While Mother Nature postponed the first attempt at “Havoc on the Half Mile,” the forecast looks much better this time around.
Navarino racer Nick Anvelink has to be the front-runner heading into Saturday’s event, based on his five feature wins this season, including the last four.
Due to Shawano’s use of a point average system to determine the starting lineup, Anvelink’s wins have been hard fought.
Saturday, it looked like like Jared Siefert might have the fastest car on the track in the early part of the race. Siefert had built up a sizable advantage through the midpoint of the race, but a caution flag wiped away his lead.
Within two laps of the race returning to green, Anvelink raced from fourth to first, quickly pulling away from Siefert and the rest of the field on his way to victory lane.
Siefert still finished second and has quickly begun to get a handle on the Late Model after spending the previous 10-plus years as one of the top IMCA Modified racers in the nation. Also of interest is the fact that Siefert’s car is the first Anvelink race car to be sold. Up until now Anvelink and his seven-time Shawano Speedway Late Model track champion father, Terry, had only built cars for Nick to race.
Racing this week will start with 5:30 p.m. time trials for Late Models, with races slated at 6 p.m.
This week is also the first alumni night at the track. It will be interesting to see how many former racers take advantage of a free ticket to relive some memories and meet some old friends at the track.
Bonduel racer Terry Kralovetz recently restored an old Mini Stock chassis and is expected to have the car on display before the night’s events. A number of old racing coupes will also be on hand.
Saturday’s IMCA Stock Car special turned out to be a great race between former track champions Brandon Czarapata and Travis VanStraten. VanStraten took the lead from Czarapata with two laps remaining and scored his sixth feature win of the year.
The race was well attended with 27 cars, including two former national champions in Czarapata and Rod Snellenberger. Snellenberger lost an engine near the midpoint of the race, running tightly with Czarapata and VanStraten.
Look for Lucas Hacker to break into victory lane soon. The second-year Might Four pilot finished second last week and is poised to win a feature soon. It would be a nice win for the Shawano resident and longtime racing fan.
See you at the speedway.
