PRUNTY GETS 2ND WIN OF THE SEASON AT SLINGER

By Dan Margetta
Slinger, Wis., Aug 3—Dennis Prunty held off Lowell Bennett to capture his second super late model feature win of the season Sunday night at the Slinger Super Speedway in a rough 60-lap main event.


By Dan Margetta
Slinger, Wis., Aug 3—Dennis Prunty held off Lowell Bennett to capture his second super late model feature win of the season Sunday night at the Slinger Super Speedway in a rough 60-lap main event.

“I really didn’t want to restart on the outside,” Prunty explained afterwards discussing the final restart where he chose the outside lane, leaving Bennett with the inside groove, “But Lowell (Bennett) beat me there the last time and I figured I had to take his line away.”

Nick Wagner and Chris Blawat traded the lead on the opening lap before Blawat took sole possession of the lead from the outside as Wagner fell into a battle with Ryan DeStefano and Braison Bennett for second. The action intensified on lap eight when close racing between John DeAngelis and Austin Luedtke for fifth slightly slowed Luedtke’s car which was then tagged in the back by Rob Braun who had no time to react. Luedtke’s car kicked sideways and hooked the car of Dave McCardle hard into the front stretch wall as a melee ensued behind them. Dale Prunty’s car went airborne as it climbed over the cars of Steve Apel and Braun while Conrad Morgan spun to the infield where he was tagged nearly head on by Tom Hromadka who also took to the inside in an attempt to avoid. Morgan, Hromadka, and McCardle’s cars were too severely damaged while Apel, Braun, and Luedtke continued with heavy damage as the race fell under the red flag. Blawat and DeStefano led the field on the restart and raced side by side for a lap before Blawat’s car twitched loose in turn four and as he caught the car, Nick Wagner, John DeAngelis, and Dennis Prunty all raced by on the inside. A few laps later, Blawat retired from the event as Prunty went to work on DeAngelis for third, taking the spot with an inside pass. Prunty then took to the outside to first pass Wagner for second and then DeStefano for the lead on lap 18. Prunty began to pull away out front as DeStefano, DeAngelis, and Wagner fought for second as farther back, Lowell Bennett began to advance his way forward after starting deep in the field. The caution flag appeared for the second time on lap 24 when Tim Lampman spun in turn two and Prunty chose the top lane for the restart, maintaining his lead as racing resumed. With Prunty out front, DeStefano and Wagner fought for second, a battle Wagner won when the hard racing between them knocked DeStefano’s car loose for a moment, allowing both Bennett and DeAngelis to pass by into third and fourth respectively. Prunty was able to maintain the lead through two more caution periods for single car spins involving Ryan Farrell and Wagner while Bennett worked his way into second place and began to try to stalk Prunty for the lead as Austin Luedtke moved into third place just ahead of DeAngelis. Behind them, DeStefano and Jeff Holtz fought over fifth as their side by side battle carried them up the race track into turn one. Seeing an opening, Steve Apel ducked low between both of them setting up a three wide situation in turn two. The three wide racing continued into turn three with neither driver lifting which resulted in Holt’s car spinning around in turn four to produce yet another caution flag. During the slow down, Apel was shown the black flag for his involvement in the three-wide racing and he retired from the event. Prunty chose the outside lane for the restart and was able to outgun Bennett into turn three to hold onto the lead. Prunty was unchallenged the rest of the way and drove to the victory over Bennett for his second feature win of the season. John DeAngelis finished a strong third while Jeff Holtz and Braison Bennett rounded out the top five finishers. Ryan Farrell finished sixth ahead of Ryan DeStefano and Nick Wagner while Chris Ratajczyk and Jerry Eckhardt rounded out the top ten.

Super late model heat race victories were recorded by Jeff Holtz, Dale Prunty, and John DeAngelis while Steve Apel was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 11.350 seconds.

Ryan Zielski turned back the challenges of Dan Church to score his first career Slinger Speedway feature victory in the late model main event that ended seven laps early to due time limit constraints.

Zielski charged to the lead at the drop of the green flag while shuffling throughout the field behind him led to Church advancing several spots in the opening laps into second place with Wayne Freimund and Mike Held close behind. The caution flag waved on lap ten for an incident involving Brittiny Helmers, Duke Long, and Grant Griesbach on the backstretch and as racing resumed, Zielski maintained the lead. Church applied the pressure for the top spot but with each circuit, Zielski was able to remain the leader. Andy Evraet’s car looped around on lap 14 and Alex Prunty, Tyler James, and Jerry Mueller stacked up behind him to produce another caution flag. Once again, Zielski chose the inside for the restart and again turned back challenges from Church for the lead as Jack Stern advanced into the top five behind Freimund and Held who occupied third and fourth respectively. Tyler Schley and Evraets spun together in turn three on lap 29 to slow the event for a third time under the yellow flag. With the event well past its allotted time limit, racing resumed with Zielski again able to withstand serious pressure from Church for the lead while Alex Prunty took advantage of an outside lane choice at the restart cone to battle Freimund and Held for third. Jack Stern and Tim Lange made contact in turn three on lap 32 resulting in a spin by Schley which produced another caution flag, effectively ending the race early due to the time limit constraint. Zielski was shown the checkered flag as the winner over Church and Prunty while Freimund and Held completed the top five finishers.

Late model heat races were won by Al Stippich and Andy Evraets and Alex Prunty was the fastest qualifier at 12.571 seconds.

Kyle Chwala drove to his sixth feature victory of the season in the 25-lap Area Sportsman main event.

John Daley led the opening two laps before Ken Schraufnagel took over the top spot on lap three. Schraufnagel held the point for several laps as Chwala began to march his way through the field. Chwala caught Schraufnagel for the lead near the halfway mark of the race and took over the top spot with an outside pass on lap 13. Chwala was never headed from there and he drove to the victory followed by Andy Welter who raced his way forward into second in the closing laps. Schraufnagel finished a strong third followed by Joe Shelby and Nick Egan in fourth and fifth respectively.

John Daley was the winner of the Area Sportsman heat race and Kyle Chwala set fast time at 13.146 seconds.

Brandon Tackes held off Jacob Schraufnagel to win the 25-lap Slinger Bee feature.

Tom Berens led the opening laps before the red flag waved on lap seven when T.J. Graczkowski’s car spun while racing with Dale Kiley-Schaefer in turn three. Graczkowski’s car was then struck hard by Jaden Buckley as it sat on the speedway. Buckley was awake and alert following the incident but was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation. Once racing resumed, Rick Schaefer challenged Berens for the lead, taking the point by lap 15 while Brandon Tackes moved through the field and into the top five. Tackes tracked down Schaefer for the lead in the closing laps and drove to the victory. Jacob Schraufnagel edged Dale Kiley-Schaefer for second place at the finish while Berens and Rick Schaefer rounded out the top five finishers.

Steve Zoromski won the Slinger Bee semi-feature over Nicole Mueller while Slinger Bee heat race wins were recorded by Kyle Sikora, Tom Berens, and Rick Schaefer. Brandon Tackes was the fastest qualifier at 14.783 seconds.

Brian Vixmer won the Wisconsin Sport Truck feature over Drew Habeck and Hayden Watzka. Watzka’s third place finish came after tipping his truck over earlier in the event. Blaine Habeck and Kyle Quella were fourth and fifth respectively.

Blaine Habeck and Brian Vixmer each won a Wisconsin Sport Truck heat race while Vixmer was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 13.655 seconds.

Nick Finger was the winner of the Spectator Eliminator races in his Audi while Joe Mueller closed out the evening with a victory in the Figure 8 event.