Plymouth's Luedke wins sprint cars race

MANITOWOC – T.J. Luedke of Plymouth won the 360 MSA Sprint Car feature at Friday night’s Eastern Wisconsin Stock Cars program.

The 30-lap race got off to a slow start. Before a circuit was completed, Ben Schmidt (Plymouth) flipped in turn four. Schmidt checked out fine but retired to the pits for the remainder of the night.

When the green flag flew to start the race, the cars of Jeff Wilke (Genoa, Ill.) and Dave Lisowe (Chilton) got together in turn three prior to a lap being completed. Thinking the third time would be a charm to get the race under way, the ride of Paul Pokorski (West Bend) stopped high in turn two. Pokorski got a push to restart and joined the back of the field.

The rest of the race went uninterrupted. Todd King, driving for Russ Wetenkamp (Newton), grabbed the lead from the pole position. Scotty Thiel (Sheboygan) claimed second until lap four when Jeremy Schultz (Beaver Dam) passed him.

Schultz’s claim on second was short-lived. On lap six, Luedke passed Schultz and was now running down King. As the cars crossed the line to be scored on lap 17, Luedke crossed the line first to be scored as the leader.

Luedke paced the field to the checkered flag followed by Wayne Modjeski (Oak Creek), Kurt Davis (Milwaukee), Schultz, and Lance Fassbender (Burnett), respectively.

Gordie Seegert Jr. (Oostburg) jumped out to the lead from the outside pole position in the 25-lap Late Model feature. The race was slowed on lap one for the car of Scott Haugstad (Plymouth) spinning in turn one.

Tim Buhler (Glenbeulah) and Russ Scheffler (Pewaukee) ran side by side for several laps. The race was slowed on lap five for the car of Ray Reiss (Kiel) spinning in turn four.

On the next lap, the race was slowed for the car of Chris Carlson (Union Grove) spinning on the backstretch. Buhler claimed second until Scheffler passed him on lap 10.

Scheffler was now working on Seegert. Lapped traffic came into play on lap 14. Seegert patiently made his way through the traffic.

As the white flag flew for Seegert, the car of Jim Lavey (Sheboygan) spun in turn two. The yellow came out and as the yellow came out, Seegert made contact with Lavey.

Since Lavey was the yellow flag car, Seegert was declared the winner. Following Seegert to the line in order were Scheffler, Buhler, Pete Parker (Kaukauna) and Robert Cullen (Chilton).

The 20-lap Grand National feature saw Ben Stumpf (Brillion) take the lead for at the drop of the green flag. Randy Brunette (Chilton) chased Stumpf for the first five laps.

On lap six, Brian Gilles (Plymouth) passed Brunette for second. Gilles now had his sights on Stumpf. Gilles passed Stumpf on lap 12 for the lead.

The only caution of the race came on lap 13 for the car of Paul Perronne (Sheboygan) spinning in turn one. Gilles showed the way to the checkers, followed by Stumpf, Jason Dyer (New Holstein), Jason Winkler (New Holstein) and Matt Yancey (Sheboygan), respectively.

Mike Kaufmann (Newton) took the lead of the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature and didn’t look back. The field was slowed on lap one for the car of Ray Fuller (Manitowoc) spinning in turn four.

Kaufmann set the pace and on lap four the race was slowed once again for the car of Ryan Minster (Sheboygan) spinning in turn two. Kaufmann took the green while Bradley Ruh (Elkhart Lake) and Kyle Resch (Manitowoc) were jockeying for second behind him.

Ruh claimed second with Resch following in third. Finishing out the top five were Jeff Bender (Plymouth) in fourth and Adam Krepline (Manitowoc), fifth.