The Full Moon played lots of tricks at LGR! By Dale Erdmann

September 1, 2001; Lake Geneva, WI. -  When it comes to the full moon on a race night Lake Geneva Raceway Hasn’t had the problems others have had this season. That was until tonight. There was a roll over two big fires (but no one was injured) and two drivers were DQ’ed after winning feature events. Now this is our story. The weather was again perfect until the sun went down then low 60’s felt alittle cool for the red hot action that followed.Denny Hiffman of River Forest, Illinois won his first 35 lap feature of the season in the super late model division after a three year drought.

Mike Olson of Wonder Lake won his first career feature after taking second in the caution flag plagued McHenry Limo super stock feature for 25 laps that took nearly thirty five minutes to run.Terry Crowell of North Prairie won his first career Performance Unlimited 30 lap feature for the sportsman cars after being another driver to take second and still win the contest.

Photo Highlights

Denny Hiffman (#41) won his first super late model feature of the season Saturday night at Lake Geneva Raceway. He was joined in victory lane by Junior Fan Club members Cody Wallstrom and Mindy Blood. Terry Crowell (#71) scored his first career Sportsman feature victory this Saturday night at Lake Geneva Raceway. Greg Peterson (#36) heads the wrong direction during the Super Stock feature contest and is avoided by a couple other competitors. Aaron Williams rolled over in the super stock feature Saturday at Lake Geneva Raceway. He was not injured.

On lap fourteen May worked his way past Corso with Way and now Landry Potter right there. Wayne Freimund persistence paid off on lap seventeen getting around Patnode just as Potter got around Way one lap later. Quick qualifier Matt Kocourek was now eighth and within striking distance of the next four runners that were picked off lap after lap finally gaining third from Potter on lap twenty five.

The one caution flag came with two laps to go as Fran Prestay spun with everyone missing him.May chased the winner Hiffman in that two lap dash but Kocourek haunted May until the checkered with Potter in fourth and Corso rounding out the top five in this close race.

The super stock feature was only one lap old with Dan Huber the leader. Dave Melahn and Mike Bell tangled as Adam Regnier got involved before the melee ended. At the next green Huber walked out front with Scott Eggebrecht, Mike Kooi Dave Edwards and fast timer Greg Peterson next. On lap seven Rob Summers running near the front Kooi and Edwards became involved in an incident bringing the race to a halt.

Huber again shot in front but two laps later Scott Scholl spun bringing the race to a stop again second in time Craig Mertes headed to the pits and did not return until two laps were run on the restart as Eggebrecht pressured Huber for that top spot. Mertes dropped back out on lap eleven for some unknown reason. On lap seventeen Peterson broke an axle halting the action one more time.Huber wasted little time at the drop of the next green as time was running out for this event.

Mike Olson slipped under Eggebrecht on the next go round with Dave Timan next. Before long Huber could feel the pressure from Olson but leader looked like he was on a rail resisting any challenges. The final lap was close but Huber held his line and won the event over Olson, Eggebrecht, a recovering Bell and Summers. A post race inspection wiped out Huber’s efforts after failing to maintain the correct compression giving the win to Olson and moving Regnier into fifth.

Before a lap was even recored in the Mid-American Sportsman feature, Zac Deeringer flew off turn three with a broken driveshaft ending his night before it could even start. The double greens brought an intense pace to the field as visiting Bill Neering grabbed the lead with John Fischer, Ken Smart, Mark Guess, and Gary LaMonte fighting for a position. LaMonte was on track moving from fifth to second within six laps. Quickly Brian Baker followed him with Smart knowing that Shawn Utphall wanted his spot.

Neering was about four cars ahead at that time but by lap twelve LaMonte only in his second week in the former Mid American car looked like he’d start a bid for the top spot. The two diced for one more lap before over powering the former leader. It looked like the contest would go non stop until lap twenty eight when Lee Gibbs spun causing the first and only caution of this race.

On the restart with just two laps to go Terry Crowell moved up on the front runners as Mike Lange in Jocko Terrault’s mount and Baker dueled for a position. Coming for the checkered LaMonte won the race to the line with Crowell, Lange, Baker and Neering under a blanket. Farther back in the field Guess and Smart spun together and a large fire erupted. Everyone escaped injury and the safety crew quickly put the fire out. A post race inspection dropped LaMonte from the race after an illegal carb was discovered by inspectators.Ken Joosten moved up to fifth.

The gauntlet race nearly turned sour as the car carrying starter Dave Rex Jr. and Promoter Kevin Dawson erupted into an intense fire after a fuel line broke during the pounding of that car by other drivers. Both jumped to safety and ran across the line for the win.The fire was extinguished by the safety crew and no one was injured.

Next Saturday night means just five more Saturday nights remain on the 2001 roster as Burlington Camper and Travel sponsor their previously scheduled night that was rained out on August 25th. The soon to be famous trailer race will run that night. The sportsman will join the super late models and super stocks for a full race program.