Whitman, Springborn score feature wins

Mother Nature provided a beautiful Aug. 12 evening for racing at Shawano Speedway, where the first “Retro Night” was held. Jasper Drengler, Johnny Whitman, Troy Springborn, Trey VanStraten and Tyler Sobiesczyk all came away with feature wins.

In the IMCA Northern Sport Mod feature, pole sitter and former limited Late Model champion Dave Lytie and fellow competitor Andrew Engels — who had his dad’s No. 33 on the side of his normal No. 29 machine — set the pace for what would become a very caution-plagued feature.

Taylor Sorenson used his fourth-place starting spot to jump out to an early lead. Michael Springborn was on the move to contest for a bid for the win as well.

The hot shoes of Sobiesczyk and point leader Jeffery Teske found their way to the front. As Sobiesczyk grabbed the lead, the top four of Sobiesczyk, Teske, JJ Vanderloop and Bryce Clements started to break away from field.

As the laps ticked away, Sobiesczyk and Teske found themselves battling lap traffic. As the checkers flew, Sobiesczyk picked up his seventh feature win of the year.

In the IMCA Stock Car division, Kurt Olson and regular street stock driver VanStraten would be the ones to set the pace for the 20-lap main event.

Olson got out to an early lead at the drop of the green flag, followed by Travis Welch. As that battle continued, VanStraten would run down the leaders, eventually passing both for the lead.

Once out front, VanStraten and Welch battled back and forth for several laps, with Dylan Stedjee and last week’s feature winner Jeremy Christians starting to catch the front two. Shawano’s Trent Nolan was up to a hard charging fifth from 11th position.

By the time the checkers flew, it was VanStraten picking up his first feature win in an IMCA Stock Car.

Shawn Miller and Andy Karl were the front row show for the 20-lap Late Model event. When the green flag dropped, Karl made it a point to get to the point.

As Karl led the first seven laps, Springborn was glued to his back bumper lap after lap. Springborn put his MB customs No. 81 on the low groove through the corners as Karl stuck to the middle of the track. On lap eight, Springborn would throw his machine into the corner and was able to pass Karl cleanly on the bottom.

Springborn went on to pick up the win. Ron Berna would settle for third, and Lucas Postl took home fourth place.

IMCA Modifieds provided an amazing show, as Paul Thorpe and Jerry Muenster led the field to green.

On lap two, Marcus Yarie put his Banshee chassis out front and started to pull away. A caution on lap six bunched the field up. Muenster, Jerry Wilinski, Konnor Wilinski, Jordan Bartz, Whitman and Mike Schmidt would all have as good a chance as any to claim the victory.

At the drop of the green, Yarie and Whitman battled it out, with Whitman eventually making the pass for the lead, as the rest of fellow competitors swapped positions as the closing lap was getting close. Jerry Wilinski closed the gap, but Whitman would hold off the charge and claim the win.

The Mighty 4 division saw another new face in victory lane. Taylor Junk and Shayne Collar led their competitors to the start of the 12 lap A main.

Calvin Stueck quickly used his sixth spot to make quick work to get to the front. As Stueck began his march to the front, former Late Model and street stock driver Drengler was making his own plans to get his photo taken in victory lane.

Stueck, Drengler, Dalton Nelson and Brad Wedde and Tanner Westphal would all have a car to compete to win. But in the end, it was Drengler taking home the victory.