WAUSAU, Wis. (July 24) – State Park Speedway holds a special place in Ty Majeski’s racing career. It was 10 years ago he won his first Midwest Truck Series race. Ten years later he would hold off defending winner Justin Mondeik to win the Larry Detjens Memorial 125, his third victory in four starts this season in the ARCA Midwest Tour.
“We really had speed, but we adjusted on it a lot today,” a smiling Majeski said in victory lane. “The crew worked their tail off. We were a little short handed and we were thrashing on this thing, using all of the time up on it to get this thing right.
The four-time Tour champion was fast all day, He would win the fast qualifier award with a time of 13.500 seconds, and would roll a four for an eleven car invert for the main event.
Mondeik qualified 11th and would start on the pole for the main event. The defending winner would take the early lead over Chris Weinkauf.
While Mondeik led the field, Majeski quickly worked his way into the top five by lap 18. Eight laps later, Majeski would get by Weinkauf for the second spot.
Mondiek had a 2.301 second lead over Majeski until the first of two cautions flew on lap 30 when Jeremy Lepak and Levon Van Der Geest got together in turn three.
On the restart, Majeski started on the inside of Mondeik and the two would pull away from the rest of the field.
The two would be nose-to-tail with Majeski taking a peak inside from time to time.
The final caution flew on lap 54 when Travis Volm spun and backed his car into the turn two wall. ARCAMT officials discovered that Rich Bickle Jr. was leaking fluid. Bickle would go to the pits and would get his car repaired to join the field after a red flag to clean up the track.
The final restart was on lap 55 where Majeski chose to start on the outside of the front row alongside Mondeik.
It only took a lap for Majeski to get a good bite off of turn two and get ahead of Mondeik for the lead.
Mondeik would try to challenge a few times, but Majeski was too strong in the late going as he pulled away to add his name to a long list of winners of the Larry Detjens Memorial.
“Obviously the 44 (Mondeik) has a real good package here,” Majeski commented. “He made it tough on me and that was about as hard of a 70-lap run that I had to make and it was a lot of fun. He definitely pushed me there.”
Mondeik was hoping to be a back-to-back winner of the famed event.
“We had a pretty good car and it went away for us a little bit at the end,” Mondeik said after the race. “On the short run, he was better than us and that is where we were bad. We were about pretty even on the long run.
“Man it just sucks, it would have been awesome to go back-to-back, I definitely hate losing, but of all the people I don’t mind getting beat by, its Ty. It was awesome to be that close, but it just sucks.”
Defending Tour Champion Casey Johnson started eighth and rallied his way to a third place finish.
“We had a real solid run, the car was way better than last year,” Johnson said. “We made huge gains from that. The boys worked real hard all week and I really can’t complain.”
Dalton Zehr and Luke Fenhaus put on a spirited side-by-side battle for fourth, with Zehr taking the position at the finish.
John Beale Jr. finished sixth while Bickle recovered to finish seventh. Dillon Hammond was eighth and Gabe Sommers, another former Detjens winner, in ninth. Weinkauf rounded out the top ten.
In earlier action, Paul Shafer Jr. wins the odd dash while Bickle held off Levon Van Der Geest to grab the checkers in the even heat.
Rayce Haase won the qualifier heat.
The Stars and Cars of the ARCA Midwest Tour will be back in action on Tuesday, August 3rd for the Gandrud Auto Group 250 at Wisconsin International Raceway in Buchanan, Wisconsin.
Results
ARCA Midwest Tour Super Late Models
Fast Qualifier: Ty Majeski, Seymour, 13.500 sec.
Qualifier: 1. Rayce Haase, Wausau; 2. Wyatt Brooks, Amherst; 3. Brock Heinrich, Wausau; 4. Jeremy Lepak, Wausau; 5. Mark Mackesy, Wausau; 6. Max Kahler, Caledonia, Ill.; 7. Andrew Brocker, Jefferson
Odd Dash: 1. Paul Shafer Jr., Portage, Ind.; 2. Justin Mondeik, Gleason; 3. Austin Nason, Roscoe, Ill.; 4. John Beale, Verona; 5. Majeski; 6. Casey Johnson, Cambridge; 7. Jonathan Eilen, Hampton, Minn.; 8. Dillon Hammond, Grand Marsh; 8.
Even Dash: 1. Rich Bickle Jr., Edgerton; 2. Levon Van Der Geest, Merrill; 3. Chris Weinkauf, Merrill; 4. Luke Fenhaus, Wausau; 5. Travis Volm, Wausau; 6. Gabe Sommers, Plover; 7. Dalton Zehr, Daytona Beach, Fla.; 8. Derek Kraus, Stratford
125-Lap Feature: 1. Majeski; 2. Mondeik; 3. C. Johnson; 4. Zehr; 5. Fenhaus; 6. Beale; 7. Bickle; 8. Hammond; 9. Sommers; 10. C. Weinkauf; 11. Eilen; 12. Shafer; 13. Nason; 14. Haase; 15. Heinrich; 16. Lepak; 17. Van Der Geest; 18. Brooks; 19. Mackesy; 20. T. Volm; 21. Brocker; 22. Kahler; 23. Kraus
Tessmer, Schoone take hard-earned feature wins on Detjens night two
WAUSAU, Wis. (July 24) – Kevin Tessmer and Evan Call raced side-by-side for almost all of 25 laps in the Snap-on Mini Mods feature Saturday night at State Park Speedway, and looked like they could’ve done the same for 25 laps more.
Twenty-five laps was more than enough for Tessmer on multiple fronts, though, as the Wausau driver picked up his second career mini mods feature win as part of the 41st annual Larry Detjens Memorial at State Park. After trading the lead at the start-finish line nine times in the race, Tessmer finally cleared Call on the last lap for his first feature win of the season.
“My god, he was tough,” said Tessmer after the race in Brickner Family Auto Group Victory Lane. “I give these ARCA (Midwest Tour) guys a lot of credit for racing 125 laps, I’m tuckered out after this.
“When you get up front you’re just waiting for something to happen, to open up…I won a Detjens Trophy.”
Tessmer took the lead for good on Lap 19, but often by little more than inches at the line. He then won a final four-lap shootout after a late caution, holding off a bunch of heavy hitters behind the top two.
Tessmer started on the inside pole and took the lead from Keagen Benz on the first lap, then had Call lined up next to him on restart two laps later after Kole Ferge and Chad Ferge spun in turn one on the third circuit.
Tessmer and Call were side-by-side virtually the entire race, with the other fighting back every time one appeared ready to get free. Tessmer led through Lap 7 before Call battled back to lead Lap 8, and the two swapped the lead for four laps before Tessmer edged ahead and appeared ready to pull away.
Call came back to lead Lap 14, though, and was ahead when the yellow came out, but Tessmer took the lead back for the next two laps after the yellow. The two swapped the lead four more times before Tessmer took the lead back on Lap 19, but they were still side-by-side until taking the white flag, when Call fell a car length behind Tessmer.
The most breathing room between the two came on the last lap, as third-place running Shawn Kemnetz of Hancock briefly got sideways and slid into Call in turns one and two. Tessmer would get away and would beat Call to the finish by two car lengths, with Kemnetz saving his car and holding off two-time defending mini mods champion Greg Blount of Marathon for fourth. Wausau’s George Seliger, who had won the previous five features in the class, was caught near the back of the pack of six cars that ran together for the final 15 laps and finished fifth.
Ashley Schoone of Gleason was another to take a hard-earned feature win on the second night of the Detjens Memorial. She also held off a strong field behind her to take the 25-lap Rockstar Energy Drink Mini Stocks main event.
Schoone won her first feature of the season and a feature on Detjens Memorial weekend for the second straight year. She led all 25 laps but it was hardly a breeze, especially as she held off repeated challenges over the last 11 laps by Wausau’s Eric Breitenfeldt.
Breitenfeldt looked high and low for an opening, and contact on lap 17 even resulted in both cars going into the inside corner dirt between turns three and four. Schoone straightened her car out to hold the lead and led the rest of the way, including on the last lap when Breitenfeldt tried high one more time out of turn two. Schoone finished just over a car length ahead at the finish with Wausau’s Garret Strachota third, Jake Halterman of Stanley coming in fourth and Chris Boykins of Wausau holding off Friday night feature winner Hunter Landwehr of Stratford for fifth.
Dave Trute earned his first-ever Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks feature win at State Park Speedway in impressive fashion with a dominating performance.
The New Lisbon, Wis., native who is a regular at Dells Raceway Park shot past Jeff Spatz on the inside for the lead on Lap 9. He was never challenged again in the 25-lap race, finishing nearly a full straightaway ahead of Spatz with Mitch Stankowski taking third.
Alex Hartwig of Portage extended his winning streak in the E.H. Wolf and Sons Bandoleros with his third feature win of the season and his eighth straight at State Park dating back to last season.
Hartwig drove inside Avery LInnerud of Milton for the lead on Lap 8 and cruised the rest of the way to the win. He completed a clean sweep of the night that also included fast time honors and a heat win, with Juda’s Cohen Henze coming in second in the feature and Linnerud finishing a career-best third.
State Park Speedway returns to its regular weekly Thursday night racing schedule this coming week, July 29th, with Christmas in July Night. It also will be Wausau Noon Optimists Club Kids Night, rescheduled from earlier in the season, and will include bicycle races for kids. Fred Mueller Qualifying begins at 6 p.m. and racing follows at 7 p.m.
Results
Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks
Fast Qualifier: Mitch Stankowski, Wausau, 15.562 sec.
First Heat: 1. Jeff Spatz, Wausau; 2. Alex Volm, Mosinee; 3. Brandon Knoblock, Wausau; 4. Kyle Finke, Dorchester
Second Heat: 1. Dave Trute, New Lisbon; 2. Stankowski; 3. Brian Plisch, Athens; 4. Brian Schramm, Wausau; 5. Brett Breitenfeldt, Wausau
Feature: 1. Trute; 2. Spatz; 3. Stankowski; 4. Schramm; 5. Plisch; 6. A. Volm; 7. B. Breitenfeldt; 8. Knoblock; 9. Finke
Snap-on Mini Mods
Fast Qualifier: Greg Blount, 15.915 sec.
First Heat: 1. Evan Call, Elderon; 2. Kevin Tessmer, Wausau; 3. Kole Ferge, Edgar; 4. Brian Marquardt, Weston; 5. Keagen Benz, Wausau
Second Heat: 1. George Seliger, Wausau; 2. Shawn Kemnetz, Hancock; 3. Chad Ferge, Weston; 4. Blount; 5. Joe Kuehn, Wausau; 6. Jim Lietz, Mosinee
Feature: 1. Tessmer; 2. Call; 3. Kemnetz; 4. Blount; 5. Seliger; 6. Kuehn; 7. K. Ferge; 8. Lietz; 9. K. Benz; 10. C. Ferge; 11. Marquardt
Rockstar Mini Stocks
Fast Qualifier: Tom Lecher, Wausau, 16.590 sec.
First Heat: 1. Kendra Baumann, Wausau; 2. Clayton Phillips, Marathon; 3. Joey Blaschka, Wausau; 4. Max Manowski, Wausau; 5. Amanda Rowe, Mosinee; 6. Wayne Gauger, Kronenwetter; 7. Josh Dublin, Weston
Second Heat: 1. Branden Sischo, Stratford; 2. Mark Schoone, Gleason; 3. Jake Halterman, Stanley; 4. Ashley Schoone, Gleason; 5. Zach Budleski, Wausau; 6. Kyle Check, Shantytown; 7. Luke Mikula, Wausau
Third Heat: 1. Brad Lecher, Wausau; 2. Chris Boykins, Wausau; 3. Eric Breitenfeldt, Wausau; 4. Garret Strachota, Wausau; 5. Hunter Landwehr, Stratford; 6. Brad Abt, Schofield; 7. T. Lecher
Semi-Feature: 1. Sischo; 2. M. Schoone; 3. Manowski; 4. Phillips; 5. Rowe; 6. Blaschka; 7. Baumann; 8. Geiger; 9. Dublin
Feature: 1. A. Schoone; 2. E. Breitenfeldt; 3. Strachota; 4. Halterman; 5. Boykins; 6. Landwehr; 7. Check; 8. Budleski; 9. M. Schoone; 10. T. Lecher; 11. Abt; 12. B. Lecher; 13. Sischo; 14. Mikula
E.H. Wolf & Sons Bandoleros
Fast Qualifier: Alex Hartwig, Portage, 16.213 sec.
First Heat: 1. Brennen Lansing, Rockton, Ill.; 2. Harley Johnson, Oconomowoc; 3. Mason Oleson, Mosinee; 4. Laci Stargardt, Neillsville; 5. Markus Obermeyer, Union Grove; 6. Jayden Johnson, Oconomowoc
Second Heat: 1. Avery Linnerud, Milton; 2. Axel Oldenhoff, Lake Mills; 3. Collin Murphy, Janesville; 4. Bentley Thompson, West Salem; 5. Mason Obermeyer, Union Grove; 6. Oliver Weinkauf, Merrill
Third Heat: 1. Hartwig; 2. Paxton Benz, Wausau; 3. Cohen Henze, Juda; 4. Penn Sauter, DeForest; 5. Anna Malouf, Rhinelander
Semi-Feature: 1. H. Johnson; 2. Lensing; 3. Stargardt; 4. Markus Obermeyer
Feature: 1. Hartwig; 2. Henze; 3. Linnerud; 4. Malouf; 5. P. Benz; 6. Murphy; 7. Sauter; 8. Thompson; 9. J. Johnson; 10. H. Johnson; 11. Oldenhoff; 12. Oleson; 13. Lensing; 14. O. Weinkauf
(story courtesy Kevin Ramsdell, ARCA Midwest Tour)
