It was a busy time around the greater Milwaukee area this week.  Monday night we joined the audience in Jackson for the traveling edition of the Racing Roundup radio broadcast.  The parking lot filled with all sorts of vehicles to see, as the hosting restaurant offered its famous pizza along with a full menu.  This was due to the efforts of Team 16, owned by Danny and Sonya DelCamp, and Sonya offered her shop's flowers as we left hours later.  Their driver Nick Schumacher was among many meeting fans and signing autographs while his owners made sure everyone had a good time.

  Tuesday was another car show featuring the Vintage Modified Stock Car collection at another restaurant specializing in chicken.  This business not only sponsors veteran Al Schill, but also brings  food to the track.  The annual show brings so many entries that there isn't enough room to display them, while fans, friends, and customers swarm in and out of the place.  This is an old-timer's reunion for us every year, and becomes more valuable when so many have been stricken with health problems.  

  As the black skies were dumping heavy rain late Saturday afternoon, Lake Geneva Raceway owner Kevin Dawson stuck to his guns and  refused to cancel the evening's events.   A beautiful sunset hours later was the reward for Dawson's tenacity.   We arrived to the crew drying the track, and the schedule was altered to save time.   The super stock and sportsman fields sacrificed their qualifying and lined up by points instead.   With the super late models on their second of three No Bull ("Show me the money") events, several more competitors joined the regulars for the first time this season.      James Swan and  Mike Gunderson doubled their track time by racing both super lates and super stocks Saturday.   The roll of the die set the feature inversion at 11 cars,  the lowest inversion Jamie Wallace could hope for after setting quick time.  After the heats for all divisions, the late model semi added the top four finishers to the fastest 16.

  The super stocks led off the night's features with all 21 entries beginning the 25-lap affair.  This may have spelled disaster, yet only one caution slowed their progress.  Only three dropped out before the end, with Mike Gunderson taking charge a few laps before the end.  "It was a good run", declared Gunderson, adding " Nothing to complain about".    His experience in the top division is not the same, however, as Gunderson told the crowd, "The late model 's a handful.  It's my second night out".   

  The sportsman field was low in numbers, but they barely broke apart for comfortable race space during the nonstop feature.  John Janssen leaped ahead of John Fischer at the start,  staying ahead of all the battles for position to the end.   After dominating the super stock field, Janssen claimed his first win in the sportsman class was, " A lot tougher than the street stock division".  If it weren't for being hemmed in for so long, perhaps the outcome would have been different, but you never know.

  The 50-lap No Bull race polished off the night.  Tight racing and resulting miscues brought out seven caution flags during the action. ending top finishes for several.  Matt Kocourek was going for the lead when his mount lost grip before the halfway point.  Ten laps later Randy Rodgers and Mike Meyerhofer were sparring for third place when they spun and joined Kocourek at the back of the pack.  With only ten laps remaining, Fran Prestay and Landry Potter ended their side-by-side feud for second when making contact.  Kocourek's progress was cancelled a few circuits later when he and Terry Patnode ended up sideways.  Just as we were ready for the final flag, Krushke's car went off the final corner, and the race ended with a flurry of consecutive green, white, and checkered flags.

  Eddie May would have rather raced to the end, stating, "I didn't like seeing that caution with one lap to go, but we were good off the corners".   Behind him, as in the other features, many fine displays of good racing were seen.     Most notable were Wallace and Kent Burkoth, who came from mid-field to the top three.  On their first returns to Lake Geneva this year, Humphrey made up the most ground from 18th to fifth, and Wayne Freimund bettered his night by six positions.   Before 10:30 it was all over but the shouting, unless you count some with hard feelings.

  It would have been a blessing if Sunday's skies contained cloud cover or rain.   Instead the thermometer hovered in the high 90's with no breeze to cool racers and fans.   At Slinger Speedway there were some empty spots in the pits, but still over 100 entries put on a complete show.  The kiddy rides had to be postponed until it would not be hazardous to touch hot metal with unprotected skin in the hot sun.

  Donavan Morgan drove his father's car on his sponsor's night at Slinger, while Conrad orchestrated the crew as his arm heals.  This same sponsor was the reason for expanding the feature by ten more circuits, which at this oval, would only take a couple minutes.    The 75 laps were slowed twice by single-car spins, and it took David Prunty a long time to come from the fourth row to wrest the lead away from Morgan.   The usually strong Brad Mueller mount slid backwards for a time on the high side before recovering for a second place finish.  Lowell Bennett and Dave Feiler showed why they were champions by maneuvering their way to the front by the end.  There was an early incident when Dennis Prunty seemed to block his brother, which drew the black flag, but in victory circle he came onto the track to shake hand with David.   "It's a totally different car than I've had", declared the victor, thanking his crew.  "We worked last night until 3 in the morning", and hard work pays off.

  The mod field began with 13 entries and began with a caution.  That was the only slowdown as Steve Huelsbeck happily ended up in the winner's circle.  Behind him the hard chargers were stacked up, unable to get any further.  As the checkered flag was being waved, one mount sat sideways in the first corner, but all made it safely to conclusion. 

  The sportsman field also finished their feature with only a dozen cars, losing four along the way.  There's an old saying in racing that your engine goes fastest right before it blows, and when Mike Graczkowski's mount erupted in a cloud of smoke, we thought of this adage.  Pat McIntee gained valuable points by winning the contest, catching up to Graczkowski's total in the process.  The top runners usually make it to the front at the end, and Sunday was a perfect example of this.

  The Thunder Stock contest also began with 13 entries, but made it to the end without a yellow flag.  Chris Beine took over early and was never headed.  The Slinger Bees had less than 30 cars this week, with one event won by a first-time racer.   The pair of fan contests had several more people gain a new respect for what racers go through, and the figure 8 finale went to conclusion without any hits.  By 9:30 the choices were to visit afterwards or go where there's air conditioning.  It was still in the 80's as we did both.  Still, it beats shoveling snow.