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Peterson Back in Victory
Lane!
By Weyer / Margetta |
August
4, 2002; Slinger, WI - Cindy Peterson won the Michael
Hartman Well Drilling and Pumps 65 Sunday night at the Slinger Super Speedway to post her
first late model feature victory of the season.
Peterson, who started from the pole position, led every lap and
masterfully worked lapped traffic late in the event to finally find victory lane after
experiencing a rash of bad luck this season.
“I was almost kind of scared to death out there,” Peterson explained afterward.
“We’ve had such a bad year and have really been struggling. We were ready to
quit about four weeks ago but decided to stick it out and here we are.”
With Peterson immediately racing to the lead at the drop of the green flag, Rich Loch and
Jamie Wallace snuck by Tony Strupp to take the second and third positions. A spin by Toby
Rott that also collected Al Schill in turn three brought out the caution flag on lap five.
Peterson maintained her lead over Loch as the race resumed while Wallace
slipped back into Strupp’s clutches in a battle for third. Strupp eventually took the
spot on lap 20 as David Prunty advanced through the field to take fifth.
As Peterson led at the halfway mark, Prunty appeared to be the fastest car on the track as
he snagged fourth place from Wallace and then worked his way around Strupp for third.
Prunty then set sail for Loch as Peterson caught the tail end of the field and began
lapping cars. Loch and Prunty were slowly reeling in the leader in traffic as Eric Fransen
and Lowell Bennett staged a spirited duel over fourth place.
Prunty slightly tagged the back end of Loch’s car while exiting turn
two on lap 40, sending both cars sliding up the track and allowing Peterson to gain
several car lengths. Prunty was able to pass Loch for second a few laps later but he was
well behind Peterson who continued to place lapped cars between herself and the second
place car.
Fransen made a late race charge to take fourth place from Strupp and then caught Loch for
third with fewer than five laps to go. Peterson remained comfortably out front and crossed
the finish line about fifteen car lengths ahead of Prunty. Fransen came home in third with
Loch finishing fourth and Bennett placing fifth.
Chris Ratajczyk held off Al Schill to win the 30-lap semi-feature while Larry Los, John
Zimmerman, and Mike Strupp completed the top five. Dan Jung won the consolation race in
his first ever start in a late model at Slinger. Jung was driving a team car to Brad
Hartman. David Prunty won the dash and Conrad Morgan set fast time with a lap of 11.806
seconds.
Dan Jung found himself in the right place at the right time to pick up the Midwest
modified feature win.
Ron Schmitt shot into the lead at the start as Wes Biswell, Jung, and Dale Prunty followed
close behind. Jeff Holtz moved forward and joined the lead battle by the halfway mark as
Schmitt continued to look impressive by maintaining the lead. Schmitt’s charge at his
first ever feature win was slowed a bit when Ed Grober and Gregg Pawelski spun in turn one
to bring out the caution flag with five laps to go.
Schmitt led the restart with Biswell close on his tail as Jung held down
third followed by Holtz and Prunty, who seemed to fighting an ignition problem. As the
green flag flew, Biswell and Schmitt came together in turn two, sending Schmitt spinning
into the infield as the yellow flag waved again.
Biswell was placed at the tail end of the field for his involvement in the
situation, giving the lead to Jung. Jung led the final four laps and took the win ahead of
Holtz and Prunty. Dan Miller was fourth while David McCardle raced to his best career
finish in fifth.
In other Midwest modified action, Russ Grade picked up the win in the dash and Dale Prunty
was the fastest qualifier at 12.535 seconds.
Roger Schmid took the checkered flag first in the highly competitive 20-lap Slinger
stinger feature.
The father and son combination of Joe DeStefano Sr. and Joe DeStefano Jr. swapped the lead
in the opening laps with James Littrell, Nathan Fick, and Schmid involved in a close
battle for third. Todd Gehring, Jason Feyereisen, David Pichler, and Paul Wagner soon
joined the lead group as DeStefano Jr. assumed the lead with Littrell following him to
grab second. DeStefano Sr. began to fade on the outside as Fick and Feyereisen headed to
the inside of him down the backstretch on lap seven.
The three-wide situation left DeStefano stuck on the outside and when
Gehring and Pichler tried to fill the inside lane while exiting turn four, Pichler was
hooked in the right rear quarter panel, sending him across the track and into the front
stretch wall. Most drivers found their way around but Jimmie Evans couldn’t avoid
Pichler and became collected in the incident as the yellow flag waved.
DeStefano Jr. got a great jump on the restart over Littrell, Schmid, and Feyereisen.
Schmid and Feyereisen quickly made their way around Littrell and began to track down
DeStefano Jr. for the lead. Schmid caught the leader and took the top spot on lap 15,
bringing Feyereisen with him and into second.
With Schmid and Feyereisen pulling away, Wagner and Gehring raced into
third and fourth as the laps wound down. Schmid held on to take the win over Wagner who
took second on the white flag lap when Feyereisen faltered in the turn. Gehring finished
fourth and DeStefano Jr. was fifth.
Scott Goetzke scored a convincing win in the Figure 8 event and Collin Bamke took top
honors in the Slinger Bees race. The team of Joe Mueller and Dave Berndt won the team
cruiser feature and Doug Pasbrig was victorious in the spectator elimination races driving
his Chevy taxicab. Dan Schupe raced to the speedway guest car race win. Jeff Frank and
Russ Madell were declared co-winners of the demo derby to round out the night’s
activities.
For Complete results
from the RACESTAT computer CLICK
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