7/22/2016
Luxy Raceway
LAUTENBACH SIZZLES IN LUXY MODIFIED MAIN
(Luxemburg, WI – July 22, 2016) To date, Brad Lautenbach’s 2016 racing season at the Luxemburg Speedway hasn’t exactly been one for the record books. Based on the outcome of Friday night’s IMCA Modified feature, it’s safe to say that the tables have been turned.
Lautenbach proved to be just as hot as the sweltering mid-summer temperature that greeted fans and teams on the night, as he registered a dominating performance en route to his first feature win of the season.
The New Franken racer broke from the script followed by the evening’s other four features, each contested down to the final corner. Emerging victorious were Brandon Czarapata in the IMCA Stock Cars, Randy LeMieux, Jr in the IMCA Northern Sport Mods, Clint Evans in the Street Stocks and Calvin Stueck in the Sport Compacts.
Lautenbach ended the 2015 racing season at Luxemburg third in the IMCA Modified standings; no small feat considering the level of competition that heads to the Kewaunee County Fairgrounds on a weekly basis each year. But 2016 was a different story, void of even a single top ten finish.
At the initial drop of the green, he bolted to the lead from his outside first row starting spot. After that, it didn’t take long to realize that the event’s only drama might be coming from deciding who would eventually end up second.
With Lautenbach fading into the distance, Josh Lambert and Eddie Muenster put on a spirited show early for the runner-up spot. Brad Theys entered the mix, with the trio often times three abreast across the track.
Steadily working traffic to join the lead pack were title contenders Sean Jerovetz and Shawn Kilgore. Once up front, they contributed to a back and forth affair for position until there were just a handful of laps left. Kilgore finally secured the spot, but with few laps to carve away at Lautenbach’s commanding edge, second was as far as he could climb.
Jerovetz finished on Kilgore’s heels for third, with Greg Gretz posting a late charge to fourth. Fifth was Lambert, as the Modified rookie posted his second straight top five finish, jumping up five spots in the season standings to 10th.
In any IMCA Stock Car feature that he runs, fans are used to seeing Czarapata work his way through traffic and emerge as a player for the win. Such was the case on Friday night.
Despite a sixth row starting spot, he managed to work his way through, what was at times three and four-wide racing mid-pack, to second by only the 10th lap. The goal was to then catch Dylan Heilmann who had taken the lead from Chris Malfroid on the 7th lap.
Heilmann had pulled slightly away from the pack, but not quite far enough, as within five laps, Czarapata was on his back bumper. But true to the old adage, catching a guy is one thing, passing him is another story.
Whether it was an inside move or an outside attempt, Heilmann was able to thwart every effort until the final corners when Czarapata was able to gain a foothold on the inside line. Heilmann tried to close the door, but Czarapata establsihed the commanding position in time to garner his second win of the season.
Heilmann settled for second, his best finish of the year. Finishing third and fourth respectively were title contenders Troy Muench and Shawn Havel. John Anschutz was in contention the entire way, posting a solid 5th, which was also a season high for him.
The IMCA Northern Sport Mod headliner was marred by two early crashes. The first was a lap one pile-up that not only had an impact on the event, but the overall season standings as well.
Wayne Haines ended up sideways in front of the field existing turn two and the carnage began. Haines, Kelsy Hayes, Sawyer Haese, Wyatt Block and Lucas Lambries were all knocked out of the event immediately with several other cars requiring attention on pit lane.
The second incident occurred down the front stretch, collecting another batch of cars, with Troy DeGrave, Craig Dorner and Jacob Zellner all eventually retiring.
Lambries had entered the night as the co-division leader with LeMieux, only to exit it 21 points behind the eventual winner in 4th.
After that, the racing tide turned and the field clicked off 17 straight green flag laps. Running the outside edge, LeMieux had circled to the front, passing Race VanPay for the lead on lap 10.
Things got interesting with three laps to go as a caution bunched the field, positioning Chris Budzban and the leader’s brother Ryan LeMieux in the second row for the restart.
Budzban used the inside to take control of second. With Randy LeMieux committed to the outside, it became a back and forth affair, each leading for one moment only to lose it the next.
Budzban’s advantage came through the corners, and he was starting to edge further ahead each lap before LeMieux could climb back, sprinting down the straights. Recognizing the situation, LeMieux edged just far ahead down the backstretch on the final lap to drop to the bottom through the finals corners in time to block Budzban’s path.
The veteran move secured the win for LeMieux, his second of the season.
A late pass by J.J. Anderson on Ryan LeMieux produced a third place finish for him, with VanPay carding his best finish of the year, fifth.
Like the Sport Mods, the Street Stocks had a bit of caution-flag-itis early – except their woes continued.
Multiple cautions produced a time-limit ending, including a final two lap sprint to the win.
Through it all, Evans managed to stay out front despite constant pressure from point leader Scott Boulanger from the fourth lap on.
One caution proved timely for Evans. Dan VanPay needed to qualify for the feature through one of two B-mains. He made steady progress to the front, and was poised to challenge from his second row outside starting spot on a restart.
He got a great jump and had physically passed Evans, but that lap was waved off by what proved to be the last caution and Evans was able to assume the lead again.
The final restart step up the green-white-checker finish with Boulanger and VanPay again stage in row two behind Evans. But under green, the two made contact, sending them both sliding into the infield.
The heat was finally off Evans as he motored away to his first feature win of the year. Frank Dorn capped off a great night by placing second, after winning his second heat race of the year earlier in the night.
Dean Anhalt, Mike Carter and Tony Everard completed the top five.
Last lap dramatics capped the night in the Sport Compact feature as well.
Matt Brehmer had taken the lead on the 3rd lap with Stueck quickly advancing to second to contest the position.
Much like Czarapata had done earlier in the night in the Stock Cars, after trying multiple lines for several laps , Stueck was able to gain a foothold to the inside groove on the final circuit to edge Brehmer at the line for his second win of the season.
Wes Lungwitz and Riley Perry turned in successful visits to Luxemburg crossing the stripe in 3rd and 4th with Kevin Rabe 5th.
This Friday night, Nick’s Carquest of Luxemburg will host the show, featuring the first round of Luxemburg’s 4 race Chase Series.
The unique Chase Series is a “championship within a championship” for all five divisions, running parallel to the regular point title. The Chase grid for registered drivers will be set based on season points plus Chase bonus points acquired during the year. Division point leaders start the Chase with 100 points, with a single point deducted for each subsequent point position. Second in the standings gets 99, third gets 98, etc. Bonus points are added to each drivers base points to establish their spot on the grid.
The Luxemburg Speedway is located at the Kewaunee County Fairground in Luxemburg, with racing each Friday night through the summer at 7:00PM. For more information, visit the track’s website at www.luxemburgspeedway.com
LUXEMBURG SPEEDWAY RESULTS 7/22/2016
IMCA MODIFIED 20 LAP FEATURE: Brad Lautenbach – Shawn Kilgore – Sean Jerovetz – Greg Gretz – Josh Lambert – Brad Theys
Heat 1: Jerovetz – Eddie Muenster
Heat 2: Jeremy Jacobs – Kilgore
Heat 3: Lautenbach – Lance Arneson
IMCA STOCK CAR 20 LAP FEATURE: Brandon Czarapata – Dylan Heilmann – Troy Muench – Shawn Havel – John Anschutz – Dave Bouche
Semi-feature 1: Derek Moede – Rob Waechter – Barry Van Straten – Bill Kelsey
Semi-feature 2: Jaimie Suchocki – Tom Brumlic – Tony Bouche – Joe Vanderlist
Heat 1: Anschutz – Rod Snellenberger
Heat 2: Czarapata – Heilmann
Heat 3: Muench – Chris Malfroid
Heat 4: Larry Karcz, Jr – Dave Bouche
IMCA NORTHERN SPORT MOD 20 LAP FEATURE: Randy LeMieux, JR – Chris Budzban – J.J. Anderson – Ryan LeMieux – Race VanPay – Gabe Zellner
Heat 1: Wayne Haines – Randy LeMieux
Heat 2: Coner Iverson – Marcus Moede
Heat 3: Ryan LeMieux – Zellner
STREET STOCK FEATURE: Clint Evans – Frank Dorn – Dean Anhalt – Mike Carter – Tony Everard – Matt Warner
B Feature 1: Dave Gauger – Zach Spangenberg – Amber Weidner – Jake Burt
B Feature 2: Dan VanPay – Ford Malvitz – Phil Weidner – Nathan Delsart
Heat 1: Dorn – Scott Boulanger
Heat 2: Brandon Fuhrmann – Ryan Blank
Heat 3: Justin Mahlberg – Dylan Stedjee
Heat 4: Paul Ambrosius - Evans
SPORT COMPACT 15 LAP FEATURE: Calvin Stueck – Matt Brehmer – Wes Lungwitz – Riley Perry – Kevin Rabe – Michael Brehmer
Heat: Ryan Georgia - Stueck
Article Credit: Tom Wagner
Submitted By: Ashley Stevens