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Donavan Morgan Back On Top
at Slinger!
By Weyer / Margetta |
July
21, 2002; Slinger, WI - After nailing down two early season
victories, Donavan Morgan finally returned to victory lane Sunday night at the Slinger
Super Speedway when he won the 65-lap late model feature.
Morgan had to fend off a strong late race challenge from David
Prunty to secure the win, his first at the speedway since May 19th. Morgan started from
the pole position and secured the lead on lap three after racing alongside Dave Teske as
Jamie Wallace and Conrad Morgan ran side by side for third. The battle for third place
bunched up the remainder of the field as Morgan and Teske began to distance themselves
from the rest of the drivers. Hard racing between Randy Schuler and Prunty produced
another traffic jam effect as the field slowed momentarily, sending Lowell Bennett and
Rich Loch into a spin down the front straightaway to bring out the caution on lap 12.
Donavan led on the restart over Teske and Wallace as Conrad had to deal with Chris
Petersen and David Prunty in a fight for the fourth position. Prunty made his way around
Petersen on lap 17 for fifth and three laps later, raced around Conrad to take over
fourth. As Prunty was getting ready to overtake Wallace for third, Donavan led at the
halfway mark and collected the $200 Mac Tools Halfway Challenge Bonus. The second and
final caution flag of the race appeared on lap 38 when Fred Winn and Mike Pascavis got
together in turn four.
Prunty appeared to have the strongest car as the race went back to green and he
immediately went to work on Teske for second while Morgan maintained the top spot. Prunty
took over second place on lap 44 and began to cut into Morgan’s lead. With ten laps
to go, Morgan slipped slightly in turn two and Prunty closed to his bumper but two laps
later, Prunty bobbled in the same corner and lost about five car lengths. That slip proved
to be costly as Prunty was unable to catch Morgan who crossed the finish line to take the
win by three car lengths. Teske ran an impressive race to finish third while Mike Egan
charged late to snare a fourth place finish ahead of Wallace and Eric Fransen. Petersen,
Bennett, Chris Ratajczyk, and Al Schill completed the top ten finishers.
In other late model action, Dan Mills drove the car normally driven by Rick Saegert to the
win in the 30-lap semi-feature. Last week’s feature winner, Larry Los finished second
while Cindy Peterson, Scott Schoeni, and Mark Bitzan rounded out the top five. Conrad
Morgan won the dash and Lowell Bennett was the fastest qualifier at 11.821 seconds.
Dale Prunty placed himself at the head of the field at the finish of the Midwest modified
30-lap feature to take top honors in the main event for the fifth time this season.
Dan Miller shot into the lead at the start as Prunty, Larry Reihbrandt, Wes Biswell, and
Jeff Holtz scrambled for positions behind him. Miller was able to hold off Prunty’s
challenges during the early going as Biswell became the first of the front-runners to
experience problems when he slowed and exited the event on lap eight with mechanical
problems.
Prunty was finally able to power by Miller to take command on lap ten and
Holtz followed in his tire tracks to pull into second place while Miller fell to third.
Holtz and Prunty began to distance themselves from Miller, Mike Graczkowski, and
Reihbrandt when Holtz’s car developed a leak and he was shown the black flag. At the
same time, Holtz was having his problems, Graczkowski, Russ Grade, and Ron Schmitt all
spun in turn one to produce a caution flag.
Prunty led the field back to green as Reihbrandt, Dan Jung, and Ed Grober gave chase.
Prunty’s only scare over the final laps was when the lapped car of David McCardle
drifted up the track and briefly made contact with Prunty as he drove by. The contact
proved to be very minor and Prunty drove to the victory over Reihbrandt, Jung, and Grober.
Lenny Gallenberg finished fifth.
In other Midwest modified action, Jung won the dash and Holtz was the fastest qualifier
with a lap of 12.677 seconds.
Roger Schmid bested Scott Shambeau to win a very close 18-lap Slinger stinger feature.
Shambeau led the first six laps as Schmid followed close behind in second. Shambeau worked
the outer groove as Schmid took to the low side and the two staged a spectacular battle
for the lead. Schmid was finally able to edge ahead on lap six as Paul Wagner, Jason
Feyereisen, and Todd Gehring emerged from deep in the field to enter the top five.
Shambeau stayed directly behind Schmid and on the final lap, pulled alongside in a strong
attempt for the lead. Both cars crossed the finish line in a near dead heat and after
scoring sorted out the finish, Schmid was declared the winner by inches over Shambeau.
Wagner finished third while Feyereisen held off Gehring in fourth. Following the event,
Shambeau refused to participate in post-race technical inspection and was disqualified.
In other Slinger stinger action, Schmid won the dash and Wagner was the fastest qualifier
with a lap of 13.611 seconds.
Mark and Ken Fogel raced to their fifth victory of the season in the team cruiser race and
Willy Van Camp won the Figure 8 event. Collin Bamke charged from the back of the field to
win in the Slinger Bees division and Joe DeStefano Sr. won the spectator elimination
races. John Danielson was victorious in the speedway guest cars.
For Complete results
from the RACESTAT computer CLICK
HERE |
