Driving a car once set to be driven by the driver being remembered Thursday night, it was all too appropriate that Mosinee’s Travis Volm won the Budweiser/Fabiano Brothers Limited Late Model feature during the Flip Merwin Memorial.

Volm claimed his second straight feature win in the division by leading all 25 laps, outlasting Brock Heinrich and the rest of the field while driving a car once owned by Tate Baumer that was going to be raced by Merwin before his death in a snowmobile racing accident in 2003.

“I found about that out a couple weeks after the season started,” said Volm in Brickner Family Auto Group Victory Lane after the race. “It’s pretty neat on Flip night to put this car into victory lane.

“The car didn’t qualify very good but it was a rocket in the feature. I was just kind of riding at the end, trying to keep the distance between me and Brock, but I had quite a bit left in the tank.”

Volm just missed out on making it a pair of feature wins on the night, as the five-time track champion in the Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks made his return in that class. Volm finished as runner-up in the feature as Brian Schramm executed a crossover move late in the race and went on for his third main event win in the class this season.

Schramm turned his car hard left coming out of turn four to get inside the leader Volm on lap 17, and after the cars rubbed fenders he emerged in first and went on to win the 25-lap race. The Wausau racer did so with a car missing its entire nosepiece after an accident in the heat race.

“Last time we wrecked it, we wrecked the front end, and put it in victory lane,” said Schramm after the race. “We wrecked it worse this time and here we are again.”

“I was under him once before and I got out of it,” said Schramm of his pass for the lead. “I got another run on him, he was a little loose, so…I wasn’t lifting this time.”

Schramm also was another driver who the night had a personal connection for, as Flip Merwin did design work on his first race car.

“This means a lot,” said Schramm. “Flip lettered my first car that I ever had…thanks Flip.”

Volm held on for second, with Chad Dietsche finishing third and Dustin Ochodnicky in fourth. Early leader Nick Grish came in fifth after leading the first nine laps before drifting high on the backstretch allowing Volm to take the lead.

Marathon’s Greg Blount also had to make a move late in the race, passing John Lietz on lap 17 on his way to winning the Snap-On Mini Mods 25-lap main.

Blount made slight contact with Lietz on the backstretch on lap 17, enough to get the leader loose briefly and to get inside. Blount led the rest of the way for his second feature win in three weeks.

“I had to ‘booger’ him a little bit, I hate boogering John but I couldn’t get around him on the high side because he’s got a lot of straightaway speed,” said Blount in a trackside post-race interview. “So we took the opportunity we had, nudged him just a little bit to get him loose.”

Ashley Schoone of Tomahawk won her second feature of the season in the Motors Service & Supply Mini Stocks, taking the lead under unusual circumstances and capitalizing to win the 25-lap race.

Brett Breitenfeldt dominated the first half of the race and had a healthy lead while Schoone was running second on lap 15 when Tom Lecher spun in turn four and backed into the water barrels. The water on the track brought out the race’s second red flag, and during the red it was announced that Breitenfeldt had exceeded the division’s new breakout rule, which does not allow mini-stock cars to exceed a lap of 16.895 seconds.

As a result, Breitenfeldt was required to go to the rear of the field, and Schoone took over first place. From there, she calmly held the inside line over fast-timer and last week’s feature winner Kole Ferge, while Breitenfeldt also made a charge to the front late and came in third.

“I knew that Kole was going to give me a run for my money,” said Schoone after the race. “Then I saw Brett (too)…I just drove as hard as I could.”

The race also had a red flag on the third lap when the cars of Amanda Rowe and Dane Colbert rubbed wheels on the backstretch racing for second. The contact caused Rowe to come up the racetrack and pinched both Colbert and Nathan Steif into the water barrels entering turn three. Both Colbert and Steif were uninjured but unable to continue.

The D & D Bandoleros made their first appearance of the season at the speedway, and Wausau’s Jevin Guralski dominated. Guralski set fast time, won the heat and then took the feature win to complete the clean sweep.

State Park Speedway is back with another Thursday night program next week with the Dave Lashua Memorial, including the Wisconsin Challenge Series 75 for super late models plus the Central Wisconsin Steel Frame Challenge Series for pure stocks. Limited late models, mini mods and mini stocks also will be in action, with fan gates open at 4:30 p.m., Fred Mueller Qualifying at 6 p.m. and racing to follow at 7 p.m.

Results
Budweiser/Fabiano Brothers Limited Late Models
Fast Qualifier: Mitch Stankowski, Wausau, 14.537 sec.
Heat: Stankowski; Travis Volm, Mosinee; Brock Heinrich, Wausau; Rayce Haase, Wausau; Mondell Peters, Wausau
Feature: T. Volm; Heinrich; Dillon Mackesy, Athens; Stankowski; Haase; Peters

Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks
Fast Qualifier: Carson Sillars, Wausau, 15.447 sec.
Heat: Travis Volm, Mosinee; Chad Dietsche, Hatley; Dustin Ochodnicky, Ogema; Nick Grish, Wausau; Alex Volm, Mosinee
Feature: Brian Schramm, Wausau; T. Volm; Dietsche; Ochodnicky; Grish; Sillars; Jeff Spatz, Wausau; Alex Volm, Mosinee; Kolton Guralski, Wausau

Snap-on Mini Mods
Fast Qualifier: Mike Heidmann, Edgar, 15.980 sec.
Heat: Jim Lietz, Mosinee; George Seliger, Wausau; Heidmann; Dale Louze, Mosinee; Greg Blount, Marathon
Feature: Blount; Seliger; Heidmann; John Lietz, Mosinee; Jim Lietz; Louze; Travis Smith, Wausau

Motors Service & Supply Mini Stocks
Fast Qualifier: Kole Ferge, Wausau, 16.696 sec.
First Heat: Brett Breitenfeldt, Wausau; Dane Colbert, Mosinee; Randy Zieglmeier, Wausau; Kendra Baumann, Wausau; Tom Lecher, Wausau
Second Heat: Ashley Schoone, Tomahawk; Nathan Steif, Wausau; Amanda Rowe, Mosinee; Ferge; Kevin Tessmer, Wausau
Feature: Schoone; Ferge; Breitenfeldt; Tessmer; Rowe; Zieglmeier; Kyle Check, Shantytown; Brandon Lee, Rothschild; Lecher; Baumann

Bandoleros
Fast Qualifier: Jevin Guralski, Wausau,
First Heat: Anna Malouf, Rhinelander; Keagen Benz, Wausau; Michael Guderski, Markesan; Paxton Benz, Wausau
Second Heat: Guralski; Mason Surgener, Lansing, Mich.; Alex Hartwig, Portage; Karter Stark, Marshall
Feature: Guralski; Hartwig; Malouf; Guderski; K. Benz; Stark; P. Benz; Surgener