by St. Croix Valley Media PR
After running a truncated schedule in 2011, officials at St. Croix Valley Raceway are putting the finishing touches on a full, summer-long 2012 campaign. Returning for 2012, the weekly card will again feature UMSS Traditional (non-winged) sprints, micros sprints, Pure Stocks and Future IVs. Midwest Modifieds are back as well, in 2012 running under the WISSOTA banner.

Russell Cramblit Photoby Terry Lehnertz
St. Croix Valley Raceway wrapped up it first season of operation on late Saturday afternoon with the first annual “Trick or Treat Enduro”. In addition to racing, the event also included professional wrestling featuring the American Wrestling Federation, on-track trick or treating for the kids, as well as stunts performed by Clay “Wildman” Gallagher.

The season’s final event commenced with the stars of the American Wrestling Federation, whose opening bell sounded at 3:00 p.m. After Mikey Wipeout won the opening match over Udo Manglesdorf, both the wrestlers and the fans became more vocal and boisterous during the second match-up between John Johnson and Corporal Julio. Johnson scored an unpopular victory, starting a string of boo-bird accompanied wins. After insulting the crowd, Black Stallion was the winner in the third match over New Yorker Ryan Cruz, and Wildcat was the fourth match winner over Rob James. Wrestling wrapped up with a Battle Royale, which included all the day’s wrestlers in the ring at the same time, plus late entrant Johnny Parks. Gaining redemption for his earlier defeat, Cruz hoisted Black Stallion over the top rope and out of the ring to claim the $5000 Royale crown.

At the conclusion of the wrestling, fans migrated from the wrestling ring to the main grandstands for the rest of the program. Wildman got things rolling, literally, on the track by performing two roll-overs in the track’s infield. Then it was the kids’ turn on the track. After the enduro cars were lined up on the front stretch, the safety gate was opened and the costumed youngsters descended onto the track for trick or treating amongst the drivers. Once the juvenile ghosts and goblins had fleeced the drivers of all their candy, it was back up into the grandstands to watch the 150 lap enduro.

Track regular Kevin Bradwell, driving a Ricky Bobby inspired #26 Wonder car, and Brian Mustonen sat on the front row for race starter Shaun Cimfl’s green flag, but Proctor, Minnesota, driver Shawn Ziells quickly vaulted to the front of the pack. Ziells looked dominant in his #3z ride, quickly opening up a full straightaway advantage over the rest of the field. While Ziells was running away up front, Waseca, Minnesota’s Jared Boumeester was carving up the competition like a jack-o-lantern. Boumeester started in the eleventh row and was flirting with the top five inside a dozen laps. Boumeester continued to slice his way towards the front, while Ziells continued to dominate in the lead. With the enduro’s length working in his favor, Boumeester methodically reeled in Ziells and took over the lead at the race’s midway point.

Stan Meissner Photoby Terry Lehnertz and Greg Parent
Summer-time temperatures ended abruptly for racers and fans at St. Croix Valley Raceway for their mid-September “Final Showdown” event. Since re-opening in late July, race teams have slowly been trickling back to the historic quarter mile oval, and with several area tracks not in action over the weekend, car counts continued their upward trend despite the chilly conditions. In addition to the weekly classes of Future Fours, Pure Stocks, and Traditional Sprint Cars, the Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers were on hand once again.

Feature racing for the first of the two-night affair started with the Future Fours. Track favorites Kyle Dahlheimer and Ben Kaphing led the twelve-car field to Shaun Cimfl’s green flag, with Kaphing grabbing the early advantage heading into the first turn. Kaphing, already with a pair of wins this season, looked strong out front and left the tighter racing to drivers behind him. Dahlheimer held down the second spot for eight laps before finally yielding to Eric Schultz. At that same time, Jesse Tripp interjected himself into the battle for third as the trio would battle throughout. Kaphing went on to collect his third win of the summer ahead of Schultz, Tripp, Dahlheimer and Damon Roberts.

Next to attack the quarter-mile were the Pure Stocks, with a front row consisting of Mike Schnider and Tony DuBois. DuBois set the early pace with Jay Folz giving chase along with two-time winner Krysta Swearingen and Kyle Hallin. After a mid-race caution, Folz slipped by DuBois on the restart and held on to the top spot for the remaining laps. DuBois stayed in front of Swearingen at the final checkers, followed by Chad Eastman Steve Baker.

The Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers were back at the track for the second time, with wins going to Sonny VanWilgen in the Full Bodied division and Ricci Lipinski in the Super Modifieds.

Night number one of the Final Showdown wrapped up with the UMSS Traditional Sprint cars. Tommy Kamrath and former track champion Kevin Bradwell brought the six wing-less sprinters to the opening green. Kamrath immediately shot to the point with third starting Rob Caho Jr. in tow. By lap two, Bradwell had worked around Caho, with whom he’d battle the entire distance. While Kamrath was setting the pace, Caho continued to hound Bradwell to reclaim second. On lap twelve, Caho finally worked back to the runner-up spot, only to relinquish it again the very next circuit. At the stripe it was a green-to-checkers victory for Kamrath, followed by Bradwell, Caho, Aaron Wisch, Brad Nelson and Jack Clark. Johnny Parsons III was unable to start the main event.

Photo courtesy of Russ Cramblit at Full Tilt Photosby Greg Parent
The third and final appearance of the season for the Upper Midwest Sprintcar Series (UMSS) at the St. Croix Valley Raceway on Saturday September 17 turned out to be a much better evening and end result for Prior Lake, Minnesota sprint car driver Scott Broty. After getting upside down during the August "Thunder in the Valley" program, Broty returned with a different car and found himself in victory lane following his second UMSS win of the season. A dramatic turn of events fourteen laps into the feature race would see the top two cars unable to continue following a caution. Broty, who had been running a close third at the time, took command of the lead and went on to score the $1,000 win on his wedding anniversary night.

When asked to comment on his chances before racing action got underway for the evening, Broty replied, "If it's heavy out there tonight, my car is going to like it. I'll have a good chance to run up front." Commenting after his second win of the season, Broty recalled his pre-race conversation with a smile. "Ron Bernhagen does a great job at preparing the racing surface on this track. Both my car and myself as a driver like it when it's heavy and there is a cushion to lean on. It feels good to pick up my second win of the season. See you at Ogilvie." Broty currently sits fourth in the championship point standings.

After the usual double round of qualifying races utilized by the UMSS had concluded, a couple of young guns found themselves on the front row for the 20 lap feature race. Rookie Kevin Bradwell and 2010 UMSS Rookie of the Year Jared Goerges brought the field to the green. Goerges immediately raced to the early lead, flying high up on the cushion. Another young driver in his sophomore season in the sprints, Andy Jones, followed Goerges in second at the conclusion of the opening lap. As the laps quickly clicked off under green on the fast 1/4 mile dirt oval, Goerges and Jones approached traffic seven laps into the race. At the halfway mark, it was Goerges, Jones, Broty, birthday boy Brad Barickman and Cody Hahn in the top five.

by Terry Lehnertz
With the truncated season winding down, the new St. Croix Valley Raceway honored its fans with a full card of racing action and dozens upon dozens of fan giveaways. While the fans were soaking up free gifts from Jerry’s East Coast Flavor, the Stop-A-Sec, the Dalles House, Al’s Diner, CR Convenience, Wayne’s Café and Pizza Man, Ryan Olson gobbled up another Pro Modified feature win. The Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers were also on hand with cars competing in two divisions.

Photo Courtesy of Stan Meissner of Miinesota Dirt Track Racingby Terry Lehnertz and Greg Parent
The weather man smiled on St. Croix Valley Friday night, and when the second edition of the 2011 “Thunder in the Valley” races concluded, smiles were bountiful throughout the grandstands. Kids’ night was celebrated at St. Croix Valley Raceway with a bike giveaway, face painting, minnow races and a bean bag toss. Trackside, Australian transplant Brooke Tatnell was smiling after claiming the UMSS Main Event trophy, while Kevin Bradwell, Ryan Olson, Mike Schnider and Dylan Roberts also grabbed wins.

The night’s first feature event was contested by the Future Fours, with heat race winners Dylan Roberts and Jesse Tripp sitting on the front row. Roberts jumped to the point under green with Tripp in tow, but Tripp soon began to fade. By lap three, Kris Kaphing was runner-up with August 5 winner Ben Kaphing in third. With five laps in the books, the Kaphings swapped positions while Chris Rick and last week’s winner Steve Sutton began making some noise in the top five. Try as he might, Kaphing was unable to reel in Roberts who led the entire way for the clean sweep feature win. Second place went to Ben Kaphing with Rick, Kris Kaphing and Sutton rounding out the top five.

With the unique dual-qualifying rounds used by the UMSS, the Future Fours feature actually took place before intermission. That gave the Pure Stocks the honor of idling on the front stretch through SCVR’s customary playing God Bless America to start the final round of features. Justin Rick and Jon Wigchers brought the field to green with Rick looking strong and leading through lap four. On the fifth circuit, new comer Mike Schnider was compounding his successful debut at the Raceway – after picking up a heat race win earlier, Schnider worked past Rick and into the lead. A lap later, two-time feature winner Kyrsta Swearingen was up to second but she could advance no further. Schnider cruised to the SCVR red-and-white checkers in front of Swearingen, Brandon Davis, Wigchers, and Kyle Hallin.