Record Field Greets Large Crowd at LGR! By Dale Erdmann

April 12, 2003; Lake Geneva, WI. -   It was a cool night as northeast winds chilled the large crowd of race fans that came out Saturday night for the 2003 season opener at Lake Geneva Raceway.With 136 race cars in the pit area the season started out great as Landry Potter of Genoa City a two time champion won the 35 lap feature for the Budweiser super late models. Bob Moeller of Johnsburg, Illinois won the McHenry Limousine super stock 30 lap feature.The Midwest sport truck feature for 15 laps went to Chad Ross of Kenosha and Dan Hunt of McHenry,IL. won the 15 lap Anchor Towing Basic International car feature that went non stop.

Photo Highlights

Landry Potter (#7) passes Bob Koidahl (#89) to take the lead and the eventual win in Lake Geneva¹s 35-lap super late model feature on opening night. Bob Moeller (#63) of Johnsburg, IL dove under Norm Paulsen (#1) and went on to win the 30-lap super stock feature Saturday at Lake Geneva Raceway. Chad Ross (#3) captured the Sport Truck main event this evening at Lake Geneva Raceway. Dan Hunt (#75) of McHenry, IL won the Basic International class feature Saturday at LGR. The large turnout of BIC cars helped to contribute to a new record for entries on opening night.

Mark Hartline inched in front of the super late model field at the drop of the double greens with Jason Hicks Bob Koidahl Ron Strohr and Jerry Freeman
in close pursuit.On lap five Fran Prestay and Freeman got together bringing out the first caution just after Hicks took the lead.Hicks held onto that spot for two laps before Koidahl climbed in front on lap seven.

Quickly Landry Potter moved into second with Billy Skinner Jr. next. The next twelve laps were great until the leader spun as everyone missed him producing the next caution. As the field came out of turn four Skinner looped his second place running mount off the track as the green came out. Potter walked Jamie Wallace, Dan Mecum, Wayne Freimund and Jerry Cowan to the wire with Skinner joining the field at the rear.

On lap twenty four Vincent Merry lost control and the final caution appeared. The eleven lap dash for the checkered was hot as Potter became the first winner of the new season. Wallace held back numerous challenges from fast timer Randy Rodgers and Mecum. Freimund was fifth and Cowan claimed sixth in a very close contest.

The super stock feature saw Jack Rubach in the Dave Edwards mount move out front with Mike Gunderson, Ken Eisbrenner Tom Fay and Adam Mass all over the leader. It still looked like a parade lap as the field entered lap six but Eisbrenner was creeping forward. By lap nine he was now the leader as Gunderson followed the new leader with Rubach, Fay, Norm Paulsen and Adam Regnier looking like they were glued together.

With such a close field something was going to happen and on lap eleven it did. Dan Huber just got past Regnier and then he lost power cars went every where to avoid contact. Starter Dave Rex Jr. threw the caution after Regnier went around. Huber retired to the pits before the next green with Eisbrenner out front.S econd place was a Rubach and Paulsen duel with Scott Eggebrecht and Bob Moeller right behind them.

Tom Roney, Scott Scholl and Brad Norgard joined the fray as this contest was leading up to quite the climax.With just eleven laps to go Paulsen who had worked on Eisbrenner slipped in front. Moeller made his move two laps later as Eisbrenner got loose with Eggebrecht, Rubach, Fay and defending champion Rob Summers getting by before the former leader spun bringing out the final caution with six laps to go.

With the green displayed Paulsen looked flawless but Moeller wasn’t going to give up with four laps to go it was a dead heat for that top spot. Next time around Moeller led at the line but Paulsen came right back off of turn two. The white flag was out and now Eggebrecht came into play. It was Moeller by inches with Eggebrecht nipping Paulsen at the wire. Rubach was fourth with Fay and Summers completing the top six in another excellent race.

Vladi Viadmirov jumped out front of the BIC feature with Rick Sturtevant and Mike Fossler next. Steve Richter moved into second on lap four but Fossler wasn’t going to settle for third as the see saw battle continued until Dan Hunt joined in.

With just five laps to go it looked like Viadmirov would pull off the win but on lap thirteen Hunt grabbed the lead the race ended with one lap to go after Jeff Bremer slammed into the wall but escaped injury. After the race was relined up the drivers saw the checkered giving the win to Hunt, Richter nipped Viadmirov for second with Fossler, Steve Doherty and Chris Scala next.

The sport truck feature was a defending champion Vincent Merry and quick timer Chad Ross show. Merry led all but lap twelve and the fifteen as Ross took the win.

This coming Saturday night marks the first special of the season with the first round of the “no bull” series for the super late models. Many drivers from Grundy and Slinger are expected to take on the LGR regulars. There will be two more series events through the season. $1000 will go to the winner of the 50 lap feature race. Also on the same card will be the first appearance of the Midwest sportsman championship series. Second generation driver Jeremy Miller won the first event at Rockford last weekend starting near last before besting a field of twenty six cars that started the Budweiser 100 lap feature. There are eight of these shows scheduled four at LGR four at Slinger and two at Rockford. Power Source racing engines of Fox Lake,IL. has put up a short block to the champion of this series.

The pit area opens at 4:30 pm. time trials begin at 5:45 and racing at 7 sharp.