Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings, Part Two
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Roger Rager returned to the 410 ranks with Butch Donahue’ 6R. The team had a Don Ott powerplant and Rager plans to make sporadic starts throughout the rest of the season, including the Jackson World of Outlaws show on September 23. Rager had a transfer spot to the A-main at Cedar Lake before the left rear suspension broke on the last lap. Look for him to stay closer to home next year and Tony Donahue could make a few starts as well….Chris Shirek is battling Wade Nygaard for the NOSA title but he battled down to the wire against Mark Dobmeier at River Cities on Friday night. Dobmeier eventually got the best of him and scored his 19th win of the year. The younger Shirek, Nick, flipped hard and had to borrow a wing from his brother to make Cedar Lake. NOSA brought five cars this year, including Dobmeier, the Shireks and tow partners Chris Burke and Jeff Vonasek….Wayne Modjeski was unable to get his big horse engine in time for the northern swing but managed to make the A-main at Cedar Lake with his under-powered ride. With ridiculous Wisconsin gas prices and late-season bills piling up, the IRA really brought an impressive group of cars for the two shows. Some, like Mike Reinke and Todd King, only arrived for Cedar Lake...Bill Wirth had a great night on Friday at Superior, winning his heat and leading much of the feature. It wasn’t easy, either, as Wirth had to pass Kim Mock and Randy Anderson to take the lead. After the races, nearly everyone was over to congratulate the low buck racer on his success. He missed the A-main at Cedar Lake by just one spot, which did earn him an extra $50 from the Richert family…Lynton Jeffrey was a surprise entrant in Lenard McCarl’s 7X. He said he received a call from McCarl around 11 in the morning with an offer to drive because McCarl couldn’t locate his driver, John VanDenBerg. Jeffrey tipped the car over softly in the A-main.
Tidbits
Steve Kinser continues to chase Fred Rahmer for the feature win lead. Steve’s two victories at Chico, including his 12th Gold Cup Race of Champions win, gave him 23 on the year while Rahmer snared both nights of the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal to round his total to 28. Rahmer will need an incredible month for retiring owner Joe Harz to best his 34 wins in 2004. One would hate to be ride-shopping against Rahmer in Central PA right now…Rik Forbes and Gary Taylor split the twin RMMRA Midget features at I-76 this weekend and each finished second in the other feature. Two of the nicest Midget racers out there…The crew shirts say “What Can Brown Do For You?” The answer would be: win 10 races. Brian Brown got to double digits with his WOW feature win at Moberly over Rusty Potter and Terry Hinck…In Wissota action, Bill Boles followed up a strong performance at Madison in 2004 with a feature win over Chuck Swenson and Jake Peters. On Saturday night, Swenson dominated the field at Casino Speedway in his hometown of Watertown, South Dakota…With Fremont shut down for the season to deal with Ford family tragedies, several of their racers have been finding success elsewhere. 305 racer Roger Shammo ran fourth at Butler while Mike Linder took to Sandusky’s pavement and picked up a win in a 305…Johnny Anderson, who had a breakout season at Knoxville, proved he has improved elsewhere as well by winning the ASCS Midwest show at US36 on Friday night over Brian Brown and the returning Todd Frisbie, in what must be his first start of the season.
Next weekend, I’ll be heading for two nights of racing at Eagle Raceway as the World of Outlaws steamroll back through the Plains. In the meantime, I’m sorting criticism and praise into separate folders at Justin@mompub.com.
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