Big night for Bennetts at WIR By Tom Goff - FRRC/WIR Media Director July 4, 2013; Buchanan, WI – It was a big night for the Bennett family of Neenah during Thursday’s Fox River Racing Club’s Stockbridge Engineering/ALRO Steel/Joe Schneider Memorial night at Wisconsin International Raceway. In a preliminary event, Braison Bennett won his first sizzlin’ four feature of the season, then dad, Lowell, did the same in the super late model feature, despite battling an ill-handling race car in the final laps. “What an awesome night for the Bennett family,” said Lowell in victory lane, after holding off Terry Baldry and Maxwell Schultz to win the 35-lap main event. It also capped a big week for Braison, who won the late model race at Slinger Speedway on Sunday, then made his debut in the super late models on Tuesday in the Slinger Nationals and almost made the feature. It was even a bigger night because they won on a night when the FRRC honored Joe Schneider, who passed away in Feb. 6, 2012 at age 50 due to brain cancer. Schneider was the twin brother of former FRRC president Jerry Schneider and longtime friend to the club, especially Bennett. Schneiders family owns Stockbridge Engineering, a sponsor on both of the Bennetts’ cars. After winning the FRRC and Red, White and Blue championships last year, Lowell Bennett has been struggling mightily this year. Before Thursday, he had finished 11th, fourth, 17th, 22nd and 20th in the first five features. “This is big,” Lowell said. “We built this new car and I’m not afraid to tell you we’ve been really, really struggling with the thing. This team has worked their tails off. We’ve been out here two, three nights a week trying to figure out what the problems are with it and it was really good with about five to go and something came loose in the rear end. It started walking around on me and I told the guys I don’t know if I could hang on to it. It just wanted to spin going in (to the turns).” While Bennett was slowing down in the closing laps, Baldry and Schultz were right on his tail. Schultz, the fastest qualifier on the night, got by Baldry and was about to overtake Bennett on the backstretch on the final lap, but Schultz had to hit the brakes to keep from crashing into the wall as Bennett’s car drifted up the track. Bennett said he didn’t intentionally try to block Schultz. “I wasn’t even watching I was just trying to keep the car straight because I didn’t want to spin out in front of them,” he said. “The thing was just pitching sideways when I went into the corners. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but we’ll figure it out.” Andy Monday finished fourth and Jeff Van Oudenhoven wound up fifth, which was good enough to maintain the points lead. He has 442 to 429 for Baldry and 418 for Tom Gee Jr. Starting on the pole, Bennett battled side by side with outside front-row starter Pete Vandermolen Jr. in the early stages of the race. Vandermolen led the first two, but Bennett took the lead on lap three and never gave it back. The race was marred by three caution periods. The first came on lap three when Tom Gee Jr. got hit from behind and spun into the backstretch inside guard rail. Then on the restart, an apparent fire in Kyle Calmes’ machine brought out the second yellow. On lap 17, Monday got into the Back of Nate Van Wychen’s car and Van Wychen spun, but Monday was allowed to keep his sport because club officials said that Van Wychen was making his car too wide. For six plus years, Tim Springstroh has been trying to win his first late model feature. All of his and his team’s hard work was finally rewarded as the Freedom driver won the 20-lap main event. “I’m speechless. It’s amazing,” said Springstroh, who won by a car length over fast-closing rookie Alex Stumpf. “ We put our hearts and souls in our car for six years, seven this season and we finally got the win we’ve been fighting for. It’s been a long time,” said Springstroh, who made it a double win night by taking the dash as well.” Springstroh started fifth and quickly made his way to the front. He passed Travis Willing for the lead on lap three on lap three and never relinquished it through several caution periods. A multi-car crash on lap three that thinned the field considerably included points leader Mike Meyerhofer Jr., who did not make it back into the race, and several of the other top points drivers. Meyerhofer, who went into action with a huge points lead, had it trimmed to just five. He has 468 to Brent Strelka’s 463 and Cory Kemkes’ 443. Rick Wenzel came off his first row outside starting sport and led every lap to win the 20-lap super stock feature, his first victory of the season. Wenzel of Fremont finished .89 second ahead of Ed Howard, while Wenzel’s son, Dylan Wenzel finished third, followed by Larry Raygo, the night’s fastest qualifier, and Erik Turner. Dylan Wenzel, the defending division champ, took over the points lead with 274, one more than Raygo. After two first-lap crashes due to crashes, Kaukauna’s Jake Boldig grabbed the lead on lap one and breezed to an easy in in the 20-lap Wisconsin sport truck feature. It was the second win in three weeks for Boldig, who was also the night’s top qualifier. Boldig finished almost a second ahead of Taylor Vandermoss, while Jason Plutz came home third. On the first lap, the truck of Appleton’s Hayden Watzka rolled over and came to rest on its wheels near the entrance to the pits in turn three. Then on the second restart, the trucks of defending champ Bryan Monday, Todd Kostichka and Kylie Vandermoss all got together in turns two, resulting in the second restart. Kyle Quella, who finished seventh in the feature, leads in points with 473, while Brett Van Horn is second with 457 and Plutz, third with 432. Braison Bennett passed Steve Van Oudenhoven going through turns three and four on lap six and went on to win the 15-lap sizzlin’ four feature. A sixth-place finish was good enough to keep Cory Romenesko in the points lead with 286 points, while Randy Sonkowsky and Ethan Beattie are tied for second with 277. Kaukauna’s Jared Baughman capped the night’s racing with a victory in the 15-lap figure 8 race to retain the points lead. He has 367 to Willy Van Camp’s 290. Summary Super late models 35-lap feature: 1, Lowell Bennett, Neenah; 2, Terry Baldry, Omro; 3, Maxwell Schultz, Reedsville; 4, Andy Monday, Appleton; 5, Jeff Van Oudenhoven, Kimberly; 6, Tim Rothe, Stephensville; 7, Brett Piontek, Green Bay; 8, Brandon Conrad, Freedom; 9, Bobby Kendall, Montello; 10, Tanner Bohlen, Hortonville; 11, T.J. Smith, Menasha; 12, Randy Schuler, Mequon; 13, Nate Van Wychen, Kaukauna; 14, Brady Baldry, Omro; 15, Kyle Calmes, Freedom; 16, Pete Vandermolen Jr., Oshkosh; 17, Michael Anthony, Appleton; 18, Tom Gee Jr., Sobieski. 8-lap heats: First: 1, Smith; 2, M. Anthony. Second: 1, Bennett; 2, Rothe. 6-lap dash: 1, Monday; 2, T. Baldry. Fastest qualifier: Schultz 19.385 seconds. Late models 20-lap feature: 1, Tim Springstroh, Freedom; 2, Alex Stumpf, Woodville; 3, Brandon Reichenberger, Appleton; 4, Brent Strelka, Freedom; 5, Corey Kemkes, Appleton; 6, Sawyer Effertz, Darboy; 7, Travis Willing, Appleton; 8, Corey Manders, Hilbert; 9, Cody Kippenhan, Neenah; 10, Johnny Van, Greenville. 8-lap heat: 1, Brett Wenzel, Manitowoc; 2, Jake Carpenter, Hobart. 6-lap dash: 1, Springstroh; 2, Brad Anthony, Appleton. Fastest qualifier: Strelka 20.672 seconds. Wisconsin sport trucks 20-lap feature: 1, Jake Boldig, Kaukauna; 2, Taylor Vandermoss, Darboy; 3, Jason Plutz, Appleton; 4, Brett Van Horn, Green Bay; 5, Todd Kostichka, Green Bay; 6, Bryan Monday, Appleton; 7, Kyle Quella, Appleton; 8, Brian Vixmer, St. Peter; 9, Jason Roberts, Neenah; 10, Tyler Nettekoven. 8-lap heats: First: 1, Vixmer; 2, Roberts. Second: 1, Boldig; 2, Quella. Fastest qualifier: Quella 16.224 seconds. Super stocks 20-lap feature: 1, Rick Wenzel, Fremont; 2, Ed Howard, Kaukauna; 3, Dylan Wenzel, Fremont; 4, Larry Raygo, Omro; 5, Erik Turner, Two Rivers; 6, Neal Sannes, De Pere; 7, Jeff Treml, Greenleaf; 8, Dave Meyerhofer, Kaukauna; 9, Evan Beattie, Little Chute; 10, Mark Truckey, Freedom. 8-lap heats: First: 1, Evan Beattie; 2, Andy Meyerhofer, Kaukauna. Second: 1, R. Wenzel; 2, D. Meyerhofer. Fastest qualifier: Raygo 16.105 seconds. Sizzlin’ 4’s 15-lap feature: 1, Braison Bennett, Neenah; 2, Ethan Beattie, Little Chute; 3, Cody Huven, Green Bay; 4, Pat Braun, Kaukauna; 5, Randy Sonkowsky, Combined Locks; 6, Cory Romenesko, Kaukauna; 7, Roger Braun, Kaukauna; 8, Devin Yaeger, Appleton; 9, Steve Van Oudenhoven, Two Rivers; 10, Austin Birling, Menasha. 8-lap heats: First: 1, Ethan Beattie; 2, Romenesko. Second: 1, R. Braun; 2, P. Braun. Figure 8’s 15-lap feature: 1, Jared Baughman, Kaukauna; 2, Willy Van Camp, Appleton; 3, Dan Gracyalny, Greenville; 4, Ken Van Wychen, Kaukauna; 5, Trevor Howard, Kaukauna. Point standings Super late models: 1, Van Oudenhoven 442; 2, Baldry 429; 3, Gee Jr. 418; 4, Monday 411; 5, Schultz 404; 6, Piontek 395; 7, Rothe 394; 8, Conrad 384; 9, Bohlen 367; 10, Kendall 362. Late models: 1, Mike Meyerhofer Jr., Hilbert, 468; 2, Strelka 463; 3, Kemkes 443; 4, Springstroh 427; 5, B. Anthony, 418; 6, Reichenberger 416; 7, Effertz 414; 8, Stumpf, 409; 9, Willing 365; 10, Manders 345. Wisconsin sport trucks: 1, Quella 473; 2, Van Horn 457; 3, Plutz 432; 4, Kostichka, 429; 5, Monday 426; 6,Boldig 425; 7, Vixmer, 384; 8, T. Vandermoss 350, 9, T. Nettekoven 335; 10, K. Vandermoss 333. Super stocks: 1, D. Wenzel 274; 2, Raygo 273, 3, Turner 238; 4, R. Wenzel 219; 5, Sannes 216; 6, Treml 201; 7 (tie), Randy Rahn, Brillion, and Denny Crass, Rosecrans 196; 9, Jessie Van Roy/Andy Casavant 190; 10, Ed/Trevor Howard 172. Sizzlin 4’s: 1, Romenesko 286; 2, Sonkowsky and Ethan Beattie 277; 4, Huven 273; 5, Bennett 272; 6, P. Braun 257; 7, R. Braun 243; 8, Van Oudenhoven 241; 9, Matthew DeWilde, Appleton, 10, Brandon Houg, Appleton 209. Figure 8’s: 1,Baughman 367; 2, Van Camp 290; 3, Terry Van Roy, Darboy, 277; 4, (tie) Van Wychen and Ryan Krol, Sherwood, 167. Attendance: 4,500.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 20:37:58 +0000
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