THE YOUTH MOVEMENT INVADES TOMAH SPARTA SPEEDWAY ON SCHOOL’S OUT NIGHT

By:  Paul Reichert

June 6, 2025

Every Friday night we witness some amazing racing action and competition at Tomah Sparta Speedway. In recent years we have been watching incredible performances coming from teenage competitors that no doubt are the future of auto racing in western Wisconsin. With another year of hard work and learning in the books, the kids got to celebrate the end of the school year with our annual School’s Out Night. We would be graced with probably the youngest set of feature winners ever at Tomah Sparta Speedway with ages ranging from 12 to 17. Two of our feature winners, Easton RIedner in Hobby Stocks and Lilly Estenson in the High School Racing Association, captured their first ever feature victories.

The High School Racing Association made their season debut, and thanks to the largest field of cars ever to race at Tomah with 18 they got to run two feature races.  Ryan Allen in his first HSRA race led the opening laps of the first feature. Allen would tangle with the slower car of Taylor Aasen as he put her a lap down on lap five. Both were able to straighten things out and continue on in the race. That incident would allow Caleb Arneson, who moved into the runner-up spot on lap three, to close the gap on Allen. Destiny Schneider spun out on lap six, did a little agricultural racing and knocked a couple of cones onto the track to bring out the yellow. Arenson wasted little time on the restart as he swooshed past Allen to claim the lead position. While Arneson began to grow his lead on the field, Allen would have his hands full with fellow newcomer Tymeka Eisberner late in the race. Eisberner dove to the inside of Allen to move into second with four laps remaining, but that would be as far as she got. Arneson was long gone as the 2024 LaCrosse HSRA champion captured his first victory of the young season.

Feature two for the HSRA got off to a rocky start with Noah Waughtal and Adria Day tangling and spinning out in turn two. Lilly Estenson powered by Trinity Aasen to lead her first ever laps in an HSRA race. Estenson built up a sizable lead during the first half of the race, but the rest of the field would soon catch up to her with Day leading that pack. Day looked to the low side, then drove to the high line to make her way around Estenson without any success. Waughtal had contact with a couple other drivers late in the race, but he managed to get things pointed back in the right direction. James Gratz was first tagged by Waughtal on lap 11, but they were able to continue on. The very next lap saw Trinity Aasen and Gratz get together. The good thing was that they were able to continue to race. Thanks to her dad David breaking in her car in the Sixers last week, Estenson proved she had a fast car as she held off Day to capture her first ever checkered flag.

The front row of Landon Lockington battled Easton Riedner hard for the lead in the Hobby Stock feature. Lockington nosed ahead to lead the first lap, but Riedner would shoot past Lockington to take charge of the race on lap two. While Riedner built up a healthy advantage, the battle was on for second between Scott Riedner and last week’s feature winner Mathew Cleveland. Both drivers were eating away at Easton’s lead, even despite contact between the two drivers on lap eight. Scott worked the rear bumper of grandson Easton’s car for several laps, but could not get that opening to jump into the lead position. Easton did a fabulous job of handling his race car and keeping grandpa Scott at bay over the second half of the race to hit the finish line first and make that big trip to Victory Lane.

Rose Borntreger went from third to first on the opening lap of the Great North Legends feature at the expense of both Coty Gular and Matt Trautsch. An early yellow came out on lap turn when Cael Slater lost control of his race car entering turn one. Borntreger began to pull away from the field on the restart, but Ayrton Brockhouse would start to make his presence known as he moved into second place on lap six. Two laps later Brockhouse caught up to Borntreger, who was working her steering wheel hard to hold off the top gun of Legends racing in the Midwest. Brockhouse found an opening under Borntreger coming out of turn two on lap 13 to power into the lead. Yellow flew on lap 15 for contact between Kooper Heintz and Cam Panitzke that sent Heintz hard into the outside wall in turn two. Another caution period occurred on lap 19 when the hood of Panitzke’s car flew off and landed on the back straight. The restart did not get very far when Greg Erhart and Gular got tangled up and hit the front straight wall. The drive of the night had to belong to Andrew Borntreger. After starting shotgun on the field in 16th thanks to an issue with his race car during group qualifying, Borntreger picked off race cars one by one over the course of the feature to wind up in second spot with two laps remaining. Borntreger would not have enough laps or time to catch Brockhouse, who drove off with his second straight feature triumph.     

In the INEX Bandolero feature, Ace Oldenhoff was able to leap from third to the lead on lap one at brother Axel’s expense. The night suddenly came to an end for Axel the very next lap when he encountered a mechanical issue. Soon Ace Oldenhoff would have a mirror full of Bentley Thompson by lap five as the battle for the top spot heated up. The yellow flag slowed the action on lap six when Ransom Tate spun in turn two. The wick got turned up in the battle for the lead between Oldenhoff and Thompson on the restart. It was a hard fought side-by-side duel between two of the best Bandolero racers in Wisconsin, and Thompson would move to the inside to drive under Oldenhoff for the number one spot on lap eight. Thompson would have new challengers to deal with as the laps ticked away. Emily Billings and Oliver Weinkauf broke into the top three with six laps left to run as they dropped Oldenhoff back to fourth. Thompson had too much distance for either Billings or Weinkauf to make up as the dominator of Bandolero racing in Wisconsin earned his second straight feature win.  

Tomah Sparta Speedway’s longest running marquee event takes place next Friday, June 13. We remember a racing competitor that was on a major upward path but left us too soon during the 11th annual Tim Myer Memorial Shootout. The main event of the evening will be a 30 lap feature paying $1,000 to win for the Sportsmen, who along with the Hobby Stocks will have round two of their V8 Border Battle with Elko Speedway. The Hornets, Sixers and Hippos will also compete, and a new division visits Cranberry Country as the Wisconsin Sport Trucks will take on the new and improved Tomah Sparta Speedway. Gates open at 5:30, group qualifying fires up at 6 and the battle for a Tim Myer Memorial victory roars to life at 7. 

Call the track office at 952-994-1282, visit our website at tomahspartaspeedway.com and be sure to like the track’s Facebook page for more information about Tomah Sparta Speedway and the 2025 schedule of events.

Feature (30 laps):  1. Ayrton Brockhouse, 2. Andrew Borntreger, 3. Rose Borntreger, 4. Abby Blasel, 5. Robby Carter, 6. Devon Lee, 7. Cam Panitzke, 8. Matt Trautsch, 9. Dalton Lee, 10. Aaron Genske, 11. James Berndsen, 12. Coty Gular, 13. Greg Erhart, 14. Justin Gilbertson, 15. Kooper Heintz, 16. Cael Slater

Heat #1 (10 laps):  1. Cam Panitzke, 2. Aaron Genske, 3. James Berndsen, 4. Justin Gilbertson, 5. Greg Erhart

Heat #2 (10 laps):  1. Robby Carter, 2. Dalton Lee, 3. Kooper Heintz, 4. Coty Gular, 5. Matt Trautsch

Heat #3 (10 laps):  1. Aryton Brockhouse, 2. Abby Blasel, 3. Cael Slater, 4. Andrew Borntreger, 5. Devon Lee, 6. Rose Borntreger

Qualifying:  1. Cael Slater 15.764, 2. Ayrton Brockhouse 15.779, 3. Devon Lee 15.803, 4. Abby Blasel 15.924, 5. Rose Borntreger 15.986, 6. Coty Gular 15.999, 7. Matt Trautsch 16.026, 8. Kooper Heintz 16.074, 9. Robby Carter 16.080, 10. Dalton Lee 16.135, 11. Cam Panitzke 16.159, 12. Greg Erhart 16.318, 13. James Berndsen 16.328, 14. Justin Gilbertson 16.379, 15. Aaron Genske 16.52, 16. Andrew Borntreger NO TIME

Born Construction INEX Bandoleros

Feature (20 laps):  1. Bentley Thompson, 2. Emily Billings, 3. Oliver Weinkauf, 4. Ace Oldenhoff, 5. Christopher Flynn, 6. Wesley Baumeister, 7. Gage Kubicz, 8. Mason Westphal, 9. Jaxxston Jump, 10. Blake Michael, 11. Ethan Jensen, 12. Ransom Tate, 13. Kam Martinez, 14. Axel Oldenhoff

Heat #1 (8 laps):  1. Ethan Jensen, 2. Blake Michael, 3. Kam Martinez, 4. Ransom Tate, 5. A.J. Sauter

Heat #2 (8 laps):  1. Axel Oldenhoff, 2. Christopher Flynn, 3. Gag Kubicz, 4. Mason Westphal, 5. Jaxxston Jump

Heat #3 (8 laps):  1. Bentley Thompson, 2. Wesley Baumeister, 3. Ace Oldenhoff, 4. Emily Billings, 5. Oliver Weinkauf

Qualifying:  1. Emily Billings 17.100 (New Track Record), 2. Wesley Baumeister 17.117, 3. Bentley Thompson 17.194, 4. Oliver Weinkauf 17.227, 5. Ace Oldenhoff 17.327, 6. Gage Kubicz 17.435, 7. Axel Oldenhoff 17.486, 8. Christopher Flynn 17.905, 9. Mason Westphal 17.921, 10. Jaxxston Jump 18.151, 11. Ransom Tate 18.222, 12. Ehtan Jensen 18.238, 13. Blake Michael 18.240, 14. A.J. Sauter 18.876, 15. Kam Martinez 20.087