Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Monday, October 16, 2006
You really couldn’t even make it up. After a great season in his own car, Mark Dobmeier got the call from Rush Racing to sub for Brooke Tatnell, who remains in Australia alongside his ailing father George, at Wilmot. Dobmeier had never seen the place but hoped to make the most of the biggest opportunity of his career. In dramatic fashion, Dobmeier passed Daryn Pittman and Jeremy Campbell in the final turn to take his first career WoO win and do what Jason Johnson and Jeff Shepard failed to do in substitution. Last weekend at Knoxville, Dobmeier lamented the fact that he was stuck at 19 wins and finished for the year after that night. Now, he’s got his 20 wins and a bargaining chip heading into what promises to be an interesting off-season that could have some high profile rides available. Dobmeier’s crew jokingly penciled his name on Dave Lunstra’s 1W car as “2007 Driver” at Knoxville but that has not been confirmed.
Jeremy Campbell and Justin Henderson have each had productive seasons in their first season on the road but top five finishes at Wilmot will send each off to Phoenix, Las Vegas and the off-season with chins elevated. The pair is currently battling with Terry McCarl for 8th, 9th and 10th in the standings. The Henderson team has been employing Fast Track to Indy winner Geoff Dodge for the past few months and will be busy building cars in the off-season. Dodge hopes to move to Pennsylvania next year to pursue an offer with a 360 team but is still open to other options. Henderson will be racing the Chili Bowl again this year, running in the Wayne Simmons stable with Wayne Johnson and Tony Shilling…As for Jac Haudenschild, he finished 8th at Wilmot and will return to the road again for Rick Wright in 2007. The team has already started ordering parts and will begin assembling them at their shop in Oklahoma shortly…Chad Kemenah is rumored to be looking for a corporate sponsor to replace Underground Utilities Inc. in 2007. Kemenah had another frustrating DNF after winning the B-main and was scored in 23rd. It has been a frustrating season of DNFs for Kemenah who made consistent finishes his trademark while winning four All Star titles. One season, Kemenah finished every single lap of every single race on the All Star trail.
Several of the racers from the Wilmot area were happy to talk about their recent asphalt experiences at Lake Geneva’s raceway, which is now closed due to development around the scenic escape. The HOSS pavement sprints visited in early August and Tim Cox bested Todd Lehr and David Gough. Now, in the final days of the track, longtime Wilmot announcer Mike Babicz organized an event under the BOSS sanction, (presumably Badger Outlaw Sprint Series) for October 1. Cox won again but most of the field was filled with dirt racers in dirt cars. Brian Kristan was second over Cox’s son Jason, making his debut. Wilmot regular James Lukey was fourth over IRA racer Ryan Irwin, who snuck into the A-main on Saturday night at Wilmot despite a turn one tangle in the heat race that eliminated his nose wing and mangled his front end. Darrell Dodd also ran the Lake Geneva show, finishing sixth, and related the Babicz hopes to schedule several more events in 2007, perhaps replacing HOSS dates at Madison and other tracks. Time will tell if the series will get off the ground. As for Dodd, he finished his season third in points at Wilmot and said his days of traveling are finished. He’ll return to Wilmot in 2007 and maybe hit a few close IRA shows.
Kurt Davis just missed the transfer out of the B-main and related that he plans to race again in 2007, although this season was to be his swan song. Davis said all is well at the Sheboygan County Fair Park for the 360s and they could even see a raise in pay there next season. Davis said business is very brisk at Hepfner Racing Products, so much so that Todd Hepfner sold his operation, including the hauler, and may only make a few starts as a hired gun in 2007…Dave Uttech put Wayne Modjeski’s 77 into the A-main for a 22nd place finish. Uttech had already sent off his Wesmar engine for a refresh and Modjeski was committed to an off-road quad trip and could not make the rescheduled Wilmot date…Joey Martin of Stealth Chassis was wandering the pit area and promised Stealth could be making a return to the winged ranks after a few years of concentrating on non-wing, midgets and the new generation Silver Crowners. Martin will be crew chief at the Chili Bowl for Daryn Pittman and Dustin Morgan…An hour before hot laps, it looked like a disaster for SLS Promotions as they stared at an empty grandstand. By race time, however, a healthy crowd swelled and stayed throughout a very, very cold night. One has to think the World of Outlaws will return to Wilmot in 2007. SLS does everything right in their productions, coupling heavy promotion with efficient shows and good track prep…Mike Kertscher made another start in the Hartnell 48H car and locked it into the A-main. The former IRA contender has only made a few starts this year in Sprint Cars and has been concentrating on his job with the Skip Barber Racing School, which will take him to California this week. He does, however, have a win at Plymouth in early August.
Mark the date of the IRA banquet on your calendar as Dave Enders is rumored to be emcee. Enders retired this year after winning the championship and can now focus his full concentration on being the life of the party at the racetrack. Oh, yeah, the date is Saturday, December 2 and you can get more information at www.irasprints.com...One week after making his 360 debut at Knoxville, Russ Hall was back to work as a crewmember for Terry McCarl. Hall will race full-time at Knoxville in 2007 in a car he got from McCarl as a token of appreciation. McCarl had an up-and-down night at Wilmot and finished 13th after a tangle with Becca Anderson that also included Dave Moulis, who flipped over the bank in the 14AJ…As for Anderson, she set a new track record at Wilmot with a lap of 12.703 and finished 12th…Wayne Johnson drove the Forbrook 5 again this week but reported that he’ll take the FattFro 14AJ on the road in 2007…Dan Owings arrived late in his 19K and made a few laps with a misfiring engine. I believe it was the first appearance of the year for Owings, who has spent much of the year helping Ryan Irwin…Veteran race photographer Mike Spitzer passed along that Wilmot would be his final night of shooting race cars and that he is retiring after 27 years. Thanks to Spitzer for his dedication to the sport and for all the images he’s shared with all of us over the years.
Chad Blonde, who made the A-main in his Knoxville debut one week prior, crashed hard with Brian Carlson at the start of his heat race and was finished for the night. Carlson returned briefly for the B-main. Blonde finished third to Greg Wilson and Brock Mayes in the All Star standing this year and also got his first career series win when the series hit Mayetta, Kansas, post-Nationals…Kaley Gharst looked to shuck an engine in Bruce Williams’ 7W after securing a transfer spot in the heat race but returned for an 11th place finish in the A-main in his Wilmot debut. Gharst will run the Short Track Nationals for the team. Strangely enough, that will be his 360 Sprint Car debut…Knoxville mouthpiece Tony Bokhoven and Bill McCroskey were on hand Saturday night. McCroskey and Bokhoven are going 305 racing next year after purchasing Jerry Mason’s B29 operation. The only question now is whether Bokhoven, who once hotlapped Archie Ergenbright’s sprinter at Knoxville, will go by his given name or use alias Jim Dandy, ala Smoke Johnson (Tony Stewart), Manny Moore (Jason Sides), Rusty Pipes (Brian Paulus) or Luke Warmwater (Jimmy Sills).
That should suffice for this edition of Upper Midwest Ramblings, which returns following a three month hiatus. It’s supply and demand, baby, and it took a long time for the supply to drop low enough to bring up the demand! Actually, it was primarily sports related. Now that the Twins have fizzled miserably in the ALDS, the Iowa Hawks have proven themselves to be inconsistent and, as much as it hurts to say it, a little overhyped and the Vikings new management has proven to be just as committed to mediocrity as the previous regime, I’m freed up to concentrate on Rambling. We’ll return in two weeks with a pile of notes from the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock. In the meantime, keep me updated and send your notes to Justin@mompub.com.
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