By: Paul Reichert
September 5, 2020
With the big track taking a break for a few weeks before the 51st Oktoberfest Race Weekend takes place, the ‘action track’ quarter mile at the La Crosse Speedway got its chance to shine. 110 four and six cylinder cars were ready to take on the ‘action track’ in one of the biggest enduro races ever to take place at La Crosse. The team of Luke McFadden and Nick Powers were able to fight off the challenges of Troy Tuma in the late going, even using lapped traffic, to drive away with the victory in the Big Cheese 200 Enduro.
Over 100 cars jammed the quarter mile and took the green flag to start the Big Cheese 200 Enduro. There was a lot of chaos and mayhem in the first 50 laps of the race with that many cars on the track. The slower cars were causing major traffic jams, especially in turn two, that were slowing the action down. Bernie Lucey found his car sitting on the hood of another car ten laps into the race. The red flag flew 14 laps into the race with Tyler Mickschl came in too hot into turn one, hit the jam truck and ended up on his roof. Fortunately, Mickschl climbed out of his car unhurt. Tristan Drazkowski’s car had a fire under the hood a lap after the restart, bringing out another red flag. After 40 laps, we started to see traffic jams in turns three and four creating more bottlenecks. A lot of contact between cars were causing a lot of loose rear bumpers to be seen throughout the field as we reached the mid-race break.
After taking that mid-race break 108 laps into the enduro, 48 of the original 110 competitors returned from their pit stops to battle for the title of “The Big Cheese’. Les Stanfield had been one of the front runners for much of the race. That was until just before the 150 lap mark when he collided with another vehicle and bent out his right rear tire. Somehow Stanfield was able to continue racing until the tire finally gave up on lap 161. With just under 25 laps to go, Brad Anderson’s mini-van suddenly lost his right front tire as it bounced into the infield. Anderson was able to pit for a new tire and returned to action. Luke McFadden and Nick Powers were the leaders since just after 160 laps, but veteran enduro competitor Troy Tuma was hot on their heels. Tuma came back from three laps down to try to close the gap on the leaders in the closing laps. Using a lapped car in turns three and four on the final lap, McFadden and Powers were able to keep Tuma in their rear view and capture the checkered flag first.
John Huebner powered his way around Al Bartels with five laps to go to capture his third checkered flag of the season in the final Mini-Van feature of the year. That win put an exclamation point on Huebner’s season as he also wrapped up the points championship. It would be the second straight Mini-Van crown for the race vehicle as Rob Stanfield drove it to the championship just a year ago.
Mitchell Berg used the outside groove to get around Spencer Nevinger with two laps to go and claimed his second High School Racing Association feature of 2020. Despite toasting the engine in his race car five laps into the final feature of the year, Ashton Kinsey still had enough of a cushion to become the inaugural champion of the High School Racing Association.
Action continues next Saturday, September 12 with the 29th annual Night of Destruction presented by Western Technical College. Highlighting the smashing and crashing festivities of the night will be the Trailer Race of Destruction, Part Two. The ATV Big Air Tour will make a return apperance after a sensational debut during the Smash-O-Rama back in June. You will also see a jet car burning a vehicle, monster trucks catching big air while smashing cars, plus there will be other fun events that will create a lot of destruction and mayhem. Gates open at 6:00 and the hard hitting destruction begins at 7:30.
For more information about La Crosse Speedway or the 2020 schedule of events, please call the office at 608-786-1525 or visit our web site at lacrossespeedway.com. La Crosse Speedway is proud to be a NASCAR Hometrack, part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
RESULTS
Big Cheese 200 Enduro
1. Luke McFadden/Nick Powers, 2. Troy Tuma, 3. Matt Moore/Dan Frye, 4. John McCabe, 5. Rob Stanfield, 6. Thomas Farra, 7. Brad Anderson, 8. Zach Liebsch, 9. Paige Nelson, 10. Mike Gratz/Johnny Blount
Mountain Dew Mini-Vans
Feature (15 Laps): 1. John Huebner, 2. Al Bartels, 3. Zach Liebsch, 4. David Treu, Jr., 5. Bernie Lucey, 6. Jonathan Burbach
Heat #1 (8 Laps): 1. Z. Liebsch, 2. Huebner, 3. Treu, Jr., 4. Bartels, 5. Lucey, 6. Burbach, 7. Matt Moore Qualifying: 1. M. Moore, 2. Huebner, 3. Lucey, 4. Treu, Jr., 5. Burbach, 6. Bartels, 7. Z. Liebsch
High School Racing Association
Feature (15 Laps): 1. Mitchell Berg, 2. Spencer Nevinger, 3. Braydon Lockington, 4. Joey Miller, 5. Dawsynn Richmond, 6. Ashton Kinsey
Heat #1 (8 Laps): 1. Kinsey, 2. Nevinger, 3. Berg, 4. Miller, 5. B. Lockington, 6. RichmondQualifying: 1. Berg, 2. Kinsey, 3. B. Lockington, 4. Miller, 5. Richmond, 6. Nevinger