Whitman wins IMCA Modified feature

Johnny Whitman, Tyler Sobiesczyk, Joel Bennett, Vern Stedjee and Calvin Stueck won the five feature races on July 8 at Shawano Speedway.

The IMCA Modifieds kicked off the night’s feature events. Nick Holtger and Jerry Muenster were responsible for leading the field to green.

Marcus Yarie quickly made a charge for the lead after a few early cautions, being followed by Lucas Lamberies, Whitman and Jordan Bartz. By Lap 5, Whitman found his way around his fellow competitors on the top of race track and grabbed the top spot.

Behind him, Lamberies was slowly reeling him in to make for a spectacular finish. A late race caution on Lap 17 bunched the field up. Whitman, Lamberies, Konnor Wilinski, Jordan Bartz and Jason Czarapata were all fighting for their respective spots, with Whitman holding them off to park his machine back in victory lane.

The IMCA Stock Cars saw Stedjee jump out to an early lead with his fourth-place starting spot. Stedjee began to pull away from the rest of the field, but business was picking up behind him as Travis VanStraten, Kyle Frederick and Dan Michonski were making a charge to the front.

As the laps began to wind down, Dylan Stedjee was battling with Mitch Stankowski for fifth. In the end, the challenge of VanStraten was not enough to deny Vern Stedjee a first-place finish.

Bennett used his outside Row 1 position he shared with Tim Rothe to grab the early lead in the Late Model feature event.

A caution came out on Lap 4, with Bennett at the point followed by Kyle Raddant, Ron Berna, Rothe and Brett Swedberg. The action was heating up on half-mile clay oval when another caution came out involving some of the hard chargers and would reshuffle the deck.

In the closing laps Berna, Raddant, Swedberg and Jayden Schmidt would jockey for position behind the flawless Bennett, as he cruised into victory lane.

Jeffery Teske started third in the IMCA Sport Mod feature and was making a comfortable lead in the early stages. Sean Falk, Kevin Bethe, Travis Rhodes, Max Oreskovich and Sobiesczyk had other ideas on how the evening was going to turn out.

Sobiesczyk has been the hot shoe as of late and was making his way to the front. Teske began to pull away around the halfway point. But the 27 of Sobiesczyk machine was hooked up again and caught Teske for the lead — he tried the high line, then the low line and eventually made the pass for the lead.

The action didn’t stop there though. Logan Fleischman was running third trying to catch the leaders but simply was running out of time. When the double checkers flew, it was Sobiesczyk that earned the photos and celebrations in victory lane.

The Mighty 4 division didn’t disappoint with their feature. Stueck jumped to an early lead using his fourth-place starting spot. Stueck would soon be challenged by Nathan Lisowe and Dalton Nelson.

By Lap 7, Tanner Westphal and Cody Bierman moved into fourth and fifth position, respectively, and were trying to catch the leaders. Lisowe’s challenge was no match for the Stueck machine as he prevailed once again to take home the checkers.