De Pere, Wis. (August 1, 1974) – Harold Mueller, getting a fortunate assist from Lady Luck, turned the 35-lap Wisconsin Late Model Championship Series feature at the Brown County Fairgrounds Thursday night into his own personal benefit race.
Mueller gained the lead on lap 8 after a crash eliminated local favorites Roger Regeth and M.J. McBride.
With the 18-car feature field starting straight up, fast qualifier McBride led the parade for three tours on the half-mile clay oval before Regeth stormed by in the second turn.
As the pair diced furiously three laps later and approached the West turn, Neenah’s Marcus Brei spun his 1972 Camaro in the fourth turn infield. Attempting to return to action, Brei pulled directly into the path of a charging Regeth and McBride.
Running at full throttle, Regeth blasted into the left side of Brei’s racer, shearing the left front tire off. McBride, following on Regeth’s rear bumper, clipped the rear end of Brei’s machine and seriously damaged his own vehicle.
Regeth and Brei escaped with a thorough shaking, but McBride was fitted with a neck brace and sent to a local hospital for observation of a strained neck.
“I thought he (Brei) was going to stay up high, but he all of a sudden dipped inside and there was no way I was going to avoid him,” explained a disgusted Regeth.
For the majority of the 2,890 in attendance, the race was over at this point as the mangled wrecks were towed to the pit area.
Mueller quickly distanced himself from the rest of the field. Eau Claire’s Leon Plank passed Dave Conger of Oshkosh on lap 16 to take over the third spot and set out after Tom Steuding who was holding down second.
Steuding would blow the engine in his 1970 Chevelle six laps later, coast into the pits, and Plank had the runner-up spot.
Tiny Lund, a surprise entry from Cross, S.C., put late pressure on Plank ad his 1974 Chevelle Laguna but finish a car-length down at the checkers. Lund was in the area for Sunday’s USAC stock car race at Shawano and decided to compete in the open competition event in his 1974 Camaro.
Mueller had stretched his margin of victory to eight-car-lengths at the finish. Competing the top-six were Tom Nesbitt of Thunder Bay, Ont., Conger, and Terry Baldry of Winneconne.
A number of regular contenders either failed to qualify for the main event or experienced some sort of difficulty. Roger Paul of New London, the area’s leading feature winner with 11 victories thus far, fell out of the feature on lap 17 and was credited with a 11th place finish. J.J. Smith of Appleton and Jerry Muenster of Green Bay had trouble qualifying on the rain-drenched track and found themselves in the semi-main.
Results –
1. Harold Mueller, Eau Clair
2. Leon Plank, Eau Claire
3. Tiny Lund, Cross, S.C.
4. Tom Nesbitt, Thunder Bay, Ont.
5. Dave Conger, Oshkosh
6. Terry Baldry, Winneconne
7. Axel Dahlberg, Mauston
8. Roger Trapp, Shiocton
9. Tom Steuding, Eau Claire
10.Phil Prusak, Eau Claire
11.Roger Paul, New London
12.George Giesen Jr., Menasha
13.Red Steffen, Eau Claire
14.Roger Regeth, Kimberly
15.M.J. McBride, Shawano
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