May 21, 2018 at 5:42 p.m.
Surprise winners in Eagle River Speedway opener
Surprise winners in Eagle River Speedway opener
Eagle River's Isabelle Valeria went to the outside of Merrill's Ethan Hommerding on the 13th lap to take the lead in the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature - a lead she would not relinquish.
"We saved some new tires for her to run in the feature, but she told me to keep the old tires on the car," stated Ken Valeria, Isabelle's father and former Eagle River Speedway track champion. "She simply just got mad and pushed it to the limit to go to the high side going in to the first turn."”
In the heat race earlier in the night, Hommerding was in tight race with Don Scharf and Valeria. Scharf, the longest-tenured racer at the track, did everything he could to hold off Valeria for second.
The fans were treated to exciting racing right from the start. It was the heat races that set the stage for the features.
Many expected the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature to come down to a battle between two Upper Peninsula of Michigan racers. Four-time class champion Jesse Aho, and the defending champion, Marcus Dunbar, both won their respective heat races. However, Ashland's Tyler Vernon held off three cautions and restarts on the 18th lap of the 20-lap feature to notch the win.
"Jesse (Aho) and Marcus (Dunbar) can't say they didn't have a chance to get the lead at the end," stated new track promoter James Koga. "(Tyler) Vernon held off a competitive field after all those green-white-checkered restarts."
Past Pure Stock class champion CJ Hedges Jr. of Tripoli won the WISSOTA Street Stock feature.
Hedges held off one of the top WISSOTA Pure Stock racers, Jason Eisel, along with past class champions Jordan Kurtti and Nate Langberg. Defending class champion, Ryan Valeria took third in the feature.
The top racer in the Speedway Truck class from last year, Herb Dettman of Pelican Lake, looked to be the one to beat in the feature. Dettman won the first heat race, with another one of the fastest Pure Stock racers, Jake Ison, moving to a different class. Ison ran away from the field in his heat race.
As Ison was running away from the pack in the feature, Dettman kept moving through the field. On the 11th lap, Dettman hit the outside wall right past the flagstand. Dettman walked away uninjured, but his truck received serious damage. Ison went on to win the feature.
Another class where the defending champion was defeated in the feature was in the Sprint 600s.
Southern Wisconsin's Zach Boden won the heat and the feature hitting speeds of over 80 MPH. The top racer in that class from last year, Dylan Larson of Shiocton, took fourth, while his brother Denver took second in the feature.
The defending class champion in the Junior Sprints, Woodruff's Cole Stella, was another defending class champion who didn't get a feature win. Winning that class was Tomahawk's Zach Friske.
Stock car racing returns to the challenging tri-oval, one-third mile dirt track this Friday night.
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