This week:
Fighting Cancer Full Throttle
Season Championship Night
Champions will be crowned in the super late model, limited late model, pure stock, mini mod and mini stock divisions, and the night also will include raising funds for breast cancer awareness and research.
Pit gates open: 3:30 p.m.
Fan gates: 4:30 p.m.
Fred Mueller Qualifying: 6 p.m.
Racing begins: 7 p.m.
Ticket prices:
Adults (13 & over): $12
Kids 6-12: $5
Kids 5 & under: FREE
Super Late Model Notes: A wild feature last week saw Luke Fenhaus continuing a late-season charge for the second straight year, Justin Mondeik dealing with more than his share of bad luck, and Jay Van Der Geest on the doorstep of his first-ever super late model championship… Fenhaus won the feature in dominating fashion for the second straight week, reviving memories of his strong finish in winning the title last season, and he moved into second in the points. He’s 22 points behind Van Der Geest, who survived a wild race where he spun avoiding a multi-car melee on the second lap, fought off a host of mid-race challengers and then moved into second place late… Mondeik slipped to third in the standings after a night when his No. 44 car was totaled from a hot laps crash when the throttle stuck. His team hustled to get Derek Kraus’s No. 9 car for the night, and he was running third in the feature before late contact resulted in him sliding all the way back to ninth over the final 15 laps.
Pure Stock Notes: Jeff Spatz won his first feature of the season last week and his first-ever in the class. Spatz has raced a pure stock regularly the last three years, and he believed it was his first feature win since 2006 when he raced in the mini stocks class. Spatz held off Bryan Plisch in a side-by-side battle for the entire 20-lap feature, denying the rookie Plisch his first-ever feature win… The point standings say Butchie Schramm holds a rather comfortable 26-point lead over Alex Volm going into the final night of racing, but Schramm’s lead coming into the night is actually much more tenuous. The final pure stock points will have one throwaway night calculated in, and with that Volm trails Schramm by just 11 points with one race left. Schramm is looking for his second straight championship in the class while Volm is aiming for his first pure stock title… Mitch Stankowski made his first appearance of the season in the pure stocks racing his old No. 19 car, and he set fast time before finishing fifth in the feature… Raymond Hardy made his first-ever appearance at State Park Speedway, driving the car Mike Merriam won the 2016 pure stocks championship with here. Hardy is a native of Sparta who lives in Marshfield now and is second in the points in the hobby stock class at Tomah-Sparta Speedway this year.
Mini Mod Notes: The battle between Greg Blount and George Seliger for the season championship will come down to the wire, with Blount holding a slim leading heading into the final night. Blount has had the better of racing the last four weeks, finishing slightly ahead of Seliger each of the last four nights in turning a 10-point deficit into a 10-point lead… Evan Call joined Blount, Seliger and Garret Strachota as two-time feature winners in the mini mods this year by winning last week’s main event. Call raced side-by-side with John Lietz for 17 laps before finally clearing him and going on to win, while Jimmer Lietz also got by his dad John to finish second. John Lietz’s third-place finish in the feature still was his best of the season in feature racing.
Mini Stock Notes: Kole Ferge is finishing with a flourish, having won the last two features in the class, including last week’s where he went from a 10th starting spot to first in just five laps. Ferge won his fifth feature of the season and he has finished first or second in each of the last five mini stock features… Ferge has all but clinched his second straight title in the division, essentially needing to do no more than start the final feature of the season, and has said his future may include moving up a class or two next year… Ferge has finished in the top five in all 12 features this year, with Kyle Check right behind him with 11 top-five finishes… Paul Finch and Jordan Finch both made their first-ever appearances at State Park Speedway last week. The father-daughter team came from Tomah, where Paul is on track to win the mini stocks championship at Tomah-Sparta Speedway. Both raced with similar No. 3s on the side of their car, and Jordan drove a unique Honda CRX.
One year ago: The season ended Aug. 30th, 2018 with a memorable finish in the super late models with Luke Fenhaus winning the feature and the season championship. Fenhaus passed Neil Knoblock with three laps left and won the championship by four points over Justin Mondeik, who finished third in the feature and inches behind Knoblock at the checkers, with that one position difference giving Fenhaus the margin he needed to win the title. Among the other winners was Adam Rodemeier, a surprise winner of his first-ever limited late model feature. Dave Cabelka won the feature in his first appearance of the year in the pure stocks, and both George Seliger in the mini mods and Kole Ferge in mini stocks both wrapped up championship seasons in their respective classes with feature wins.
2019 State Park Speedway Weekly Division
Feature Win Counts
Super Late Models: Luke Fenhaus (2 feature wins), Jay Van Der Geest (1), John Beale (1), Justin Mondeik (1), M.G. Gajewski (1), Travis Volm (1)
Pure Stocks: Brian Schramm (5), Alex Volm (3), Dave Cabelka (2), Jason Stark (1), Jeff Spatz (1)
Mini Mods: Garret Strachota (3), Greg Blount (3), George Seliger (2), Evan Call (2), Gary Garand (1), Jim Lietz (1)
Mini Stocks: Kole Ferge (5), Chad Ferge (2), Tom Lecher (1), Ashley Schoone (1), Kyle Check (1), Amanda Rowe (1), Evan Pingel (1)
Bandoleros: Alex Hartwig (3), Jevin Guralski (1)
August 22 SPS Winners
Auto Select Super Late Models pres. by C-Tech
Fast Qualifier: 4-Luke Fenhaus
First Heat: 9-Justin Mondeik
Second Heat: 40-Jeremy Lepak
Feature: 4-Luke Fenhaus
Advance Auto Parts Pure Stocks
Fast Qualifier: 19-Mitch Stankowski
Heat: 25-Butchie Schramm
Feature: 47-Jeff Spatz
Snap-on Mini Mods
Fast Qualifier: 22-Greg Blount
First Heat: 54-Evan Call
Second Heat: 9-Dale Louze
Feature: 54-Evan Call
Rockstar Mini Stocks
Fast Qualifier: 32-Kole Ferge
First Heat: 14-Amanda Rowe
Second Heat: 12-Tom Lecher
Feature: 32-Kole Ferge
E.H. Wolf & Sons Bandoleros
Fast Qualifier: 20-Jevin Guralski
First Heat: J3-Justin Ziemicki
Second Heat: 64-Anna Malouf
Third Heat: 901-Alex Hartwig
Semi-Feature: J3-Justin Ziemicki
Feature: 20-Jevin Guralski