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Mueller and Fransen Take
Victories at Slinger!
By Weyer / Margetta |
July 3,
2002; Slinger, WI - Eric Fransen and Brad Mueller split the Miller Lite Twin
75-lap late model features Wednesday night at the Slinger Super Speedway.
Fransen dominated the first event while Mueller edged John Zimmerman
to win the nightcap during the rescheduled event that was originally slated to be held in
April but was postponed due to inclement weather.
Cindy Peterson held down the lead at the beginning of the first 75-lap
feature while Fransen, Mike Egan, Rich Loch, and Lowell Bennett sorted out the positions
behind her. Peterson led the first 12 laps before Fransen turned underneath her exiting
turn four to take command of the event.
Fransen brought Loch and Bennett along with him, as Peterson was freight
trained back into fourth. Once Fransen was out front, he checked out from the other
competitors and charged out to a considerable advantage over Loch and Bennett.
Bennett passed Loch for second on lap 20 and Brad Mueller and David Prunty moved through
traffic to grab fourth and fifth place respectively. The top five cars settled down and
stabilized during the race’s middle stages as the best battle on the speedway was for
seventh where Rich Bickle and Jamie Wallace were immersed in a hot contested race for that
position. Bickle eventually took the spot after many laps of side-by-side racing while the
leaders began lapping cars at the tail end of the field.
Fransen managed to keep at least two lapped cars between himself and Bennett over the
final laps and crossed the finish line uncontested to capture the win. Bennett was second
followed by Loch and Mueller while Prunty took the checkered flag in fifth. Bickle
completed a steady run with a sixth place finish ahead of Egan and Wallace. Donavan Morgan
and Dennis Prunty rounded out the top ten finishers.
“We wrecked this car pretty good last Sunday night and the crew thrashed all day
Monday and Tuesday to get it back here,” stated Fransen from Victory Circle. “We
made one little tweak and I told them we would be faster, I guess I was right.”
Fransen also claimed the Mac Tools Half Way Challenge.
The second 75-lap race began much like the first one with lots of green flag racing. John
Zimmerman started on the front row and quickly moved into the lead. Zimmerman pulled away
while Dennis Prunty, Donavan Morgan, Jamie Wallace, and Brad Mueller raced in the second
through sixth positions. Morgan raced around Prunty for second on lap 35, dropping Prunty
back into a battle with Mueller for third. Mueller took the spot on lap 40 as Zimmerman
maintained his lead and won the Mac Tools Half way challenge.
Rich Bickle and Eric Fransen began to pick off cars and move towards the
top five as most drivers began to experience handling problems as all drivers started the
event on the same tires they finished the first race on. Morgan cut into Zimmerman’s
lead with 20 laps to go but his bid for the win was foiled when he spun on lap 65 to
produce the only caution flag of the race.
On the restart, Mueller used the outside groove to move alongside
Zimmerman over the final ten laps. With Mueller taking up the groove Zimmerman wanted to
race in, he was unable to hold off Mueller who edged ahead to take the win at the stripe.
Zimmerman placed second followed by Fransen, Wallace, and Bickle.
“We tore this car apart the past two nights every nut and bolt was taken off this car
this pit crew I have is absolutely the best” stated Mueller in victory Lane.
Mueller was declared the overall winner of the Miller Twin 75’s over Fransen once
points were totaled from all the night’s events.
Chris Petersen handily won the 35-lap semi-feature over Brad Hartman and John Mueller.
Mark Bitzan and Race McComb were fourth and fifth. David Prunty won the dash while Brad
Mueller and Austin Konetski shared fast qualifier honors as they both turned identical
laps of 11.766 seconds.
Dale Prunty has become a familiar face in Victory Circle following Midwest modified
features this season and Wednesday was no exception as he captured top honors in the
30-lap main event.
Ed Grober jumped into the lead at the start over Andy Evraets and Russ Grade as Mike
Graczkowski and Prunty dueled for the fourth position. Evraets, Grade, and Graczkowski
tangled in turn two on lap five to slow the field under caution and move Prunty to second
place behind Grober for the restart. As the race got underway again, Prunty wasted little
time in advancing toward the front as he grabbed the lead on lap eight. Dan Jung and Jeff
Holtz closed on Larry Reihbrandt for sixth.
Reihbrandt had some sort of problem on lap 13 and headed toward the wall
entering turn one, carrying Holtz wide and setting back both drivers briefly. As Prunty
pulled away at the head of the field, Dan Miller passed Grober for second while Wes
Biswell, Jung, and Holtz began to move up again.
Biswell made his way around Grober for third on lap 25 while Jung and Holz
were banging wheels for fifth. Prunty held off Miller for the win as Biswell raced to a
third place finish. Jung came out on top of his battle with Holtz for fifth. Holtz also
set fast time with 12.683 seconds.
Roger Schmid led the field start to finish to win the 20 lap Stinger Feature Miller Lite
Special. Schmid led the field to the green bringing Scott Shambeau and Jim Littrel
battling for top spots.
Paul Wagner quickly moved up the field to close in on Littrel to take the
third spot away. Feyereisen followed Wagner’s lead to move up along with the top
runners to the front. Wagner tried many attempts to pass Schmid but could not take over
the lead.
Feyereisen was fast qualifier with 13.519 seconds and took third spot with
Shambeau, and Littrell rounding out the top five.
For Complete results
from the RACESTAT computer CLICK
HERE |
