May 10, 2002; Luxemburg, WI. - Former off-road racer M. J. "Hollywood" Hintz grabbed the lead from Jeremy Hodkiewicz on lap 13 and fought off Dean Maurer and Eddie Muenster to claim his first ever 25 lap IMCA modified feature at Luxemburg Speedway Friday night. 107 cars took part in the racing program. The field included 40 IMCA modifieds, 35 IMCA stock cars, 22 street stocks and 10 sport trucks.
Hodkiewicz took the lead at the drop of the green, and was forced to wait out a pair of early caution periods. One was for an eight car melee on the second lap. The other yellow flew when Greg Soukup and Jeremy Jacobs locked horns in turn one on lap five. Second place runner Hintz stayed glued to Hodkiewicz' tail on the restart, even squaring up with the Shawano driver before an Art Siefert spin halted the race on lap 11. Hintz dove underneath Hodkiewicz on lap 13 to take the lead. By lap 15 Maurer and Muenster had stormed through the field from their starting spots deep in the pack. Both drivers had the qualify into the features through the semi-feature races. The trio ran nose-to-tail for the final laps with Hintz holding off the veteran racers to score his first career feature flag in a modified. Maurer settled for runnerup money. Muenster took third, while Jared Siefert recovered from an opening lap incident to take fourth. Tim Lemirande placed fifth. Green Bay's Eric Van Iten passed Greg Gretz for the lead on lap eight and cruised to victory in the 22 lap IMCA stock car feature. Gretz jumped into the lead from his front row starting spot at the drop of the green with Van Iten sliding into the runnerup spot by lap three. A lap five spin for a Jason Czarapata spin slowed the action, with Van Iten and Gretz resuming their scrum for the lead by lap six. After one unsuccessful passing attempt on the high side Van Iten found the bite he needed down low, passing Gretz for the lead on lap eight. While battling for second, Pat Davister and Gretz locked horns, spinning each other into the infield and drawing a yellow. Van Iten fought off a late race surge by Brandon Czarapata and Tim Van De Hei in the waning laps to claim victory. Czarapata and Van De Hei took second and third, respectively. Benji LaCrosse and John Heinz rounded out the top five finishers. Algoma veteran "Chargin' Charlie Kroll took the lead on lap eight and survived three caution periods to win the 20 lap street stock feature. The contest got off to a shaky start. With just two laps in a wild chain reaction melee, occurred, sending several of the mid-pack cars scrambling. Miraculously only one car, that of Darci Czarapata, spun on the frontstretch, drawing the first amber of the contest. When racing resumed Marty Beilke assumed the lead, with Kroll on his heels. Beilke drifted high in turn four, allowing Kroll to briefly hold the lead lap four. But Beilke rebounded, regaining the top spot one circuit later. Dan "Hollywood" Davister joined the chase, setting up a three car duel for the lead. Their battle was halted for a Jason LaViolette spin on lap seven. On the restart Kroll slipped inside Beilke to grab the lead out of turn two. Kroll never had a chance to build a head of steam when Dan Davister's mount stalled on the frontstretch, drawing a third yellow flag on lap ten. Kroll took off like a shot, building up a five car length lead in just two short laps. Kroll went on to build a full straightaway advantage over the field, scoring his first feature flag of the season. Beilke slid off the track with two laps to go and finished further back in the field. Trailing Kroll at the finish line were Laurel Ettien, Mike Coel, Leon Schott and David Baenen. Luxemburg's Dave Davister won his second 10 lap sport truck feature of the year. Next Friday night racing will resume in four divisions, including the sport trucks. Y-100 will sponsor the evening's activities, which will commence at 7 p.m. LUXEMBURG SPEEDWAY RACE RESULTS 5-10-02 IMCA modified IMCA stock car Street Stock Sport Truck |
