Wallace and LaMonte Chalk Up $$$ With Clean Sweep at LGR! By Dale R. Erdmann

July 12, 2003; Lake Geneva, WI. -  It was mid season championships at Lake Geneva Raceway Saturday night as Bennett Enterprises of Round Lake Beach sponsored the events with a full moon above us. Current point leader and former champion Jamie Wallace of nearby Pell Lake showed the competition the fast way around the track by taking fast time, winning the six lap dash and the 50 lap feature for the Budweiser super late models. Wallace took home $1200 for the feature win.

Mike Gunderson of Wind Lake finished second in the 30 lap McHenry Limousine super stock feature according to scoring, but the winner was disqualified giving the young driver his second win of the season. Gary LaMonte of West Allis a former legends driver gained championship points by taking fast time, winning the dash and the 30 lap feature for the Performance Unlimited sportsman cars in a rare clean sweep in this competitive division. This all happened as point leader Jeremy Miller was getting married and not racing tonight.

Photo Highlights

Jamie Wallace (#87) dives inside of Jerry Cowan (#67) on his way to winning the super late model feature Saturday at Lake Geneva Raceway. Gary Lamonte (#63) topped the sportsman main event at LGR Saturday completing a sweep of the division and was joined in victory lane by Jr. Fan Zack Hallingstad. Mike Gunderson (#4) was the super stock feature winner Saturday at Lake Geneva.

The super late model main event started off with Vincent Merry ahead of the twenty two car field. Russ Blakeley was second with Jason Hicks, Mark Hartline and Jerry Cowan so close. With such a tight formation games were being played midpack as someone brake checked the remaining field sending Landry Potter to the pits with front end damage after that incident. Hicks slipped in front on lap five with Billy Skinner Jr. now part of this gaggle of cars. Two laps later the bumping started again with everyone so close.

Cowan was on the move putting pressure on the leader starting one lap later. On lap nineteen Blakley collected Jim Bennett and the first caution appeared. Blakeley needed a hook as Bennett went to the rear of the field. On the restart it was side by side throughout the field with Hicks still the leader. Three laps later Cowan was challenging for that top spot as Skinner worked high.On lap twenty four Cowan inched ahead of the field with Jamie Wallace now with Skinner and Hicks.

Eric Darnell spun after contact with Denny Hiffman on lap twenty eight bringing out the next caution flag. When the next green was shown Wallace marched out front with Skinner,Cowan, Jerry Freeman, Rick Corso and Hicks all right there. The next ten laps gave the leader a wide margin of room with Matt Kocourek steadily moving forward. But two laps later Kocourek spun after moving into fourth and the race came to a halt.

On the restart it was again an all Wallace show but second through nineteenth place were too close to call. When the double checkers were shown Wallace easily won the event, Skinner took second with Cowan, Freeman, Corso and a hard charging Jeff Way rounding out the top six.

The super stock feature started off with some early three deep action as rookie Shane Sapp led the field. Ken Eisbrenner was right on his heels, with Adam Mass, Craig Mertes and Dan Huber all over each other. It stayed three deep for sometime as Mass worked on Sapp until lap six when the lead changed. Huber slipped into second on lap nine with Gunderson at his side. On lap eleven it looked like the top three were glued together as Mass still led every lap.

On lap fifteen two cars were being lapped Mass and Gunderson got through them even thou they never moved down for the faster cars. Huber made it past one of them but made contact with the next causing his front bumper to come loose as they tangled bringing the race to a stop. Underway the John Janssen charged out front of the pack with Mass and Gunderson next. One lap later Mass inched back in front with the next six laps a see/saw battle for the lead. One was even a dead heat with both leading the nineteenth go round.

With such a great race going on,the spin on lap twenty four by Eisbrenner didn’t let a beat stop even for the slowdown. Those final laps were still exciting as Janssen held back Gunderson for the win. Fast timer Sonny Schoffen was along side for third with Rob Summers, Mass and Bob Moeller under a blanket for the finish. A post race inspection dropped Janssen from the feature for too much compression. Gunderson moved into first for the win with Huber up to sixth and the rest of the field
moving up one position.

The sportsman division may have been light on cars but not on action as veteran Bob Hacker led the race which would go non stop. Gary Norton was leaking something and received the black flag on lap four and newly wed Barry Krueger dropped out for some unknown reason the same lap.

By lap seven Gary LaMonte was right on the leaders bumper and one lap later the new leader. Before it was over Bob Hansberry in the Jeremy Miller mount and Denny Norton Jr. put on a show for third the final fifteen laps. At the checkered it was LaMonte, Hacker, Hansberry, Norton, Ken Joosten and Jeremy Bloomberg completing the top six.

This coming Saturday night R.A. Adams of McHenry, IL. presents the second trailer race of the season. The super late models will have a $1000 to win feature with second and fifth place receiving bonus money. The super stocks will have added first, second and eighth place bonus money from Adams Enterprises. Time trials begin at 5:45 pm. with the first race at 7pm sharp.