Sports Digest

Aho doubles down in Eagle River Speedway finale

Former Modified track champion Jesse Aho of Twin Lakes, Mich. slipped into the lead on a lap-seven restart and went on to win the $1,500 Late Model feature at Eagle River Speedway Saturday.

Earlier in the evening the veteran racer scored his 100th career victory when he won the makeup Late Model feature that was rained out Aug. 31. His $1,500 victory was career win No. 101 for Aho.

Tomahawk’s Zack Friske took the lead at the drop of the green of the 20-lap contest. Dave Bennett ran second with Marcus Dunbar and Jason Zdroik trailing as the four-car freight train began to slightly pull away from the field. The caution flew on lap 6 when Friske looped his car in Turn 2, handing the lead to Bennett on the restart. However, Bennett’s lead was short-lived as Aho ducked underneath Bennett to snatch the lead when racing resumed.

Aho hugged the bottom groove and kept the lead the balance of the contest and went on to claim his second feature race of the night.

Another former track champion, Dunbar, took second. 2024 track champ Zdroik took third. Bennett and Josh Nevoraski placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Earlier in the night Dunbar picked up the B-Modified feature win.

Jason Zdroik executed a last lap pass on central Wisconsin Late Model pavement standout Mark Eswein to score the IMCA Stock Car feature win. Eswein took second in his first appearance ever at the track. La Crosse visitor Shawn Klapps Jr. rounded out the top three finishers.

Forest Junction’s Jake Binash led every lap and dodged several caution periods and went on to win his first career Street Stock feature win. Binash survived late race pressure from Hope Eisel, who took second. 2024 track champion Quentin Morrison took third. Caleb Miller and Kim Brown rounded out the top five finishers in a race littered with cautions.

A pair of Michigan visitors each scored open wheel feature wins. Wilson’s Logan Getzloff picked up the 600 Micro win while Escanaba’s Tanner Rae scored the 300 Micro feature win.

Other makeup feature winners earlier in the evening included Morrison (Street Stocks), Pittsville’s Hoyt Cournoyer (600 Micros) and Merrill’s Jason Torney (Dairyland Vintage)

Saturday night’s race put a wrap on the 2024 racing season at Eagle River Speedway. Track promoters Pat and Patti Zdroik thanked all of the fans, drivers and track employees for another successful season. 

RNC mountain bikers race in Eau Claire

The Rhinelander-Northwoods Composite mountain bike team competed Sunday in the second Wisconsin Interscholastic Cycling League race of the season at Lowe’s Creek in Eau Claire.

The RNC partition, with riders from school districts surrounding Rhinelander, finished 10th out of 30 teams in Division 2 while the RHS partition with riders from the School District of Rhinelander took 22nd in D2 in the race that featured roughly half of the WICL squads.

Cody Price scored a runner-up finish for the RNC squad in the boys’ JV3 race, completing two laps in 51 minutes, 9.80 seconds, while William Gregersen cracked the top 10, with a 10th-place finial in JV3 (56:03.38). Macy Lester was fourth in the varsity girls’ race (1:21:42.94, 3 laps) and Everett Smith was 29th in the boys’ JV2 race (46:20.16).

Henry Schmitz was third in the freshman boys’ race for RHS (37:07.5) while Holden Schmitz took 13th in the varsity boys’ race (1:16:18.9).

In middle school action, the Hodags took three of the top four spots in the seventh-grade boys’ race, won by Hans Sommer (18:42.41, 1 lap). Jacob MacFarland was third (19:28.53) and Emmett Tuckey came home fourth (19:42.17). Liam McKissack was 13th and Alexander Rusch finished 23rd to round out the seventh-grade contingent for the team. Justin Leibscher took 15th in the sixth-grade boys’ race (23:20.45).

The Hodags are idle this coming weekend as the other half of the WICL competes in Waukesha. The entire WICL reconvenes Sunday, Sept. 29 at Englewood Farm in Fall River.