 |
Schill and Los Take Twin
50's at Slinger!
By Weyer / Margetta |
July
14, 2002; Slinger, WI - Al Schill notched the victory in
the first twin 50-lap late model feature and Larry Los captured his first career feature
win in the second event during the third and final round of the Coca-Cola Triple Crown
Classic Sunday night at Slinger Super Speedway.
The Coca-Cola Triple Crown Classic consisted of three events where
drivers earned points to determine an overall series champion. Lowell Bennett scored one
win in the series and finished every race in the top ten to earn the overall series title
with 312 points.
Conrad Morgan ran strong in the first and third rounds but a 20th place
finish in round two hampered his efforts and he finished second in the overall standings,
60 points behind Bennett. Schill’s win on Sunday helped him to finish third while
Eric Fransen and Donavan Morgan rounded out the top five in the overall in series point
standings.
Eric Peterson and Austin Konetski paced the field to the green flag in the opening 50-lap
feature and raced side by side until Konetski grabbed the lead on lap two. Schill held
down the third spot while Chris Petersen and David Prunty raced for fourth and fifth.
Schill used the inside groove to take second from Peterson on lap 16 as Bennett worked his
way toward the top five. By the time the field was shown the crossed flags to signal
halfway, Bennett was in fifth place as Konetski led Schill, Peterson, and Prunty.
The front three raced in tight formation with Konetski managing to hold off Schill and
Peterson until lap 34 when Schill powered by to take the top spot. Once Schill got by for
the lead, Konetski was hung out to dry and he fell to fourth as Peterson and Bennett were
both able to race around him. Schill began to edge ahead from the field and he weaved his
way through lapped traffic by lap 40 as Bennett pressured Peterson for second. Bennett
dove to the inside of Peterson to take the position on lap 46 and tried to close on Schill
in the final four laps. Schill remained strong however, and scored the win by about three
car lengths over Bennett. Peterson capped off his strong run with a respectable third
place finish while Konetski and Donavan Morgan completed the top five.
Los shared the front row with Jamie Wallace at the start of the nightcap and the whole
field raced in two-by-two formation for the first seven laps as neither the outside or
inside line could find an advantage. Los broke through to take the lead on lap ten,
leaving Wallace and Mike Strupp to contest the second spot. With Wallace on the outside
and Strupp on the inside, both driver’s cars were evenly matched and their battle
bottle-necked the field as Los began to drive away out front. As Los stretched out his
advantage, Chris Ratajczyk, Rich Loch, and Dave Teske were among the cars wrapped up in
the group behind Wallace and Strupp all scrambling for second place.
Los continued to pull away as the only car able to break out from the pack
that was still tightly bunched together at the halfway mark. Wallace and Strupp remained
glued together in the race for second as Los continued to stretch out his lead while
Conrad Morgan, Bennett, and Eric Fransen were able to ease into the top ten. Los simply
drove away during the later stages and took his first career feature victory at Slinger by
nearly three quarters of a lap over the rest of the field. Wallace edged Strupp at the
line for second as Loch took fourth place over Ratajczyk. Morgan finished sixth ahead of
Teske, Fransen, Bennett, and Mike Egan. Schill, who won the first event, finished in
twelfth.
Erik Darnell, a relative newcomer to Slinger, won the 30-lap semi-feature over Scott
Schoeni and Joe Gross. Race McComb took top honors in the 15-lap consolation race over
Jerry Eckhardt and Brad Dahmer. Donavan Morgan won the dash and Bennett was the fastest
qualifier with a lap of 11.762 seconds.
Wes Biswell drove to his second win of the season in the 30-lap Midwest modified feature.
Mike Graczkowski led Gregg Pawelski and Biswell at the drop of the green flag as Dan
Miller and Larry Reihbrandt spun on lap three. Biswell got around Pawelski for second a
few laps later and pressured Graczkowski for the lead. Graczkowski suddenly spun out of
the lead on lap seven and the field was slowed under the caution flag. Biswell held the
lead on the restart and pulled away when Pawelski and Russ Grade decided to race each
other for second.
While Pawelski and Grade fought for second, Dale Prunty and Jeff Holtz
were marching through the field and entered the top five. Prunty and Holtz first were able
to get by Pawelski and then went to work on Grade for second while Biswell continued to
lead. Prunty, Holtz, and Grade bounced off each other a few times before Grade was
shuffled back to fifth place by lap 25. Biswell maintained his lead and took the win over
Prunty and Holtz. Ed Grober moved up to capture the fourth position and Grade finished
fifth.
In other Midwest modified action, Biswell won the dash and Holtz was the fastest qualifier
with a lap of 12.613 seconds.
Jason Feyereisen worked the high groove to take the lead on lap five before driving to
victory in the 20-lap Slinger stinger feature.
Jimmie Evans led at the start while Feyereisen quickly advanced from his fourth starting
spot into second place by the fourth lap. Feyereisen took command of the event the
following lap while Todd Gehring and David Pichler also managed to race around Evans and
take over second and third respectively. Once Feyereisen was out front, he was never
headed and he raced to the win with Gehring finishing second and Pichler coming home in
third. Evans finished in fourth place and Joe DeStefano Sr. was fifth.
Feyereisen also won the dash and Pichler turned a lap of 13.556 seconds to set fast time.
The team of Alan Stippich and Doug Pasbrig won the team cruiser race and Dale Ehleiter
drove his 1986 Camaro to victory in the spectator eliminator races. Mike Newlin held off
Mark Ritger to win the Figure 8 race.
For Complete results
from the RACESTAT computer CLICK
HERE |
