Sports Grand Nationals

MANITOWOC – Another great Friday evening greeted racers and fans alike when they arrived at the Manitowoc County Expo for another night of Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car racing.

The Grand Nationals rolled a full field on the track with several visiting drivers. Matt Jackson and Scott Houpt made up the front row of this race, Logan Rhode and Ben Stumpf the second, and Ryan Minster and Brett Wenzel the third.

Jackson got out to the quick lead, followed by Rhode and Stumpf with the action being stopped for debris on lap three. The lead group of cars started to pull away, led by Jackson, Rhode, Stumpf, Brian Gilles of Plymouth and Houpt.

At the midway point another yellow for debris set the top five at Jackson, Gilles, Ben Stumpf, and Rhode. On lap 15, Gilles took the lead from Jackson and would hold him off to take another victory. Trailing him across the stripe were Jackson, Ben Stumpf, Houpt and Wenzel, respectively.

The EWSC 360 Sprints’ entire field was pushed onto the track by their crew, and once all were clear, they push-started for the A Main. Ben Schmidt and Pete Ostrowski shared the front row, Tim Haddy and Kurt Davis the second, and Jeremy Schultz and Scotty Thiel the third.

Thundering down for the green flag, Schmidt jumped out to an early lead and began to stretch it out with Ostrowski and Davis close at hand. The leader started lapping cars quickly – allowing the rest of the field to start chasing him down.

With a wide track and several useable grooves, moves were being made all over the track. At the midpoint of the race it was Davis, Schmidt, Thiel, Scott Neitzel, and Ostrowski in the top five, respectively.

As the race progressed, Davis continued to lap cars and by the end of the race had lapped up to the 12th position. At the end, the division had run its first green-to- checkered A Main of the season.

Davis earned the win, followed by Neitzel, Thiel, Ostrowski, Schmidt, T.J. Luedke, Haddy, Schultz, Billy Hafemann and Paul Pokorski, respectively.

The Late Models rolled out, complete with two guest drivers from Australia. Tim Buhler and Randy Markwardt led the field, followed in order by Gordie Seegert Jr., Russ Scheffler, Rick Scheffler and Dan Sorce.

At the drop of the green, quick moves by Rick and Russ Scheffler put them up front – battling with Buhler and Markwardt for the lead.

The yellow flew for the only time on lap four for the car of Paul Dingel who experienced a flat tire on turn two. The restart had Buhler in the lead, followed by Markwardt, Russ Seegert Jr., and Rick Scheffler, respectively.

Immediately Rick and Russ were applying pressure to Buhler for the lead with Russ getting by for the lead on lap 11 and Rick taking second away a lap later.

When the checkered flew it was Russ Scheffler picking up another win, followed across in order by Rick Scheffler, Buhler, Markwardt and Bob Cullen.

The Hobby Stock A Main was the final race of the evening. Lee Propson and Mark Christensen made up the front row, Kyle Resch and heat winner Brad Laurent the second and Brett Wenzel and heat winner Kevin Naidl the third.

The race was only slowed once by yellow with a lot of battles going on up front. Propson led the first lap with Resch taking over on lap two. Naidl took over the top spot a lap later and held on until Wenzel took it away on Lap 11.

It was a three-car battle to the finish with Wenzel, Brad Ruh and Naidl slugging it out, and coming across the line in that order. They were followed by John Mahlberg in fourth and Dave Gauger Sr. fifth.

Join us Friday night for the George Scheffler Memorial Race for the Late Models, Defaut Auto Salvage Night at the Races and Back to School Night for the youngsters. Racing begins at 7 p.m.