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Lake Geneva Raceway presents
Round and Around by Fay Hendricks
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See you for the 2006 Season opener in April
Round and Around:  By Fay Hendricks
The following is a column written by Fay Hendricks for The Checkered Flag Racing News. This race publication began in 1968 and ceased operations as of July 13, 2005. The wife of 7-time sportsman and mini stock champion Jim Hendricks, Fay has been writing since 1981. As a way to allow readers to continue following the travels of Fay Hendricks around several venues, Lake Geneva Raceway owner-promoter Kevin Dawson has decided to offer the columns here. We hope you enjoy the reading.
July 22, 2006  - Saturday night we returned to Lake Geneva Raceway for a hurried night of racing. At our house it was sunny and over 80 degrees, but an hour later it was only in the mid-60’s after a pouring rain visited the oval as well. At least it left in a timely fashion, but an hour was lost during the track drying. Thus there would be no qualifying Saturday in order to get the program in before curfew time. This was done with plenty of time to spare, thanks to fewer cautions and only a couple track cleanups needed. Having lost the previous night’s show to a lengthy rain, owner Kevin Dawson was determined to get this one in. As another wall of clouds slowly made their way towards us, the race program clicked along as quickly as possible, forgoing winner’s interviews until the very end.

The five division point leaders were chosen to take the American flag for the parade lap during the anthem, after a short chat with Dale Erdmann, who is recovering from arm surgery. Late model point leader Eddie May rolled the die to set the feature inversion at 13 cars. We can recall years when May would deliberately sit out several weeks in order not to be in the championship chase, as Fran Prestay used to do here. But this year is different. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little boy”, said May. Recalling a conversation with another second-generation driver and Dave Rex Jr. (now the flagger) at the awards banquet over the winter, May told the audience, “We all remember riding the merry-go-round at the top of the hill. All these years later it’s still here at the last year.” Even if things don’t last forever, memories do. Winning the final late model crown wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

The heat races saw a lot of side-by-side action and several near misses. One Super Mini Cup heat was being led by Sam Morici when his car began leaking fluid on the track, and the black flag preceded the checkers, forcing him to retire instead of taking the win. Later this same driver would find a challenge during the 20-lap feature. Led all the way by 16-year old Alex Yerdizerski, Morici had just made his way to the front from his seventh-row start when the yellow banner flew for a two-car tangle. Reverting to the previous lap put Morici back in second place for the green-white-checkered flag finish, taking the point on the penultimate lap to taste victory at last.

The quartet of Vintage Stock Cars quickly reduced their feature by half when Mark Beutel and Jamie Schmidt made contact and went off the track for a mud bath. This was an inglorious way to end their proud presentation of restored race cars, and the other two put on the best show they could for the remaining laps. Mark Friend led all but the final lap when Sam Redding got past for the win.

The Weapons division was light in numbers, nearly half the field getting a chance to lead the feature. The single caution came out when the right side of Michael Shorten’s mount was stuck atop the concrete barrier. Shorten then returned to the contest to the amazement of all, and all but one car finished the rest of the race. Led off by Anthony Vito, Mark Tomasi took charge a few laps later, then Mike Herwald until four laps from the end when Jeff “The Heffer” Schultz snared the win. In honor of his nickname, announcer Dave Kamholz urged the audience to moo for the driver instead of cheer. Hopefully this wasn’t mistaken for boos instead.

The super stock field was the only one to need a semi Saturday night, with 14-year old Tyler Peterson and Mike Hansen earning transfer positions to the feature. Joe DeCubellis led off from the front row, the shaky start seeing cars going awry after one didn’t come up to speed. Once the field got going, things progressed with several side-by-side battles and several calamities avoided. With only four laps remaining, there was another yellow flag, and the ensuing lane choice may have made the difference. Dave Edwards began the 30-lap contest back in the sixth row, and had made his way to challenge for the lead with ten circuits to spare. DeCubellis refused to give up, staying alongside Edwards and nosing ahead a few laps later, and then Edwards surged ahead again to the final flag. All but four drivers finished the race, and the closely matched field all stayed on the lead lap.

The late model field began a couple cars shy, reduced by one more when Landry Potter’s mount had a problem. Second in the point chase at Lake Geneva, Potter then borrowed the Joe Fischer car and started in the last spot of the 40-lap feature. Mike Lange led off from the front row, then a slowdown occurred for a two-car incident. Eight circuits later Terry Patnode took over from his fourth row start, and May had worked his way past a dozen cars by the thirteenth time around. After two more slowdowns, May stayed ahead of a challenging Randy Rodgers, with Mike Meyerhofer and Patnode in hot pursuit to the final flag. All this time we could hear May’s car sounding off the mark, while challenging Rodgers had his power steering fail and return with no warning. Despite these problems, the duo was able to stay ahead of the rest of the field to the wonderment of all. Shortly after 10:00 there was time for the post-race interview. “The muffler must have disconnected from the exhaust system”, claimed May, adding, “Maybe we lost a little power. I’m just glad we were up front.” A lucky thirteen cars were still there at the end.

 
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