Scott Owen, Special to the Leader
Night one of the 2015 racing season is in the books, and defending track champions Ron Berna in the Late Model ranks and Travis VanStraten in the IMCA Stock Car division had strong showings on the way to feature wins.
Berna passed early leader Brett Swedberg and subsequently held off challenges from Swedberg en route to victory. For Swedberg, it was a rough weekend. He lost an engine during Friday night’s practice session, then he dropped out of the feature Saturday night late in the race with smoke coming from his machine for a number of laps.
Berna, the only nine-time track champion, is off to an early advantage in the pursuit of his tenth title.
VanStraten was dominant in his first win of the season. With former IMCA Stock Car national point champion and Super Nationals champion Brandon Czarapata at the track last week, I thought it might be a close battle, but VanStraten won by a sizable margin. Oconto racer Steven Stewart had an excellent third-place finish.
Stewart and Dustin Loberger plan to race weekly at Shawano this season and add to an already stout field.
The IMCA Sport Mod feature, though plagued early on by cautions, turned out to be a good battle between three former go-kart standouts. Brock Saunders gained his second career feature win at the Shawano Speedway. Wyatt Block and Lucas Lamberies finished second and third. Not coincidentally, each one of these young men hail from a racing family.
Getting back to the early-race cautions, a number of them involved rookies. It is a part of the learning curve and might not always be easy to watch, but a wise man once told me, “If you’ve never spun out, then you’ve never gone fast enough.”
Names such as Tyler Thiex, Lloyd Allen, Mike Phillips and Kyle Raddant might someday visit victory lane.
Another interesting item came out of Saturday’s race. Unbeknownst to me, the Late Model feature was scheduled for 25 laps and will be 25 laps all season. For the fans, it may make things more interesting. For the racers, I’m certain that everyone is happy about the move.
Over the course of a full season, an extra five laps on an engine can equal three to four additional nights of racing on an engine. This, in turn, can be the difference between having an engine last all year and having to have an engine rebuilt. It also is an additional five laps on tires.
In the end, I hope it is worth the additional laps.
Also look for a few more drivers to make there 2015 debut this weekend. Possibly Chucky Forstner and Jared Siefert. Racing starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
See you at the speedway.