April 17, 2004; Marshfield, WI: - An excellent night for racing and a fantastic crowd for the 2004 season opener at Marshfield Super Speedway. Over 2,200 fans attended the first race with proceeds donated for Cancer Research. 2003 Super Late Model Track Champion Judd Brandl earned fast time honors and won the feature putting him in command of the 2004 point standings. Cale Laessig came back very strong in the Super Stocks with a clean sweep for the night, after he took some time off from racing. Laessig has an eight point lead over Shawn Stelzer in the 2004 point standings. Kevin Eckes Sr. set fast time and won the feature in the 4-Cylinder division. Pat Dickman had a clean sweep in the 1-Man Cruiser division.
Eugene Gregorich Jr. took the early lead of the CARQUEST Super Late Model feature. Eric Wisz and Rory Melbinger were racing second and third. Melbinger quickly passed Wisz for second and grabbed the lead from Gregorich on lap eight. The first caution flew right after that for the spun car of Josh Bell. Contact between Bell and Weinfurter sent both cars to the back. Melbinger held the lead for the restart with Gregorich, Wisz, Dean LaPointe and Judd
Brandl all in pursuit of the lead. LaPointe, Brandl and Brian Back passed Wisz over the
next few laps. Lap 13, LaPointe passed Gregorich for second and four laps later passed
Melbinger for the lead. Brandl and Back were right behind quickly moving into second and
third. Lap 20 Brandl took the lead and drove on for the win. LaPointe held onto second and
at the checkered Jeff Weinfurter inched ahead of Back for third. Back finished fourth and
Melbinger fifth. Tim Hintz then assumed the lead, but not for long as two other hard-chargers, Shawn
Stelzer and Cale Laessig were looking for that spot. On lap 13 both drivers went for the
lead, one high and one low both passing Hintz and pushing him back to third. Laessig led
lap 13, Stelzer lap 14 and then it was Laessig again. Laessig was able to hold off Stelzer
for the win. Matt Raykowski made an awesome comeback to finish third, Hintz fourth and
Scott Havlicek fifth. When the race resumed, Eckes led, but two-time track champion Keith Wirtz was on his
way to the front to challenge Eckes for that lead. By lap seven Wirtz was in second, but
was never able to get in front of Eckes. Eckes went on to win, Wirtz second, Steve Hauser
third, Berg fourth and Don Elmhorst fifth. "Hot Rod" Rodney Feltz made his 2004 debut tonight. He brought out his Ford
Ranger pickup truck and after many doughnuts and jumps off of a ramp, "Hot Rod"
Rodney did a crowd pleasing rollover. |
