Snellenberger returns to victory lane at Thunderhill

By Edward Anschutz

STURGEON BAY, Wis. (May 16) – Rod Snellenberger capitalized on a late race restart to score the Saturday IMCA Sunoco Stock Car victory at Thunderhill Raceway.

A field of 18 Stock Cars did battle. John Anschutz and Tom Brumlic battled for the lead until lap five, when Jamie Suchocki went cruising by. Snellenberger quickly made his way from row four to second and began to pressure Suchocki.

Snellenberger was glued to the leader’s back bumper. A caution with five laps remaining changed everything. With Suchocki running perfect down low, Snellenberger chose to restart up top. As the green flew, Snellenberger got a great restart and pulled past Suchocki to take the lead.

Snellenberger never looked back from that point while Suchocki scored his best finish of the young season with second, Dave Bouche rallied late to place third.

Next Saturday, May 23, the Stock Cars will race for $1,000 to win.

After three feature wins in a row, a $100 bounty was put up for anyone who could beat Dave Schmidt in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. Marcus Moede moved past C.J. Weckler for the lead on lap four. Schmidt raced to second and began to close in as Moede searched high and low for more traction.

Just past midway, Schmidt caught the leader and pulled high to make the pass in turn three, but slipped a little too high and spun down the track and through the infield.

Moede cruised to victory while Amber Weidner continued her strong season with a second.

After only missing one week of racing to assemble a new car, Tyler Hackett paced the early laps of the IMCA Xtreme Motorsports Modified feature in his Madman Chassis. A series of cautions kept the field close.

Todd Dart executed quick passes to challenge Hackett. Dart took the low groove and raced past Hackett but a caution wiped the pass away.  On the restart Hackett jumped low to block Dart’s advances. Dart switched up his strategy, moved to the high groove and made the pass on Hack­ett.

Dart dominated the remainder of the event. Greg Gretz was able to work by Hackett late to place second.

Bernie Reinhardt led every lap of the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod feature to score his first win of the season. Tom Stark closed in late but ran out of time and had to settle for second.