05/25/2026
Friday, May 22nd Recap
Schmidt, Richards notch Memorial Day weekend clean sweeps at Gravity Park
CHILTON, Wis. (May 22) – Cascade’s Travis Schmidt has mastered winning heat races this year at Gravity Park Speedway, and Friday night he translated that success to feature racing too.
Schmidt capped a dominant night by winning the Sport Mods feature on a cool evening at the one-third mile clay oval. He capped a list of seven feature winners on the fourth night of racing this season, with victors including Neshkoro’s Jake Richards (Grand Nationals), Chilton natives Jesse Cullen (A Mods) and James Reese (Sport 4’s), Montello’s Tyler Schrimpf (Stock Cars), Roman Blank of Slinger (Street Stocks) and Rubicon’s Mark Hoeppner (Midwest LS Late Models).
Schmidt led every lap of Sport Mods racing on the night, starting with the 10-lap heat race to improve to 4-for-4 in heat races this season. He then won the 20-lap feature from the pole to become the fourth different feature winner in four nights in the class this season.
Schmidt ran off to a big lead quickly in both races, and in the feature ran away from the field on three early restarts. By the midway point he led by a straightaway over second-place Tony Gates of Chilton, and he went on to win by a full half a lap over Gates with Kiel’s Brad Buckman third, Brian Konitzer of Sheboygan fourth and Parker Glander of Sheboygan Falls fifth.
Richards also put together a clean sweep of the evening in the Grand Nationals and redeemed himself after a feature win slipped away a week ago.
Richards won the first heat and then started on the front row outside Mavrick Ruh of Elkhart Lake in the feature. Ruh led the opening lap but Mukwonago’s Jim Witz spun in turns one and two before the opening lap was completed, triggering a full restart, and on the second attempted start Richards took the lead on lap one and led the whole way to also make it four winners in four weeks in the Grand Nationals at Gravity Park.
Richards took the win one week after leading most of the way in the feature before going off the track on the backstretch late. Previous week’s feature winner Jeff Muehlbauer of Elkhart Lake came in second, getting by Derek Kaat of Plymouth with three laps left. Kaat was third, Wirtz rallied to finish fourth and Nate Ruh of Chilton was fifth. Second heat winner Marshall Plate of Chilton was running fifth on the final lap and battling Wirtz for fourth, but drifted high in turns three and four on the final lap and clipped the wall, finishing 10th.
Cullen won his first A Mods feature of the season from the pole, leading all 20 laps. Driving a tight low line in the corners, he pulled away from the field and finished ten car lengths ahead of second-place Adam Abbey of Marion, who best Kiel’s Eric Scribner in a good battle for runner-up honors. Joel Seegert Jr. of Sheboygan had his best run in an A Mod finishing fourth, while father Joel Seegert Sr. of Sheboygan was fifth and heat winner Joel Crowbridge of Union Grove sixth.
Schrimpf earned his first win of the season in the Stock Cars class and his second career win in the class at Gravity Park.
Schrimpf led all 20 laps, pulling away while Mike Klenz of West Bend and Rubicon’s Marcus Hoeppner battled for second for a good share of the race. He won his first feature a year ago in his rookie season in the class while finishing third in points, and Friday he finished ahead of Klenz, Hoeppner, and Katelyn Sohrweide of Chilton, who won the class’s heat race and took fourth in the feature.
Blank won his first Street Stocks feature at Gravity Park, getting to the front ahead of Phillip Wuesthoff of Beaver Dam, who won the feature the previous two weeks.
A former 4-Cylinders champion at the track, Blank went from his third starting spot to the lead on the first lap and led all 20 laps. He faced several challenges from Wuesthoff, who briefly got alongside the leader on a lap 8 restart, but Blank pulled back ahead and slowly pulled away as the race wound down. Wuesthoff took second, Andy Gross was third and first heat winner James Riske of Newton was fourth with Ethan Lepple of Beaver Dam fifth.
Reese won the feature in his first night out of the season in the Sport 4’s 4-Cylinder class on what was a rough night for several drivers in the class.
Reese took over the lead from Ben Schulte of Kaukauna on the third lap, just before a red flag came out after Skyler Bork of Little Chute hooked last week’s feature winner Robbie Holst of Beaver Dam, resulting in Holst spinning sideways in turn one and making a slow roll over onto the roof of his car. Holst’s car was towed away and Bork received the black flag for the incident, ending his race as well.
Reese pulled away soon after the restart and won for the first time this season after claiming five feature races at the track last year. Schulte held off a strong challenge from Chase Ertel of Plymouth to place second with Ertel third, Cody McLain of Beaver Dam fourth and Appleton’s Jason Bork fifth.
Holst’s rollover was the second in the night in the class, after Blake Kelly of Stockbridge was involved in a scarier incident in the first heat. Kelly’s car spun on the frontstretch coming out of the fourth turn and hit the wall head on, then barrel rolled a full two times and another half turn before landing on its roof. Kelly was able to get out of the car and had leg soreness but was okay.
Mark Hoeppner of Rubicon won the Midwest LS Late Models feature over daughter-in-law Renee Hoeppner in a race down to two cars. Hoeppner won his first feature in the class on a night when trouble hit two-time feature winner Eric Klawitter of Endeavor and heat winner Andy Gross of Hartford. Klawitter tangled with Mark Hoeppner in the heat race and his car turned into the frontstretch wall, sustaining heavy damage and ending his night. Gross saw his motor expire as the heat race wound down, limping across the finish line with the win but unable to continue for the feature.
Racing is back at Gravity Park again next week with another full schedule including Grand Nationals, A-Mods, Sport Mods, Midwest LS Late Models, Stock Cars, Street Stocks and Sport 4’s, plus the first appearance this season by the Midwest Legends cars. Spectator gates open at 5 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m.
RACE RESULTS AVAILABLE AT https://www.myracepass.com/events/636240/races.
