By: Paul Reichert
April 27, 2024
Once in a generation we experience a winter like no other, and that was very true of this past winter. It was a rather snowless winter with only a couple of big snowstorms bearing down on western Wisconsin, followed by warming temperatures that melted the snow within 10 days. Despite the craziest winter on record, Tomah-Sparta Speedway was ready to kick off the new racing season on Saturday with the Chill Chaser Enduro. Drivers that were ready to challenge for the win and that were having great runs fell by the wayside due to a variety of mechanical issues. Those drivers were not able to keep up with the torrid pace set by Troy Tuma, who dominated the last third of the Chill Chaser Enduro for his second enduro win in two weeks.
52 drivers took the green flag from a standing start to battle tooth and nail for 200 grueling laps. La Crosse Big Cheese Enduro champ Luke Geisler was struggling out of the gate and quickly had to bring his day to an end. Matt Moore powered to the early lead at the start, but veteran Wausau competitor Eric Breitenfeldt would drive around Moore to settle into the lead on lap 12. Moore and Breitenfeldt would get into a heated battle over the top spot for about the first third of the Chill Chaser Enduro. The field was behaving rather well for the first 30 laps of the race, but then problems started to happen. Jack Barta spun out of the front straight, which Austin Devorak did not see and they had a hard nose-to-nose hit that brought out the first red flag. Despite the big collision, both Barta and Devorak were able to climb out of their cars. Tomah Hornet racer Tristan Finnegan collided with another racer on lap 38 and he took a few tumbles off of turn two before landing on the pit out road. Fortunately Finnegan was able to walk away from his wild ride. Cole Kronebusel’s car stalled in the middle of the back straight on lap 60 to bring out another red flag. Kronebusel got out of his car and had it pushed into the infield. J These red flags allowed Troy Tuma to close the gap on the leaders as we approached the one-third mark of the race. Moore and Breitenfeldt got caught up in heavy lap traffic, and that allowed Tuma to dive to the inside to become the new leader on lap 65. Contact between Moore and Breitenfeldt shortly after that sent the Wausau racer hard into a large tractor tire on the inside and brought his day to a sudden end. Only a few laps were completed after the restart when a vehicle stalled in the middle of turn one right in front of the pit in. Now Moore would have to contend with the winner of the Impact Survival Series race run at Jefferson two weeks ago. Moore found his way around Tuma to take back the lead position on lap 81. This would be just the start to the back-and-forth battle between Moore and Tuma as they received the crossed flags to indicate we reached the halfway point of the Chill Chaser Enduro.
Moore would pull out to a lead as large as half a straightaway early in the second half of the race, but Tuma was somehow able to close the gap right back on Moore. While Moore and Tuma fought hard for the lead and the win, another veteran of racing at Wausau was slowly getting back into the game. Garrett Strachota got himself back on the lead lap just before reaching the mid-race mark, and began to eat away at the large lead that Moore and Tuma had over Strachota in third place. On lap 143, Moore suddenly slowed down with a locked up right front wheel that brought his day to a stop at the end of the back straight. Tuma now was in command of the race, but he would have to deal with the pesky Stachota for about the final 50 laps. Strachota would not be immune to mechanical issues as a miss developed in his engine with about 30 laps remaining that slowed him in the turns and allowed Tuma to pull away. Strachota was determined to finish the race even if he was falling down the running order. Something may have been up with the front axle of James Gratz’ minivan because they were out of position and he could not steer. That caused a final red flag and an eight lap shootout. Tuma’s nearest competition was seven laps behind as he had the easiest eight laps to complete and added another big enduro victory to his resume. Alex Liebsch took second and Jason Witte was in third, with both drivers seven laps in arrears of the winner. Strachota somehow was able to hold onto fourth over Tim Schmitz as they both finished 12 laps behind the leader.
Now that we have gotten you ready for the 2024 racing season with the appetizer, join us on Friday, May 3 for the entree as we kick off weekly racing at Tomah-Sparta Speedway. The Sportsmen, Hobby Stock, Hornet and Six Shooters will be joined by the debuting Crown Vic division. This growing entry level division has been very popular in Florida and Indiana, and we are the first track in Wisconsin to run this red hot new division. Gates open at 6, group qualifying debuts for all divisions at 6:15 and green flag racing steps on the gas at 7:30.
Call the track office at 608-461-1920, visit our web site at tomahspartaspeedway.com or check out the track’s Facebook page for more about Tomah-Sparta Speedway and the 2024 schedule of events.
RESULTS
Chill Chaser 200 Enduro (200 laps): 1. Troy Tuma 200 laps, 2. Alex Liebsch 193, 3. Jason Witte 193, 4. Garrett Strachota 188, 5. Tim Schmitz 188, 6. Brandon Von Stedham 187, 7. Zach Liebsch 187, 8. Isaiah Holzer 187, 9. Ed Senn 186, 10. Dylan Sather 185, 11. Paul Servais 185, 12. Jeremiah Jacobson 181, 13. Monty Odegard 177, 14. Justin Anderson 175, 15. Jerret Hamilton 174, 16. Karissa Davis 173, 17. Seth Gnewikow 171, 18. James Gratz 167, 19. Ethan Franrose 163, 20. Dave Clausen 155, 21. Marshall Roher 149, 22. Alex Hoscheit 144, 23. Matt Moore 141, 24. Brian Lee 129, 25. Shawn Carpenter 123, 26. Brandon Langre 119, 27. Seth Scholl 113, 28. NAME 102, 29. Trevor Salber 83, 30. Clint Bohrer 81, 31. Jon Francois 75, 32. Brettan Curtis 73, 33. Terry Biddick 71, 34. Isaac Brinkman 89, 35. Jason Berke 67, 36. Ryan Bentz 66, 37. Eric Breitenfeldt 65, 38. Hunter Langer 60, 39. Cole Baher 59, 40. Jaffer Bernarde 54, 41. A.J. Finnegan 46, 42. Dylan Stemper 41, 43. Tristan Finnegan 36, 44. Jack Barta 28, 45. Austin Devorak 26, 46. Dustin Groskreutz 21, 47. Cole Kronebusel 21, 48. Nick Randall 21, 49. Luke Geisler 0, 50. Jeremy Reinhart 0, 51. Bobby Meeker 0, 52. Isiah Reinhart 0
