Slinger, Wis., June 18—Dennis Prunty captured his first Elite Eight Super Late Model Series victory of the season by winning the PMF Landscape Supply 75 Sunday night at the Slinger Speedway.
Prunty paced the early laps before Jacob Nottestad charged into the lead and pulled ahead to a sizeable advantage. As the laps wound down, however, the handling on Nottestad’s car began to fade and Prunty was able to run him down and retake the top spot. A late caution bunched up the field on lap 67 when Ryan DeStefano’s car spun while racing with Nottestad for second, relegating both to the back of the field and leaving Prunty to battle with Steve Apel, Alex Prunty, and R.J. Braun for the remaining eight laps. Prunty first fended off a challenge from Apel and then held off Alex Prunty to take the victory. Alex Prunty finished second ahead of R.J. Braun in third and Steve Apel in fourth. Grant Griesbach finished fifth.
“It seems like it’s been too long, hasn’t it?” Prunty asked the crowd from victory lane, “I’m 50 years old now and that’s not even fun but this is one of the races you always want to win. It’s PMF Landscaping night and Froggy just treats so many racers right and he’s just an awesome guy.” When asked about his concerns with nephew Alex Prunty closing from second in the final laps, Dennis Prunty deadpanned, “He wouldn’t have passed me.”
“He is my Godfather so, I’ll give it to him,” Alex Prunty stated after finishing second, “He had a good car and I thought if we had a little more time we would get there but all in all it was a good run for us.”
“The ending was pretty intense,” third place R.J. Braun said, “We had a really bad race car during the beginning but after that caution it came to life and we pulled off a third place.”
Nick Wagner finished in sixth place and Brad Mueller was seventh. Jacob Nottestad and Ryan DeStefano finished eighth and ninth respectively after their late race tangle and Brad Keith finished tenth.
Jacob Nottestad won the Elite Eight Super Late Model Fast Dash and Alex Prunty was the fastest qualifier with a lap time of 11.255 seconds.
Ricky Gebhard pulled off a three-wide last lap maneuver to edge Misty Benn and Mitchell Strobel to win the 25-lap Slinger Bees feature in a photo finish. Benn edged Strobel for second, leaving Strobel to settle for third while Carl Benn and Scott Emrich Sr. completed the top five finishers. Mitchell Strobel and Carl Benn each won a Slinger Bees heat race and Tom Elsinger set fast time with a lap of 15.212 seconds.
Cole Kurth won the Bandolero feature over Paegen Ellingson and Mason Obermeyer. Hunter Graham finished fourth. Cole Kurth also won the Bandolero heat race and was the fastest qualifier with a lap time of 14.469 seconds.
Joshua Zacharias won the 15-lap High School Racing Association Slinger Sixers feature over Mitchell Berg and Mark Fogel Jr. Brandon Gumm finished fourth and Ethan Kling was fifth. Joshua Zacharias and Brandon Gumm were the heat race winners and Mitchell Berg set a new track record in qualifying with a lap time of 15.637 seconds.
Nick Ostberg closed out the evening by winning the Figure 8 feature over Rick Bruskiewicz and Jim Ward. Scott Goetzke and Bill Shavik finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Super Late Models – Feature 75 Laps 1. 42P-Dennis Prunty , Allenton, WI[1], 2. 11P-Alex Prunty , Kewaskum, WI[9], 3. 92B-RJ Braun , Hartford, WI[7], 4. 51A-Steve Apel , Slinger, WI[8], 5. 17G-Grant Griesbach , Waukesha, WI[4], 6. 38W-Nick Wagner , Hartford, WI[2], 7. 89M-Brad Mueller , Random Lake, WI[10], 8. 97N-Jacob Nottestad , Janesville, WI[5], 9. 0D-Ryan Destefano , Colgate, WI[3], 10. 48K-Brad Keith , West Bend, WI[11], 11. 51B-Robert Braun Sr, Wales, WI[6], 12. 92M-Conrad Morgan , Waukesha, WI[12], 13. 7S-James Swanson , Pembine, WI[13]
Slinger Bees – Feature 25 Laps 1. 10G-Ricky Gebhard Jr, Oconomowoc, WI[9], 2. 19B-Misty Benn , Lisbon, WI[4], 3. 84S-Mitchell Strobel , West Bend, WI[2], 4. 18B-Carl Benn , Lisbon, WI[8], 5. 21E-Scott Emrich Sr, Milwaukee, WI[3], 6. 52L-Dylan Lemberger , Menomonee Falls, WI[7], 7. 33E-Tom Elsinger Jr, Germantown, WI[11], 8. 24M-Marty Tackes , West Bend, WI[15], 9. 33S-Brian Stanczyk , West Bend, WI[1], 10. 3C-Jason Clope , Racine, WI[6], 11. 11M-Brandon Mennicke , Slinger, WI[14], 12. 124T-Brandon Tackes , West Bend, WI[10], 13. 14S-Albert Strobel , Iron Ridge, WI[16], 14. 20X-Kendall Becker , Hartford, WI[5], 15. 08W-Matthew Wandrey , Germantown, WI[13], 16. 20K-Travis Kreuser , West Bend, WI[12]
HSRA (Sixers) – Feature 15 Laps 1. 16Z-Joshua Zacharias , Madison, WI[9], 2. 2B-Mitchell Berg , Mindoro, WI[10], 3. 72F-Mark Fogel Jr, West Bend, WI[7], 4. 85G-Brandon Gumm , Kewaskum, WI[2], 5. 12H-Ethan Hedgecorth (Kling) , West Bend, WI[6], 6. 97K-Collin Keller , Kewaskum, WI[1], 7. 59X-Rick Buss , Sullivan, WI[8], 8. 34K-Kennedy Krueger , West Salem, WI[3], 9. 27WXander Weeks , Sauk City, WI[11], 10. 22R-Jason Ruth , Milwaukee, WI[12], 11. 29X-Vincent Snyder , Sullivan, WI[5], 12. 13M-Jackson Martindale , Stillman Valley, IL[4]
Figure 8’s – Feature 10 Laps 1. 1O-Nick Ostberg , West Bend, WI[5], 2. 17B-Rick Bruskiewicz , Mayville, WI[2], 3. 80W-Jim Ward , West Bend, WI[1], 4. 4G-Scott Goetzke , Kewaskum, WI[3], 5. 0S-Bill Shavlik , West Bend, WI[4]
Bandoleros Exhibition- Feature 10 Laps 1. 85K-Cole Kurth , Wisconsin Rapids, WI[4], 2. 27E-Paegan Ellingson , Watertown, WI[3], 3. 93O-Mason Obermeyer , Union Grove, WI[2], 4. 707G-Hunter Graham , West Bend, WI[1]
