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2008 In Review
"The 6 time super-fan winner went to 128 tracks this year in over 27 different states. The '98 Blazer logged over 75,000 miles in search of 149 races. Over $2,063.00 was spent on race admissions and 93 "new" tracks were visited in search of great auto racing. To say Ed Esser is a dedicated fan is an understatement, he's a Super-Fan!"
Now 5th overall in the worldwide trackchaser standings, Ed has over 1,163 tracks that he has visited. Check out the reviews and schedules of where he has been and where he is heading.
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Upcoming Events Race reports 12 is now posted. Next update will be from WA. |
Quick Schedule 6/28 Sun - Angell Park Speedway, WI |
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Hanging Rock Speedway- Kershaw, SC
| Checkered Flag - Stateline, MS
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Results WI Weekend June 12 – 14, 2009 Friday was a chance to return to the Golden Sands Speedway in Plover as they had a School’s Out Night special that would include a race on the figure eight track. This is a 1/3-mile high banked paved oval that is wide and has a sand area to slow down any cars before the wall on the straightaway and first turn. The grounds are kept immaculate and all walkways are paved with the seating being on wooden bleachers on the 10 concrete steps with two more steps for lawn chairs behind the seats and a standing area behind that. They have a nice scoreboard and good lights but they could add a few speakers for the center grandstand. A good crowd came out on a night that had clouds in the sky to the southwest. The races started right on time at 7:45PM after they had qualified the three main classes of 23 late models, 13 super stocks and 11 4-cylinder cars. The track apparently has some 4 cylinder Saturn cars and two of these were used for a special battle of the sexes as late model driver Rene Scheinoha beat her husband in the two car match race. They ran off 7 heats and the semi for late models in an hour and were ready for features at 8:45PM. The super stocks ran 25 laps with only one yellow for a spin on the 14th lap. David Pagels held off the field for a win from the front. The late models went 40 laps and again only one yellow when two cars tangled at the half-way point. Mark Eswein started 6th and tracked down early leader Frank Nitzke to take the feature win over Nitzke with 7th starter Chris Weinkauf finishing third and Jeff Weinfurter taking fourth from 13th. The four cylinder cars ran 20 laps and again needed only one yellow when one car blew and oiled the track. Brad Conant started 8th and came through to win the four cylinder feature over fast qualifier Randall Wilhorn from 9th. During the last few laps of the feature I noticed some small rain drops on my paper. They started 8 school buses for a 10-lap feature and Curtis Wosick came from third and passed for the lead in traffic as the buses had one yellow for debris too. Now with a light rain just starting they had to remove the victory lane billboard and fencing before the figure eight feature wrapped up the night. They built a dirt figure eight track in the infield by having the dirt go around the two light poles at each end of the infield which makes for a very long and narrow track. After only one car showed for the figure eight race on Memorial Day tonight the track brought out 5 of the Saturn cars for the figure eight feature. The promoter even drove one of the cars. The track was dusty and with the light rain visibility may have been a problem for the drivers but after 8 laps Jeremy Plaza was the winner of the feature. The races were all done before 10PM and I drove through light showers for the entire trip home. Saturday night was a return to the Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot Wisconsin for the Salute to Harry Turner Night. Some of the winning midgets that Harry built over the years have been restored and were on display tonight. Wilmot Raceway has opened under new management and is running a schedule of special events for the summer and tonight drew a big crowd to see 17 Badger Midgets, 23 mini sprints, 22 modifieds, 27 street stocks and 12 fearless fours. The track is a 1/3-mile slightly banked dirt oval with concrete walls on the straights and some runoff area on the turns. They have a big bleacher the length of the track for spectators and good lights and speakers. The only class to qualify tonight was the midgets with Mike Hess breaking the old track record but a couple of cars later Brad Loyet set the new standard with a 14.755 second lap. Chad DeSelle and Scott Hatton won the heats from the back and David Budres won the semi. Jim Fuerst spun and flipped in the second heat to end his night. The mini sprints were wild with Alyssa Griffin and Randy Reed doing a double flip in the first heat and Joe Fisher getting over in the second heat. The mini sprints ran the first feature of the night and a multi car wreck on the first lap stopped the race as Alyssa Griffin flipped again and Tony Izzo ended up on his side. The race was restarted and Todd Lehr looked like the winner until he blew while leading and Nick Petska took the checkers. The midgets had 5 early spins in their 25-lap feature. Bryon Walters led 5 laps from the pole until Hatton took the lead for 4 laps. Hatton and Loyet then traded the lead several times over the next 4 laps until Loyet took the top spot for good on the 13th lap. Hess and Hatton battled for second and were just behind Loyet. At the finish Loyet took the win over Hatton and Hess with DeSelle back from a lap 2 spin to claim fourth. The modifieds had only one yellow in 20 laps as Eric Scribner held a big lead from 4th but pulled broke giving the top spot to Mike Sullivan from 5th. Scott Kuxhouse was second from 9th. The street stocks went 20 laps non stop with Dustin Richards holding on to win from the front over Jason Holmes from 6th. The four cylinder cars ran last and they too went non stop for 15 laps as Shawn Kasten came from 10th to capture the win over Ryan Andrews. All the racing was complete by 11:15 and I was headed home. Sunday night found me back at my familiar seat in the first turn of Angell Park in Sun Prairie. The track was wet to start but did not build up as heavy a cushion as the last few weeks. Only 15 Badger Midgets were here tonight with Scott Hatton taking qualifying honors with a 14.961 second lap. Hatton also got the trophy in the fast car dash and Brad Loyet and David Budres won the heats. Jason Dull picked up a win in the qualifying dash and Bryon Walters won the semi. The 25-lap feature got under way with Budres taking charge from the front for 4 laps before Loyet took over the lead. Loyet stretched his lead but a yellow flew on the 9th lap as Budres got sideways and several cars slowed but no one ended up stopping so they all restarted in their same positions. Loyet continued to lead but Hatton took up the charge and closed on the leader in traffic during the last 5 laps. Loyet continued his hot streak with another win over Hatton and Mike Hess took third on the last lap with Brandon Waelti across in fourth as all 15 cars were still running at the end and the show finished just before 9PM.
| Results Another WI Week June 16 – 21, 2009 Tuesday night I headed north to visit the Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam Wisconsin. Tonight would not feature racing on the high banked 1/3-mile dirt that I have seen many times but rather a kart program on the new 1/5-mile dirt oval in the infield of the big track. This was a Wisconsin State Championship qualifier night so I hoped they would draw some more karts and for track chasing purposes the winged outlaw karts were also on the schedule. The weather was not helping the night with some showers close by and a light rain going through the area just minutes before the scheduled start. I arrived at 6:30PM and the driver’s meeting was just starting with a light drizzle still ongoing. They packed the track at 6:45 and announced no hot laps they would just start heat racing at 7:30PM. The weather held off with nothing more than a few sprinkles on my paper a few times during the night. The track is a 1/5-mile slightly banked oval in the infield with cones marking the inside and no outside walls as you just run down the bank onto the big track. There are no new lights for the infield but the big track lights are so bright you can see in the infield quite well. They only use the pit entrance for the kart nights and spectators are allowed in the pit grandstands which are very big. The only announcing is from the pit speakers and mostly is just to remind drivers which class is lining up next. The races were done by 10:15PM for about 10 classes of flat karts. There were no countable races as only one champ kart was here and ran at the back of the junior three class and only one winged outlaw kart was here and ran a set of practice laps by himself. I hope the outlaw winged karts can return later this summer as the track looks good for racing although it is not very wide. Friday was a day of scattered severe weather throughout the Midwest so I stayed close to home. A check of the internet found that Madison International had already canceled so my next plan was to go to Columbus but I heard the thunder so I waited for an hour and Columbus was also canceled. Saturday the storms cleared out but there was a lot of water left behind as we had over 2 and a half inches of rain in Madison. My race plan would be to travel down to Joliet Illinois and try for a new track at the Route 66 Raceway. I have been here for some good open wheel action on the banked half-mile dirt track but tonight would be the Team Demolition Derby racing on the 1/5 mile temporary track in the infield. This is a promoters dream! Roger had warned me of the big crowd and there were hundreds of people already tailgating when I arrived at 5:45PM for the 7PM start of the demo race. The police were already stopping traffic on highway 53 so you could turn left on the road to the speedways complex (Chicagoland is across the street and the drag strip is next to the dirt track). Cars continued to fill the parking lots and people streamed into the big 40-row aluminum high rise grandstand that faces east and thus shaded the entire crowd on this hot night. This is a modern first class facility with excellent lights and excellent speakers and an unobstructed view from all seats. There had to be well over 5000 people in here (at $20) and food vendors walked among the crowd too. I saw the sno cone vendor walk up my aisle several times and never get past row 20 before all 24 of the cones were sold (at $5)! The racing area was a rectangle that covered about ¼ of the infield and included the main straightaway of the big track. This area was heavily watered and 4 huge tractor tires marked the turns of the track with cement barriers marking the outside. I counted 86 cars in the pits for the 8 teams that are part of team demo. Each team has a name (junk yard dogs, seek and destroy, stranglehold, etc.) and a color and the format is quite simple. There are 4 heats with the winning team moving to the 2 semis and the two winners there make up the feature. (They have some other entertainment for the break while the semi winners prepare for the feature and tonight that was a monster truck.) All races start 8 cars (4 from each team) and the first car to complete 4 laps is the winner. They do race clockwise (which I think helps avoid driver door hits) and the strategy appears to be to send one car or maybe two to complete laps while the others work on taking out the other team. To score a complete lap you must race around the 4 tires but to take out a competitor you can cut through the infield and make a high speed T-bone hit, etc. The orange team won the first heat eliminating last month’s winning red team. The good teams will bring 12 cars so that they have a fresh 4 cars to run each time assuming they make the feature. The feature was the black team cars of Brian Anderson and Steve Gursky JR getting away fast to complete laps while the blue team (junk yard dogs) struggled as some hard hits disabled their cars quickly. Gursky took the checkers and the black team was the winner of the race completed by 9:40PM. Sunday was back to traditional racing and a trip to Sun Prairie Wisconsin. Tonight would be another appearance by the Illini Midgets (17 cars) in addition to the 24 Badger Midgets that ran. The day was overcast and some light sprinkles even fell before warm ups. The weather may have been a factor in a lighter watering of the track but the damp air also helped slow down the drying process and with no sun the track was fast for qualifying. In a very unusual occurrence Cody Swanson and Chase Barber both turned a lap at 14.579 seconds but Swanson did it first and was given fast time. Allan Gillis took top qualifying honors for the Illini group at 17.426 seconds. Brandon Waelti made a late race pass to win the first heat over Bubba Altig and Scott Hatton got out front quickly to win the second heat over Brad Loyet. Swanson started last in the third heat and made a last lap pass to win over Bob Shreffler. Gillis and Charlie Holt won the Illini heats and Barber won the Badger dash. Chad DeSelle held off Brad Kuhn to take the Badger semi. The track was dry on the bottom but a heavy cushion was building around the top. The Illini feature saw Gillis and Kurt Mayhew move to the front with Mayhew taking the lead. The race was slowed when Rich Drangmeister spun on the 7th lap and then a lap later after he had passed a couple of cars he spun again and Mike Wallace drove over his front end and flipped several times in the 4th turn. On the 11th lap Eric Nitz spun and tipped over for another red flag. With a reduced field and the time getting later the race was shortened to 15 laps and Mayhew led Gillis to the checkers with Doug Orseske taking third. The Badger 25-lap feature got started with pole sitter Altig getting the jump on Hatton and moving to the cushion. There were two early yellows but Altig held on to the lead until Loyet came from 7th to take the top spot on the 16th lap. Hatton got by Altig to take second and the race was stopped on the 21st lap when Chase Barber flipped and was injured and taken in for observation. On the restart Loyet rode the cushion to keep the top spot over Hatton to the end with Kuhn coming from 11th to grab the third spot at the end over Altig who dropped to fourth. |
