By: Paul Reichert
July 5, 2024
Fourth of July festivities have been hit or miss this year. Some started their Fourth of July fun at the end of the June but had to deal with rain. During the week the weather has been more tolerable for picnics and parties to take place and to set off fireworks shows at night. Mother Nature has given Tomah-Sparta Speedway an unexpected two week break from racing as rain interrupted our festivities. Hungry for racing action, the fans turned out to witness the second leg of the Tomah-Sparta Enduro Triple Crown. The Summer Sizzle 200, a brand new mid-season enduro race, provided a nice break for our regular Friday night racing battles. Adam Hayden took the lead just 30 laps into the race and would not be challenged the rest of the way to score an impressive victory.
50 drivers took the green fall for an early summer’s night battle of four and six cylinder cars for 200 laps. Alec Liebsch led the opening four circuits before Jason Berke powered by him to assume the number one position. Contact between Nick Randall and Paul Servais on the back straight just eight laps into the race left Servais stalled on the inside lane to bring out the red flag. Dylan Stemper suffered a flat tire on lap 11 and ended up sitting in the middle of the track coming out of turn four. Aaron Grattan spun on the old track in turn four on lap 18. After driving backwards to get an opening to right his race car, he did a 180 on the front straight to rejoin the action. The problem was he did it right in front of Jeremiah Jacobson, but somehow Jacobson was able to dart to the right to avoid colliding with Grattan. Adam Hayden shot past Berke to get the lead on lap 31, but seven laps later the day was over for Berke as he car came to a stop on the high side of turn two. Just past the 50 lap mark of the race Scott Duda and Seth Scholl tangled on the front straight. Duda hit the inside wall hard and suffered major front and rear damage to his car to bring his race to an end. James Gratz and Louie Ansolabehere made contact in turn four on lap 63. Gratz ran into the stalled vehicle of Dylan Stemper and shortened its rear. Ansolabehere bounced off the inside wall on the front straight, but amazingly both drivers were able to stay in the race. Monty Odegard could not get his mini-van to fire up on the restart and the red returned on lap 67 for his issue. Zachary Neal was stuck behind Odegard all this time, but was able to pull out from behind him and rejoin the action.
Adam Hayden continued on his breakneck pace as the crossed flags were displayed. The pace being set by Hayden was so torrid that second place Matt Moore found himself two laps in arrears. First time enduro competitors and first time racers have a very memorable experience in their first ever race. Thomas Dreger was competing in his very first race, but it came to an end on lap 108 when Dreger suffered a flat tire and was unable to steer the car. Dreger’s car would be stalled on the grass off of turn two. James Gratz’s day continued to be very adventurous as he made contact with the turn four on lap 111. Gratz took his mini-van to the infield to fix the sheet metal damage and he would get back in the action a few laps later. There was still heavy lap traffic even though we lost roughly half of the field by the time we got to 75 laps remaining. That affected Adam Hayden as Matt Moore was able to charge past him and put himself just one lap behind the leader. Just before the field reached 50 laps remaining in the race, contact on the back straight occurred between Sawyer Rohrer and Shawn Carpenter. Carpenter nosed into the back straight wall, but both racers were able to right themselves and run the last quarter of the race. With only 18 laps to go, a multitude of calamities occurred on the track. In turn two, Dylan Sather made hard contact with the wall that saw his right rear tire break loose from his car. Sather was able to limp back to the pits and get a new wheel on his car and complete the race. Meanwhile in turn four, Austin Dvorak’s engine expired and forced him to retire to the infield. Hayden was the unstoppable force on this night as he led nearly three-quarters of the race to score a dominant win in the Summer Sizzle 200. With just the Daytomah 200 left to run on September 6 to decide the Tomah-Sparta Enduro Triple Crown Champion, Jason Witte and Garrett Strachota are tied for the lead. Chill Chaser winner Troy Tuma and Summer Sizzle winner Hayden are both tied for third, only 50 points behind.
Call the track office at 608-461-1920, visit our web site at tomahspartaspeedway.com and be sure to like the track’s Facebook page for more information about Tomah-Sparta Speedway and the 2024 schedule of events.
RESULTS
Summer Sizzle 200 Enduro (200 laps): 1. Adam Hayden 200, 2. Matt Moore 199, 3. Garrett Strachota 199, 4. Jason Witte 196, 5. Marshall Rohrer 912, 6. Scott Riedner 189, 7. Jeremiah Jacobson 186, 8. Chris Sather 184, 9. Eli Kappauf 183, 10. Isaiah Holzer 181, 11. Alex Liebsch 181, 12. Seth Scholl 180, 13. Sawyer Rohrer 177, 14. Dylan Sather 175, 15. Christina Barnett 165, 16. Austin Dvorak 161, 17. Addisyn Botcher 160, 18. Jordan Drans 152, 19. Brianna Duda 152, 20. Eugene Olson 150, 21. Alex Lueth 150, 22. Zachary Neal 147, 23. Shawn Carpenter 145, 24. Tristan Finnigan 143, 25. Rob Dubnecay 105, 25. A. J. Finnigan 88, 27. Thomas Dreger 84, 28. Derek Jensen 84, 29. James Gratz 80, 30. Frank Danielson 76, 31. Nick Randall 67, 32. Louie Ansolabehere 64, 33. Austin Finnigan 60, 34. Monty Odegard 57, 35. Scott Duda 50, 36. Zach Liebsch 50, 37. Wyatt Lensor 47, 38. Brian Lab, Jr. 40, 39. Hunter Langen 37, 40. Jason Berke 34, 41. Kaden Young 31, 42. Ron Randall 28, 43. Alex Klawitter 23, 44. Aaron Grattan 22, 45. Cole Strasser 10, 46. Dylan Stemper 8, 47. Davey Pennel 6, 48. Jack Grattan 6, 49. Jacob Bailey 6, 50. Paul Servais 5
