Slinger, Wis., May 21—Steve Apel edged Jacob Nottestad in a photo finish to win the 75-lap Elite Eight Super Late Model Series Keith’s Marina Race Against Cancer Sunday afternoon at the Slinger Speedway. The pair traded the lead several times in an intense battle in the final fifteen laps and crossed under the checkered flag side by side and nearly even before transponder scoring showed Apel captured the victory by a mere .063 seconds ahead of Nottestad.
“At the beginning I got kind of held up and just couldn’t go forward and had to tell myself to just be patient as it’s a long race,” Apel explained from victory lane, “then we got good track position on the final restart and took advantage of it. This is why we do this, we work a lot of hours in the shop to put on a show like that for the fans and it’s fun to be here.”
“That was awesome and man, what a show,” Nottestad stated after his close second place finish, “Congratulations to Steve (Apel) we put on quite a battle and he was opening up the entrance to turn three just a little bit where I could get the nose in there and I almost had him. I had the lead for a little while and we traded it back and forth there and that was just good short track racing.”
Both Apel and Nottestad started deep in the field and worked their way through the field to track down early leader R.J. Braun. Nottestad was first able to get around Braun with 24 laps to go and Apel followed soon after to set up their exceptional battle over the final laps. Dennis Prunty also advanced forward in the closing laps to finish third ahead of Brad Mueller in fourth and R.J. Braun in fifth. Grant Griesbach finished sixth followed by Jerry Mueller in seventh and Rob Braun in eighth. Conrad Morgan and Brad Keith finished ninth and tenth respectively.
Alex Prunty won the Elite Eight Super Late Model Fast Dash and Jacob Nottestad was the fastest qualifier after turning in a qualifying lap in 11.299 seconds.
Dale Lecus Jr. was the winner of the 35-lap Sportsman feature, taking the checkered flag ahead of Jacob Schraufnagel and Brian Holtz. Paul Wagner finished fourth and Andrew Meyerhofer rebounded from an earlier incident to finish fifth. Brandon Tackes finished sixth while Alex Locacinski crossed the finish line in seventh. Carl Benn finished eighth while Simon Seyfert and Mike Hansen rounded out the top ten finishers.
Sportsman heat races were won by Tom Elsinger Sr. and David Teske while Dale Lecus Jr. set fast time by circling the speedway in 12.623 seconds.
Nick Schmidt won the 25-lap Super Beez feature as he took the checkered flag ahead of Paul Reagles and early leader Marty Tackes. Todd Buckley finished fourth and Carl Benn took the checkered flag in fifth. Brian Hillringhouse finished sixth and Brady Held was seventh ahead of Al Strobel in eighth. Bob Peters finished ninth and Brandon Tackes finished tenth.
Super Beez heat races where captured by Todd Buckley and Brady Held while Al Strobel topped qualifying with a lap time of 12. 798 seconds.
Ayrton Brockhouse held off Colin Stocker to win the 25-lap Legends feature. Dillon Schwanbeck finished third ahead of Lincoln Cain and Benjamin Massman in fourth and fifth respectively. Tyler Ledbetter finished sixth and Jon Kemp was seventh. Andrew Borntreger edged his sister Rose Borntreger for eighth while Ayden Brockhouse finished tenth.
Legend heat races were won by Andrew Borntreger and Colin Stocker while fast qualifier honors went to Ayrton Brockhouse with a lap time of 13.235 seconds.
Cohen Henze edged Penn Sauter to win the 15-lap Bandolero feature. Jayden Johnson finished third while Bentley Thompson crossed the finish line in fourth. Harley Johnson finished fifth ahead of Axel Oldenhoff in sixth and Derek Meyer in seventh. Mason Obermeyer finished eighth ahead of Ace Oldenhoff and Carter Stein in ninth and tenth respectively.
Lincoln Johnson and Cohen Henze each won a Bandolero heat race and Penn Sauter was the fastest qualifier with a lap time of 14.310 seconds.
Nick Ostberg won the Figure 8 feature to close out the afternoon.
Super Late Models – Feature 75 Laps 1. 51A-Steve Apel , Slinger, WI[9], 2. 97N-Jacob Nottestad , Janesville, WI[10], 3. 42P-Dennis Prunty , Allenton, WI[4], 4. 89M-Brad Mueller , Random Lake, WI[1], 5. 92B-RJ Braun , Hartford, WI[2], 6. 17G-Grant Griesbach , Waukesha, WI[3], 7. 49M-Jerry Mueller , Richfield, WI[15], 8. 38B-Robert Braun Sr, Wales, WI[14], 9. 92M-Conrad Morgan , Waukesha, WI[7], 10. 48K-Brad Keith , West Bend, WI[12], 11. 55L-Rich Loch , Franklin, WI[11], 12. 11P-Alex Prunty , Kewaskum, WI[6], 13. 38W-Nick Wagner , Hartford, WI[8], 14. 23V-Levon Van Der Geest , Merrill, WI[5], 15. 7S-James Swanson , Pembine, WI[16], 16. 44M-Justin Mondeik , Gleason, WI[13]
Bandoleros – Feature 15 Laps 1. 88H-Cohen Henze , Juda, WI[6], 2. 5S-Penn Sauter , Deforest, WI[10], 3. 8J-Jayden Johnson , Ixonia, WI[9], 4. 22TBentley Thompson , West Salem, WI[7], 5. 7J-Harley Johnson , Ixonia, WI[11], 6. 29O-Axel Oldenhoff , Lake Mills, WI[8], 7. 10M-Derek Meyer , Michigamme, MI[1], 8. 93O-Mason Obermeyer , Union Grove, WI[4], 9. 62O-Ace Oldenhoff , Lake Mills, WI[12], 10. 11S-Carter Stein , Germantown, WI[2], 11. 27E-Paegan Ellingson , Watertown, WI[5], 12. 44O-Markus Obermeyer , Union Grove, WI[13], 13. 000J-Lincoln Johnson , Ixonia, WI[14], 14. 707G-Hunter Graham , West Bend, WI[15], 15. 76W-Oliver Weinkauf , Merrill, WI[3]
Legends – Feature 25 Laps 1. 12B-Ayrton Brockhouse , Shakopee, MN[9], 2. 8S-Colin Stocker , Northfield, MN[7], 3. 27S-Dillon Schwanbeck , Poynette, WI[6], 4. 5C-Lincoln Cain , Slinger, WI[10], 5. 7M-Benjamin Massman , East Troy, WI[1], 6. 64L-Tyler Ledbetter , Stillwater, MN[5], 7. 4K-Jon Kemp , Delhi, NY[2], 8. 15B-Andrew Borntreger , Elroy, WI[3], 9. 51B-Rose Borntreger , Elroy, WI[4], 10. 18B-Ayden Brockhouse , Shakopee, MN[11], 11. 9B-Blake Haynes , Dallas Center, IA[12], 12. 67P-Spencer Polacek , New Berlin, WI[13], 13. [DQ]7T-Jacob Tiegen , Marion, IA[8]
Figure 8’s – Feature 10 Laps 1. 1O-Nick Ostberg , West Bend, WI[4], 2. 0S-Bill Shavlik , West Bend, WI[5], 3. 4G-Scott Goetzke , Kewaskum, WI[6], 4. 83G-Eli Gorecki , Elkhorn, WI[1], 5. 17B-Rick Bruskiewicz , Mayville, WI[3], 6. 80W-Jim Ward , West Bend, WI[8], 7. [DNS]44X-Jake Smet , Menasha, WI[2], 8. [DNS]96S-Chad Snuggs , Dalton, WI[7]
Super Beez – Feature 25 Laps 1. 09X-Nick Schmidt , Watertown, WI[6], 2. 25R-Paul Reagles , Colgate, WI[5], 3. 24M-Marty Tackes , West Bend, WI[2], 4. 8B-Todd Buckley , West Bend, WI[8], 5. 01B-Carl Benn , Lisbon, WI[9], 6. 84H-Brian Hillringhouse , Oak Creek, WI[4], 7. 04H-Brady Held , Iron Ridge, WI[3], 8. 14S-Albert Strobel , Iron Ridge, WI[12], 9. 54P-Bob Peters , Janesville, WI[1], 10. 24B-Brandon Tackes , West Bend, WI[7], 11. 15N-Tracy Neu , Watertown, WI[10], 12. [DNS]14MMitchell Strobel , West Bend, WI[11]
Sportsman – Feature 35 Laps 1. 99L-Dale Lecus Jr, Caledonia, WI[10], 2. 29S-Jake Schraufnagel , Slinger, WI[9], 3. 88H-Brian Holtz , Muskego, WI[5], 4. 53W-Paul Wagner , Iron Ridge, WI[7], 5. 14M-Andrew Meyerhofer , Kaukauna, WI[8], 6. 24B-Brandon Tackes , West Bend, WI[1], 7. 89L-Alex Lopacinski , West Bend, WI[13], 8. 01B-Carl Benn , Lisbon, WI[11], 9. 9S-Simon Seyfert , Saukville, WI[3], 10. 17H-Mike Hansen , Eagle, WI[16], 11. 51T-David Teske , Richfield, WI[4], 12. 86F-Josh Fehrmann , Kewaskum, WI[15], 13. 33E-Tom Elsinger Sr, West Bend, WI[14], 14. 04H-Brady Held , Iron Ridge, WI[6], 15. 32SRyan Sielaff , North Prairie, WI[2], 16. 8K-Dale Kiley-Schaefer , Allenton, WI[12], 17. 02O-Dean Olla , West Bend, WI[17]
