June 30, 2001; West Salem, WI - After sizzling temperatures during the afternoon, Paul Proksch continued the heat into the night as he took the win in the Clason Pontiac-Buick-GMC 25. Proksch, running a limited schedule this season, began the outstanding 25 lap Midwest Fuels / NASCAR late model race in seventh position. Pole sitter Kurt Thicke Led from the start through lap sixteen, but gave way to the pressures of Steve Holzhausen, who passed on the high side. Proksch, meanwhile was manhandling his Pontiac Grand Prix through the top five and overtook Holzhausen with only six laps to go.
The race night had several interesting twists that effected the battle for the track championship. Point leader Mark Lamoreaux was involved in an incident his heat race, and had to take a provisional to make the field. He later spun twice in the midst of two incidents during the feature event. Lamoreaux was relagated to the 22nd finishing spot. Going into the event, Brad Powell, 2nd in points, had the opportunity to capitalize on Lamoreaux's misfortunes, but ran into his own problems. Powell was involved in a four car incident on lap nineteen, which also sent Mike Belling and J. Herbst to the rear of the field, with Todd Oliver headed to the pits. With Powell and Lamoreaux's problems, Kevin Nuttleman was in the drivers seat to capitalize. And Capitalize he did. Nuttleman is now only 20 points behind Lamoreaux, who has seen his point lead dwindle from almost thirty points to only three over Powell. After a thrilling Late Model Feature, the Clason Pontiac-Buick-GMC 15 for the Ray Hutson Chevrolet Sportsman went wire-to-wire with no yellows. In only his second season, John Towner was able to claim his first feature victory. While the hard-charging El Camino of Tony Ciano was chopping down on his lead, Towner was able to hold on as Ciano ran out of laps. Third through fifth were Kevin Eddy, Jimmy Gilster and Morris Proctor. Behind them was a fantastic battle from sixth through fourteenth, which was led by Jon Barrette. The excitement continued through to the Clason Pontiac-Buick-GMC 15 for the United Auto Supply Thunderstox division. At the completion of lap one, a five car tangle began when a car on the inside nailed one of the safety implement tires protecting the inside of the race track. The tire, bouncing onto the track, got in the way of LaCrosse's John Edwards, causing him to exit the event. The race went caution free, but not incident free, as Dan Secor led most of the way. Secor took the checkered flag first, but was disqualified during post-race tech inspection. That handed the win over to a well-deserved Chris Skrede, who fought with Secor throughout the entire fifteen laps to claim his first feature victory. |
