July 22, 2001; Slinger, WI - Al Schill continued his dominance Sunday night at the Slinger Super Speedway as he won his third straight late model feature in the Five Star Stock Car Bodies 70. "This is starting to feel a lot like 1984-1988 when I won five championships in a row," remarked Schill. "I won 13 straight races once and they put a bounty on me, I hope they don't plan on doing that again."
Lowell Bennett and Mike Egan outgunned pole sitter John Zimmerman at the start to lead the opening laps. Bennett pulled away to a comfortable margin while Egan and Zimmerman raced side by side for second with Donavan Morgan and Dave Teske holding down fourth and fifth place. Egan and Zimmerman's cars scraped together while exiting turn two on lap seven causing the cars behind them to bunch up resulting in Chris Ratajczyk and Charlie Thon tangling on the backstretch to bring out the caution flag. Bennett once again pulled out to a commanding lead on the restart as Donavan Morgan moved up to battle with Zimmerman for second. Schill, who started tenth, worked his way into the top five by lap 15 and one lap later maneuvered his way around Teske for the fourth place. As Bennett continued to open up a large advantage up front, Schill went to work on Morgan and took over third place on lap 20. Five laps later Schill used the inside lane to pass Zimmerman for second with Bennett still holding nearly a quarter lap lead. The gap between Bennett and Schill began to narrow as the leaders encountered lapped traffic. Bennett led at lap 35 and collected the $200 Mac Tools Halfway Bonus while Schill gradually reeled him in. Bennett became momentarily held up behind the cars of Florian Wisinski and Dennis Prunty who were racing side by side in an effort to stay on the lead lap which allowed Schill to close in further. Suddenly on lap 51, Prunty cut a tire and Wisinski spun directly in front of the leaders to bring out the final caution of the event. Both Bennett and Schill avoided the incident to set up a final 19 lap dash to the finish. Schill wasted little time in pressuring Bennett for the lead on the restart but the defending track champion was able to maintain his advantage. Schill overdrove his car into turn three on lap 55 and shot up the racetrack allowing Bennett to pull away while Donavan Morgan made a brief challenge on Schill for second. Schill calmly gathered up his car and charged back around Morgan while once again attempting to track down Bennett for the lead. The veteran driver from Franklin caught Bennett a few laps later and edged his way to the inside to make what would amount to be the winning pass on lap 62. Once out front, Schill led the way to the checkered flag to score his third consecutive feature win and fifth in the last eight weeks. Bennett finishsed a close second while Morgan wrapped up a strong run with a third place finish. Miller Lite Nationals winner David Prunty finished a solid fourth while Zimmerman brought his car home in fifth. Schill also won a $500 gift certificate from Five Star Stock Car Bodies towards a new late model body. Five Star, owned by Fran Prestay and Carl Schultz, sponsored the night's activities and is well known for manufacturing aluminum, steel, fiberglass, and molded plastic body parts for all paved short track cars in the United States and Canada. Five Star Stock Car Bodies can be found in competiton in ASA, NASCAR RE/MAX, All Pro, and the Northwest and Southwest Tour series. Five Star also has Grand Am and Cavalier bodies for NHRA Pro Stock drag cars and their molded lexan windows for oval track and road racing are used in the NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Grand National Series. In other late model action, Scott Schoeni held off John Mueller to win the 30 lap semi-feature and Mike Egan scored an impressive win in the dash. Conrad Morgan was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 11.786 seconds. Brian Holtz found his way to victory lane for the third time this season by taking top honors in the 30 lap Midwest modified feature. The steadily improving Andy Evraets jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag while Holtz dropped into line in second ahead of Dan Jung, Ed Grober, and Dale Prunty. Evraets paced the first 11 laps before Holtz nipped him at the line as the caution appeared for a Gregg Pawelski spin in turn two. Holtz established himself firmly in the lead on the restart while Evraets raced hard for second with Jung, Jeff Holtz, and Prunty. Another caution flag appeared on lap 23 when Pawelski spun for a second time in turn four but Brian Holtz would not be denied as he stormed to his third win of the season. Evraets capped off his finest Slinger performance with a second place finish while Prunty, point leader Jeff Holtz, and Jung rounded out the top five finishers. To celebrate Five Star Stock Car Bodies owner Fran Prestay's distinction as the only modified driver to set fast time, win the dash, and the feature at Slinger, the company awarded $300 to Holtz for his win. The current Eldorado Clean Sweep award is set at $2100 for the July 29th event at Slinger. In other Midwest modified action, Jung won the dash and Kevin Kenealy was the fastest qualifier for the first time in his Slinger career with a lap of 12.538 seconds. Roger Schmid topped the 18 lap Slinger Stinger feature to score his second main event victory of the year. Schmid charged from the back of the field and was in the fourth position by lap six while Jay Bleskan, Kurt Brown, and Todd Gehring occupied the first three spots. Schmid moved to third on lap eight with Bill Shavlik, Paul Wagner, and Scott Ascher in tow while Bleskan and Brown traded the lead. Gehring spun on lap 12 to bring out the caution flag with Bleskan leading over Schmid, Shavlik, and Wagner. After some hard racing on the restart, the complexion of the event changed with two laps to go when Bleskan spun around after a slight nudge from Shavlik in turn four and Brown hit the turn two wall after experiencing mechanical problems. Schmid then held off Wagner for the final two laps to capture the victory. Ascher had another strong run and finished third while Pat McIntee and David Beck completed the top five. In other Slinger Stinger action, Beck and Nathan Fick each won heat races and Wagner was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 13.330 seconds. Mark Ritger won the Figure 8 event and the teams of Rick Bruskiewicz and Frank Verhunce and Mark and Dan Jung won the team cruiser events. Mark Ludtke won the speedway guest car race and Matt Martens was the winner of the spectator elimination races. Todd Jacoby won the demo derby that closed the night's program. Joseph Mertz of Milwaukee, won the AAL $100 Fan Challenge. The Fan Challenge is run by the Aid Association for Lutherans and fans are eligible to win $100 by choosing the winner of the late model feature. For Complete results from the RACESTAT computer CLICK HERE
Special; Slinger, WI - This Sunday Night, July 29th, the Slinger Super Speedway presents a 60 lap late model feature and full racing program in the Late Models, Midwest Modifieds, Slinger Stingers, Team Cruisers, Figure 8's, Speedway Guest Cars and Spectator races. In addition to the seven divisions that compete regularly at the World's Fastest ¼ Mile Oval, the sport trucks will make a special appearance. The Speedway will also be giving away various prizes throughout the evening. Spectator gates open at 4: 45 p.m. for the Sunday event with time trials at 5:15 p.m. and racing scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. The Slinger Super Speedway is located ¼ mile West of Highway 41 on Highway 144 in Slinger. For more information, call the track office during normal business hours M-F 9-5 at (262) 644-5921 or check out the new track website at www.slingersuperspeedway.com |
