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LGR Banquet Honors Champions!
By Dale R. Erdmann |
The new for 2003 sportsman championship series drivers were also included.
These drivers raced here, Rockford Speedway and at Slinger speedway in 8 series events.
Drivers shared in nearly $30,000 in cash awards point fund and contingencies. There were a
lot of special awards including the 2003 rookies of the year. In the Herb’s mini
modifieds it was John DeMay, Anchor Towing BIC’s Scott Norton,
McHenry Limousine super stocks Shane Sapp,S&P motorsports Michael Krusche, Performance
Unlimited sportsman Jeremy Miller and Brandon Hill in the Budweiser super late models.
There were two divisions with dash winners awards with the Al Schill Jr. memorial dash
sponsored by Kevin Barker’s reconditioning company. The super late model winner was
Jamie Wallace, Denny Hiffman second and a tie for third between Jerry Cowan and Wayne
Friemund.
Chuck’s Storage super stock dash winners will be announced at a later
date due to the totals not tallied at press time.
The 5 Star race car bodies gift certificates went to Ron Sroehr who won a complete Race
car body. Bob Moeller super stocks and Jeremy Bloomberg sportsman received $250 and $750
gift certificates respectively. These were done by random drawings.
From Aero racing wheels,Jamie Wallace,Gary LaMonte and Sonny Scoffen each received $100
gift certificates.
Bassett racing wheels gave away 18 gift certificates some in random drawings and the
others to the division champions and rookies of the year.
Circle Track Speciality gave away $100 and two $50 gift certificates in random drawings.
Turbo Blue racing fuel gave Rick Corso $150,Wayne Friemund $100 and Joe Fischer $50 for
using their fuel for the super late models.Denny Norton Jr. received $75 and Jeremy
Bloomberg $25 in the sportsman class.
Denny Norton Jr. besides being a competitor in the sportsman class, along with his father
owns Performance Unlimited in McHenry,Illinois and is the Hoosier tire dealer for sales
and service at the raceway. Norton gave the champions jackets for their feat and Hoosier
put $3500 into the point fund.
Kevin Dawson owner and promoter of the raceway again served as master of ceremonies.
Dawson thanked his 50 plus employees, the drivers and all the sponsors which supported
auto racing.
The first division to be honored were the Herb’s mini modifieds. Bill Demron owner of
Herb’s out of Antioch,IL. said that his business was being sold and he would not be
sponsoring the mini modifieds for the first time since coming here from the dirt some 5
years ago. Ken Johnson pulled off a last night last event win for his fourth title here.
Mike VanHouten was runner up after having a great season then blowing the clutch on that
final night. Former dirt track champion Phil Schultz started the season as a sub driver
but never missed a night finishing third. Curt Tomazin was fourth and Hermie Schultz
completed the top five.Chris Marinello, Glen Verezze, Bill Trusky, John DeMay and Chris
Tomazin rounded out the top ten.
The next group were brand new here for weekly racing as the INEX bandolero cars made a
whole season.Dale Erdmann thanked Liz Bilderback for all her help during the groups first
season here. Winnning the championship was 12 year old
Michael Bilderback the raceway’s youngest title holder and a rookie in the division.
Bilderback was hard to beat winning
all but three of the feature races as the former Burris Circle track go kart champion
looked very impressive. Besides winning the LGR crown Michael won the Illinois and
Wisconsin championships for the INEX class plus finished 6th. in the nation
for overall points.Bilderback took the microphone and told the crowd about his two main
sponsors and their help.
Coming home second with a great run just 160 points behind was Michael
Cooter who gave the champ a run for the title. Ending up in third was 8 year old Bobby
Yonkee the youngest driver. Brian Herberlin was just 10 points behind in fourth.David
Cooter Jr. was fifth after being side lined some eight weeks due to a racing incident at
another track left the second generation driver with all that time off. His Father raced
the car from then on and the team finished fifth.
The Perfection Auto Body legend cars championship went right down to the final night and
the running of the feature as Steve Licht won his first title of his career .The runner up
was 2002 champion Curt Gnatzig who was just 80 points behind. Herman Greinig was third,
with Joe Scala fourth,Lyle Kuklinski fifth, followed by Rob Duffek,Dave Cooter Sr.Chris
Helgerson,Eddie Mecum Jr. and Larry Will.
The three year old Basic International cars saw some nearly 150 different drivers
participate at least one time or more,as the Anchor Towing sponsored division had another
new championship as Rob Hunt won the crown. Randy Schneider was second with Dan Clemenz
coming home in third. Matt Bushnell was fourth, Scott Norton fifth, with Rod Brossard,
Chris Koleno, Josh Brisbois, Reid Kahrs Jr. and Vladi Vladimirov completing the top ten.
The Midwest sport trucks shared our banquet as Vincent Merry won his third title in the
class. Chad Ross, Tom Ross, Rob Neumueller and Todd Ross made the top five.
The S&P motorsports millennium late models had the raceway’s youngest champion in
a full size race car as Badger High school junior 16 year old Jacob Humphrey won the
title. Jeff Goodwin a former legacy race car driver came in second.Mike Lange former
sportsman champion was third, super late model racer Mark Hartline was fourth, Paul Dygon
another former super late driver was fifth, both Brian Ulrich and Shawn Conley were former
super late model driver followed by the lone female competitor and a second generation
driver Carrie Dygon,then Michael Kruschke and Earl Counter rounded out the top ten.
The Performance Unlimited sportsman were up next, Denny Norton Jr. presented the awards as
Gary LaMonte won his first championship after racing legends cars. finishing just 125
points behind the new king pin was first year driver Jeremy Miller,
third was Denny Norton Jr. fourth Jeremy Bloomberg, fifth veteran driver Bobby Hacker
followed by James Swan 2002 champion, Ken Joosten, Gary Norton who brought along a large
crowd, Erik Pierce and rookie Steve Hoff.
The McHenry Limousine super stocks were represented by Marty Robb as this championship
went down to the final race, with Sonny Schoffen winning his first title, just 25 points
behind was the 2002 champ Rob Summers, 2001 champion Jack Rubach was third, third year
driver Mike Gunderson was fourth, Norman Paulsen fifth with Adam Mass, Tom Roney, Bob
Moeller a former champion, Brad Norgard and Mike Bell completing the top ten. This group
had the closest top ten point division.
The Budweiser super late models were highly competitive too, as Jamie Wallace a second
generation driver won the championship.Wallace previously won the division in 1992. This
season Jamie won three feature races.Runner up in this division was Rick Corso a former
Mid American title holder. Rick won one of the “no bull” series features. Wayne
Friemund was third, Jerry Freeman fourth, Joe Fischer fifth. Rounding out the top ten were
Jerry Cowan, Denny Hiffman, Fran Prestay a multi time champion, Vincent Merry who raced in
two classes and Mark Hartline who also raced in two divisions.
A new eight race series was born at LGR, then ran at Slinger and Rockford for total points
towards the crown. The Midwest sportsman championship series was created for the little
guy who didn’t want to run everywhere. Natasha Fabian was thanked for all her work
and creating the website for the series.Jeremy Miller won the first championship in this
very close group. Josh Bauer came in second,with Nick Schaumacher third James Swan fourth
,Brandon Norris fifth, Bobby Hacker sixth, Denny Norton Jr.seventh, Ken Joosten eighth
Bobby Gutknecht ninth and Dave Thomas tenth.
Miller walked away with $1000 bous for his efforts and Thomas won the
short block from Powersource out of Fox Lake,IL. The series will continue this season at
the same tracks.
Mike Babicz was present and told the large crowd that LGR will be the sole race track
being represented his 27th. annual “let’s go racing” show on March
19th.20th. and 21st.at the original outlet mall on I 94 and Highway 50. Babicz hosts a
radio show every Sunday night on 1220 WKRS and will be the announcer for the weekly moto
cross races at the raceway and is the Midwest Enduro series announcer. The race car show
has many groups that bring race cars to the longest running and free to the public show in
the country. |