January 4, 2003; West Bend, WI - Slinger Super Speedway completed its 55th year of Motorsports during the 2002 season awarding it's drivers over $70,000 in cash and contingency products to the award winners. Wayne Erickson and his wife Sandy have maintained the operated the facility for the past 29 years while making the track one of the premier facilities in the Nation.
Highlighting the award earners during the evening was Lowell Bennett won his third consecutive and fourth overall Late Model Track Championship at Slinger Super Speedway. Other champions to be honored included Dan Jung who claimed the Midwest Modified Division and Paul Wagner again captured the Slinger Stinger title. The spirited Figure 8 Championship went to Jack Sutherland, his first track championship in the division. Although a championship is not awarded for the Team Cruiser Division, it grew in both numbers of participants and fan interest as the season unfolded. While the driving and braking chores were done from the drivers’ side the gas would be manned from the passengers seat. One team perfected the feat faster than the rest as Mark & Ken Fogel led the division in wins. In the tracks premier division, the Late Models, thirteen different drivers took the checkered flag in feature events during the regular season on the World’s Fastest 1/4 Mile Oval. A total of 31 drivers met the minimum requirements to qualify for post-season awards. Lowell Bennett wrapped up his fourth track championship by winning round one of the Coca Cola Triple Crown Classic, The Uptown Automotive 75, Super Shirts & Solutions Scout Night, and the 76 Racing Gas 75. He finished in the five seventeen times. He also led the division setting fast time on 6 occasions won the overall Coca-Cola Triple Crown Classic title. Lowell successfully defended his 2001 championship by a 1408 to 1224 point margin over point runner-up Eric Fransen. Fransen had a solid showing during the 2002 season at Slinger winning three feature contests. He also led the division in top five feature runs with 18. His crew also captured the outstanding race team award for the Late Model division. Multi-time track champion Al Schill, captured four feature wins during the 2002 season and earned 1164 points to claim the third position in the final standings, just edging out Rich Loch for the position who finished fourth in the standings just a mere six markers behind Schill. Loch captured three victories during this past season. Rounding out the top five point finishers was David Prunty who earned 1108 markers and two wins in 2002. The 2002 Slinger Speedway Late Model Rookie-of-the-Year was Chris Peterson who moved up from the Midwest Modified ranks. In his first year of running the high banks of the World’s Fastest 1/4 Mile Oval in his new late model, he scored nine top ten feature performances and finished ninth in the overall standings. Randy Schuler earned the hard luck award for the Late Model division. When the Midwest Modified drivers took to the stage it was Dan Jung who led the season with seventeen top five feature runs and earning six victories to take the division crown by 18 markers over Dale Prunty. In a hard fought battle that went down to the final night of racing, Prunty stayed within striking distance of the title until the final checkered. Prunty would win a division high seven feature wins. Third in the final standings went to Jeff Holtz who led the division in fast qualifying efforts. Holtz also claimed four victories. Wes Biswell and Ed Grober completed the top five point earners. Ron Schmitt captured the Rookie of the Year honors in the Midwest Modifieds with a sixth place overall performance in the point standings. With the Slinger Stinger Street Stock class being combined with the Midwest Sportsman, it was Paul Wagner who won the final Stinger title. Wagner won four events and set fast time a division leading nine times during the course of the season. He was able to edge out Jason Feyereisen for the season title by a 1532 to 1388 point margin. Feyereisen also had a very successful season capturing four feature events. Roger Schmid, David Pichler and Joe Destefano Sr made up the top five point finishers. The Slinger Stinger team award was captured by the crew of # 93 team Dave Obermeyer. The Entertaining, exciting, and downright crazy, Figure 8 Division again lived up to its name as 9 different drivers found Victory Lane in 2002. Jack Sutherland has competed in the Figure 8’s for only 2 years and took home 3 feature wins to record his first track championship during the 2002 season. In addition to accolades for the drivers it was announced that the 2003 rules are available for each of the divisions and are available by calling the speedway. The 2003 season will open with a practice day on Saturday April 26th and the Miller Lite Twin 75’s Season Opener on Sunday, April 27th. Among the major changes is the addition of the Midwest Sportsman division. The division will replace the Slinger Stinger class and the Stinger cars are to run with the Midwest Sportsman. |
