August 21, 2017 at 2:18 p.m.
Rodziczak and Aho win at Eagle River Speedway
Rodziczak and Aho win at Eagle River Speedway
Aho has claimed the WISSOTA Midwest Modified class championship at Eagle River every year since 2012. However, this year, it has been Wakefield, Michigan's Marcus Dunbar who looks to win the class championship. On top of that, last week Eagle River's Tad Schoonover spanked the competition by sweeping to wins in both the heat and the feature.
After making some impressive moves by passing Steve Altman and Jonathon Miller, and fighting off a hard challenge from Marcus Dunbar, Aho drove to a commanding lead midway through the race. As Aho was extending his lead, a caution in the 13th lap of the 20-lap race brought Dunbar and Schoonover back into contention.
Schoonover and Dunbar were so intent on getting in front of the other that Schoonover lost control on the final turn and ended up on the infield. Aho went on to win the feature, with Dunbar finishing second.
Rodziczak dominated in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified class for years and won the point championship at the track in 2008. The Rhinelander racer then took many years off from racing. The last two years he has returned to racing, but in a WISSOTA Street Stock car.
The WISSOTA Street Stock class looked like it was going to be a clean sweep for Conover's Dustin White. White cruised to an easy win in the heat and jumped out to a decisive lead early on in the feature. When White lost a right rear tire late in the race, Rodziczak and Bruce Crossing, Michigan's, Jordan Kurtti found new life and was back in the race.
With two laps to go both drivers held the lead at some portion on the track. Then, on the final lap and the final turn, Rodziczak got the lead and held Kurtti off in a close finish.
"I respect Jordan (Kurtti), he has dominated in this class. He needed the competition, and with Ryan (Valeria), myself and the others, we have great competition in the class," stated Rodziczak. "I really want to thank the Predator Chassis. It's a lot of work to be competitive in the Street Stock class. We had eight fast cars racing."
It's hard to imagine a battle for a class championship to be as exciting as what is transpiring in the WISSOTA Pure Stock class, where Argonne's Jake Ison entered the night with a slim three-point lead over Rhinelander's Jason Eisel.
That meant the heat races would become important. Spencer Bolte took the first heat with Eisel getting a second. Ison won the second heat to extend his points lead to four.
Neither of the championship contenders were able to score maximum points in the feature. Instead, defending class champion David Blackberg took the win.
"It was a really fast track for the Pure Stockers," said Blackberg. "I could run anywhere on the track, but I knew I had two fast cars behind me. The race turned into a chess match. However, if it wasn't for Holly Belland for getting the car to the track, getting the parts I needed, basically had everything set up. All I had to do was jump in the car."
Eisel finished second to Ison's fourth in the feature, cutting Ison's points lead to two with two nights remaining.
In the Sprint 600 heat 15-year-old Ty Springer hit speeds close to 90 MPH in route to a win. The Honda powered duo-winged Sprinter from Eagle River held off his younger sister, Tommi-Jo, to win the feature.
While the ideal conditions for a fast track were good for some, it created situations where racers would go too fast in and out of corners. This happened on two separate occasions for Speedway truck racer Cory Allen of Woodboro. He looked to be the one to beat in the feature, but in the end it was the class point leader Herb Dettman who wore down a groove to victory lane, sweeping both the heat and feature.
After winning her first Junior Sprint feature the previous week, Deerbrook's Josie Rae Reif edged out the defending class champion Dustin Kangas of Phelps and the current point leader Cole Stella in an exciting heat race.
Kangas came back to win the feature.
The Speedway Trucks will join the regular five weekly racing divisions this Friday night at Eagle River Speedway. It will also be the final spectator one-on-one races of the season.
The track championships will be decided Friday, Sept. 1.
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