Whether it is chasing feature wins or the IMCA Stock Car track championship, Dan and Nate Michonski have put together a spectacular season at Shawano Speedway. Dan didn’t make his first appearance this year at Shawano Speedway until mid-July, but he won the feature his first night out. Since that win, he has won three more features, including last week. He leads the division in feature wins with four.
Nate Michonski doesn’t have as many feature wins as his brother, but he is on the verge of winning his first IMCA Stock Car track championship at Shawano Speedway. Nate finished second to Dan in the feature last week, while Rod Snellenberger, who is second in points, finished third. Nate was able to add one point to his point lead, so he now leads Snellenberger by 16 points.
Justin Hirt has been racing in both the WISSOTA and FASTRAK Late Model divisions the last few weeks and has been impressive so far in a WISSOTA Late Model. During his heat race last week, he made an impressive outside pass on Terry Anvelink on the last lap of the race to take the lead and the win. In the feature he was racing side-by-side with Justin Ritchie for the lead, when the cars made contact and both drivers spun out. Hirt was put to the back on the restart while Ritchie was given the lead back.
Ritchie went on to win the feature, while Hirt battled back to finish ninth.
Paul Parker, who is second in the WISSOTA Late Model point standings, had a good night, finishing second in his heat race and fourth in the feature. The only problem was, Ron Berna, who is leading the point battle, won his heat race and finished second in the feature. That allowed Berna to add three points to his lead. He now leads Parker by 10 points entering the final night of racing.
Since points are accumulated in the heat races and the feature, this track championship is not locked up for Berna. He is definitely in the driver’s seat, but he still needs to stay out of trouble Saturday night and have a consistent run. If he hangs on for the championship, it would be his seventh championship overall at the Speedway – three IMCA Modified titles and four WISSOTA Late Model titles.
IMCA Modified driver Jason Czarapata has the most feature wins of any driver in any division this year at Shawano Speedway. With his feature win last week, he now has six. Jerry Wilinski, who is second in points, finished second in the feature, so he lost one point to Czarapata. Czarapata now has a 20 point lead over Wilinski.
Shawano Speedway hasn’t been getting 20 IMCA Modifieds on a weekly basis, so as long if Czarapata races next week, and there aren’t 20 IMCA Modifieds on hand, then Czarapata would clinch the title by just starting the feature. Here is something to remember, though, 141 Speedway does not have racing this upcoming Saturday night. Because of that, there could be more IMCA Modifieds on hand at Shawano Speedway. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens, and if it has an impact on the championship battle.
Dave Fieber won the FASTRAK Late Model feature last week, so he was able to pad his point lead over Hirt and Joel Bennett. He now has a 22 point lead over Bennett and 31 points over Hirt. Fieber is gunning for his second straight championship.
Clint Forstner is close to sealing the deal on his second straight IMCA Northern SportMod title at Shawano Speedway. He currently holds a 34 point lead over Cody Hudson. Since 40 points is the most a driver can collect in one night, you can see the uphill battle Hudson is facing.