By Dave Buss Special to the Leader
A few weeks ago, Shawano Speedway inducted two new Hall of Fame members, taking time to honor the past. On Saturday, the track looked to future with a tribute to local karters. With nearly 30 karts displaying their cars and taking part in the national anthem parade lap, it was apparent that dirt track racing is strong in the area.
The IMCA Sport Mods hit the track first, with Sawyer Haese on the pole and Matthew Radtke to his outside. Haese would grab the early advantage, working the high side of the track with Radtke trying to make the low side work.
Jason Engebregtsen and Jason Jach joined the battle about halfway through the race and began their pursuit of Haese as well. As laps clicked off, Radtke continued to battle with Haese, but Haese was too strong and picked up the checkered flag. Radtke, Engebregtsen and Jach completed the top four.
The IMCA Modifieds feature saw Marcus Yarie grabbing the lead from his second-row starting spot. Connor Wilinski also charged forward from his sixth-place starting spot to grab the runner-up spot and begin his pursuit of Yarie.
Yarie would dominate though, as he began to built a large advantage over Wilinski. Mark Weisnicht settled into third, with Lucas Lamberies navigating his way through the field to the fourth spot. The night belonged to Yarie with Wilinski, Weisnicht and Lamberies in the top four.
The Late Model division was hit by attrition in the heat races with a couple cars suffering mechanical issues, and one was done for the night after a crash. Ron Berna wasted no time jumping to the front, while Nick Anvelink and Troy Springborn worked through traffic.
Once Anvelink and Springborn got through traffic, the chase began. Berna, who has seen his run of bad luck this season, built a lead that only a caution or more bad luck could shrink.
With about eight laps remaining, Berna got a scare as his car briefly lost power. Anvelink would shrink the lead, but Berna was able to get back up to speed and drive on to the win. Anvelink, Springborn and Brett Swedberg followed across the line.
Some fans on Facebook called the IMCA Stock feature one of the best they have seen. Hot Rod Snellenberger took command of the race in the first few laps after a great opening lap. He soon was joined by Dan Michonski and Eric Arneson, as Jeremy Christians fought through traffic.
With multiple four-wide battles behind him, Snellenberger seemed to be on his way to the win. But Michonski, Arneson, Christians and Mike Schmidt had other plans. The four of them quickly closed the back bumper of Snellenberger.
Michonski would run the high side with the others working the low side. Lap after lap, positions were swapped between the challengers, with Snellenberger maintaining a slight lead. On lap 19, slight contact between Christians and Snellenberger caused a tire to begin going down on Snellenberger’s ride.
Christians pounced on the opportunity and in a drag race down the front stretch edged out Michonski. Snellenberger held on for third, with Schmidt taking fourth.
Josh Slewinski led the 4-cylinder feature from green to checkers in a very solid run.
Lucas Hacker worked his way from ninth to second with a solid performance but found the gap to the leader to much to overcome. Dalton Nelson had a strong run with a solid third-place finish.