September 13, 2002; Plover, WI - The Annual Eve of Devastation was another huge event. Thousands of families showed up to watch Cruisers, buses, trailer races, Paul Stender’s Jet Burner machines and lots of other novelty race events. Track Promoter, Craig Bassuener presented Dave Harvath from D&D Auto, Stevens Point a check and the trophy for the Iron Man Event that ran throughout the season. Dave and his crew came for every event and put on a great show.
Paul Stender brought out some pretty cool jet burner machines;
he had a jet burner bus that flew around the track shooting flames. A jet burner snowmobile that burnt a car to the
ground and the best – a jet burner porta potty!
It shot flames out the back and had flames coming out of the top ventilation
unit. The Cruisers racers timed in and ran the first three events. During the first event a car went into the dirt off of turn four and sent a huge dust cloud covering the fans sitting on the hill. Car # 55 Dodson and Hall won the first event and transferred to the second event. They looked like they were going to win the second event, but got spun out by another car and ended up a lap down, giving the win to car #96 Murphy and Rebman. Murphy and Rebman transferred up to the feature event. The feature event held some very fast cruisers and advanced racers. As they spun in and out of the corners quite a few
different cars fought for the lead. In
the end car #01 Kampert and Blenker came out
the victors. #99 Nielson and Engman took
second and #72 Klug and Cory took third. A
big congratulation goes out to Klug and Cory for winning the honor of the 2002 Cruiser
Season Champions! Blind Fold Race – This event featured Craig Bassuener
announcing from inside of a racecar with a blind folded driver! Craig told the driver which way to turn. The drivers had, for some reason, a hard time
determining their left from their right. Craig
told the drivers that they were about to hit something, when they were nowhere near any
objects, and slammed on the brakes in the middle of the track. Each driver was timed to see how long it took them
to follow Craig’s directions. The final
driver had the best time, and as Craig told him to pull down into Victory Lane, the driver
got excited pulled in to fast and ended up taking Craig over the ramp for the jumps! Craig disqualified him after going over the ramp
and the win went to Chad Orlowski. Lawn Mower Races – The racing group, Brothers of the
Blade” showed up to put on the lawn mower event.
One of the winners of was Brian Suchowski. Forward/Backward Race – The drivers had to go two laps
forward, slam their car into reverse at the start finish line, and go two laps backwards. Cars slammed into each other at the start finish
line. Some of the cars racing in reverse
swerved out of control. The first heat was
won by Justin Zblewski and the second heat by the ever so crazy Rodney Feltz. During intermission the Happy Sleeper Recliner race was held. Congratulations to Bonnie Dickman of Nekoosa and
Matt Repsa of Port Edwards, the winners of the recliner race. Each winner receives one new recliner courtesy of
Happy Sleeper located in Wisconsin Rapids on Hwy 13 South.
They offer great furniture at quality prices.
Amy from Golden Sands has furnished her whole house from Happy
Sleeper! Forward/Reverse Push – During this event the cars teamed
up in pairs and had to push their partner around the track (front car in neutral –
back car in drive). Once they got to the
start finish line the front car went in reverse and the back car in neutral to push each
other around the opposite way on the track. They
then had to go one more lap forward. It was
great! Some of the drivers lost their
partners and had to chase them down to keep pushing them.
Two teams lost their partners and just started pushing other teams lost
partners. Tim Rosenthal and Fred Pruss won
the first event with Brad Dupee and Tim Dupee winning the second event. Jump For Distance – A crowd favorite. The cars jump over a ramp and the farthest jump
wins. Some of the were pretty big tanks
and didn’t go to far, as the more compact cars seemed to fly farther. But this was not always the case, some of the
bigger cars made some very impressive jumps. The
winner was in a big four-door car and ended up jumping 83 feet! Congratulations to the driver Joe Webber! For the first time ever, that we know of, Shawn
Lewis jumped a 72 passenger bus! Watch Fox
Sports You Gotta See This! We plan on sending
in the tape. Roll Over Contest – Quite a few cars tried the roll over
but were not able to make their cars roll. But
of course, Rodney Feltz made his actually spiral in the air and land on its side. Rodney definitely won the event. Bus Races - The ever-popular event. The buses seemed extremely fast. The first heat had one tip over, but other than
that not much action. Charlie Rossier in the
D&D Auto bus won the first race. The
second race had more veteran drivers in it and they beat on each other. Golden Sands Late Model Tech, Snoozer rammed into
the 2002 Super Stock Champion, Jason Kirsling and sent him on his roof! Long time race fan, Keith Wosick was in the little
Golden Sands Fun Bus and also was tipped over. Keith
said, “As soon as they started pushing me I knew I was going over.” Late Model driver Burton Brown won the second
race. Trailer Racing – The last and one of the best shows of the evening. It was total mayhem! Rodney Feltz actually drove on top of someone’s trailer and was being pulled around the track! There was junk flying everywhere! Boats crashed, motorcycles blown to smithereens, trailers completely demolished. The last three trailers left were credited with the win, Eddie VanValen, Ron Garbowski, and Brian Stroik Jr. |
