.

Rodewald was able to steal the runner-up spot from Fort as Jason Johnson moved his # 28 to the high line and began to work his way toward the front.

Johnson moved to the outside of Fort for third on lap 4 and the pair swapped the position several times on the following three circuits around the high banked oval. Once Fort was able to clear Johnson into third, he began to pressure Rodewald for second and found the high line to his liking as he shot to the cushion and powered by both Rodewald and Duffy into the lead as they raced down the backstretch on lap 9.

The battle then began for second as Duffy was under attack by Johnson and Rodewald for the next several trips around the speedway. Johnson and Rodewald were both successful in getting by Duffy as the laps began to wide down in the main event. Fort held a sizeable advantage, but Rodewald and Johnson had not settled who would finish second just yet as they continued to duke it out until the checkered flew.

Fort went on to pick up the win ahead of Rodewald, who nipped Johnson at the line for second, as Kevin Glander was also able to slip by Duffy to finish fourth.

The mighty open-wheeled Modifieds were the next class to be called onto the speedway for their main event. Troy Langowski used his outside pole position to his advantage as he blasted off into the lead as hot shoe Jay Ihrke picked his way toward the front while Brad Waits, who was forced to start at the tail of the field after suffering mechanical problems in his heat, was charging forward in a hurry on the high side of the speedway. After a lap 2 caution bunched the field up again, Ihrke and Waits had already made their presence felt in the top five and were beginning to battle with each other for position behind Langowski.

As the race neared the halfway mark, Waits used the high line to continue to march to the front and snatched the lead away from Langowski as they roared into turn one. Ihrke was not about to let Waits get away, however, as he then ducked to the inside of Langowski for second on the same lap. Once Ihrke cleared Langowski, he began to chase down Waits and the two began to wage a war fro the lead.

A quick caution on lap 16 slowed the field once again and allowed Todd Scharkey to join in the fun, as he was now up to third. As the green flag flew over the field, Waits held the top spot for the time being, but Ihrke would quickly steal it away. The duo swapped the lead several times over the last 4 circuits, but the pass that counted occurred in turn 2 with only two laps to go as Ihrke dove under Waits to take the top spot, which he never relinquished. Jay became the first Modified winner at the speedway with Waits, Scharkey, Langowski and Dave Weirsgalla rounding out the top five.

The high-powered WISSOTA Late Models were set to put an exclamation point on the history making evening with their feature event being the final race of the night. Jeff Wildung and Danny Young sat on the front row for the main event and when the green flag flew, Wildung looked as if he had been shot out of a cannon as he quickly took command, with Joel Cryderman settling into second early. Several awesome battles were occurring simultaneously on the speedway as rookie, Keith Foss had moved in to battle with Young for third, while Lance Matthees was beginning to feel the pressure from the defending WISSOTA Late Model National Champion, Pat Doar as he used his patented high line to make his way toward the front. The battles were halted however, as the caution light blinked on for debris on the speedway, bunching up the field.

On the restart, Wildung again assumed the lead with Matthees sneaking under Foss and Young into second. Matthees then began to track down Wildung for the top spot as Doar again jumped up the cushion and shot by Young into fourth. Doar had appeared to find the fastest groove around the speedway because one lap later, he zipped by Foss into third and immediately reeled in the leaders. Doar then set up an amazing pass as he shot full throttle into turn one, and roared around both Matthees and Wildung into the lead in one corner.

Once Doar snatched away the lead, he began to distance himself from the field. His lead evaporated on lap 11, however, as the caution flag flew over the track once again, putting Wildung back on Doar's rear bumper for the restart. When the race picked back up, Wildung took a look to the inside of Doar and stuck his nose into the lead briefly, but Doar used the momentum from the high side to carry him back into the top spot until the end. As Doar raced out of turn four for the checkered flag, his drive shaft broke and his car coasted across the finish line, just ahead of Wildung. Doar proved to have luck on his side tonight as he picked up his first win in his new car in defense of his 2000 national championship. Wildung held off Matthees for second and Danny Young held off a rapidly approaching Bob Timm for fourth at the stripe.

The first night of racing at Fox Ridge was excellent and action is set to pick back up this Friday, May 4th, with hot laps at 7 and racing at 7:30 for WISSOTA Late Models, Modifieds, Super Stocks and WISSOTA Street Stocks. For more information, check out our website at www.foxridgespeedway.com or call the track at (608) 323-3396.

RESULTS

WISSOTA LATE MODELS

Feature: Pat Doar, Jeff Wildung, Lance Matthees, Danny Young, Bob Timm, Tom Nesbitt, Keith Foss, Joel Cryderman, Steve Laursen, Jeff Keeney

Heat 1: Timm, Foss, Laursen, Cryderman, Young

Heat 2: Matthees, Doar, Wildung, Nesbitt, Keeney

MODIFIEDS

Feature: Jay Ihrke, Brad Waits, Todd Scharkey, Troy Langowski, Dave Weirsgalla, Kerry Ledebuhr, Steve Speltz, Shane Wehrs, Rick Hauser, Leroy Scharkey

Heat 1: T. Scharkey, Langowski, Dana Lerum, Weirsgalla, Waits

Heat 2: Bruce Angst, Speltz, Bill Bauers, Ron Britain, Paul Hamernick

Heat 3: Ihrke, Dan Hesch, Gary Doelle, Wehrs, Mick Glenn

SUPER STOCKS

Feature: Bob Fort, Josh Rodewald, Jason Johnson, Kevin Glander, Jon Duffy, Quinn Arnoldy, Ben Anderson, John Doelle, Joe Wiechorek, Brian Fetting

Heat 1: Johnson, Gary Weirsgalla, Glander, Rodewald, Arnoldy

Heat 2: Fort, Duffy, Doelle, Fetting, Brad Lutz

WISSOTA STREET STOCKS

Feature: Daryl Foegen, Jeremy Sommer, David Nasvold, Andy Hoch, Darran Jonsgaard, Tony Sass, Scott Paulson, Shawn Wehlage, Travis Krause, Phil Wernert

Heat 1: Paulson, Foegen, Tom Hund, Krause, Sass

Heat 2: Wehlage, Wernert, Dave Lamont, Lester Beardsley, Nathan Rauter

Heat 3: Sommer, Jonsgaard, Danny Hanson, Hoch, Nasvold