Slinger, Wis., July 21—Ryan Gutknecht turned back several challenges from Penn Sauter to win the 50-lap Uptown Motor Cars Late Model feature Sunday night at the Slinger Speedway.
Gutknecht used the high groove to take the lead from Sauter following a lap nine restart and continued to use the top lane to hold Sauter at bay to capture the victory.
“This car was awesome tonight, I mean we’ve had fast race cars all year but tonight this thing was so easy to drive, “Gutknecht stated from victory lane, “it’s one of those cars you work your butt off to get and when you get it it’s awesome.”
“Tonight was good and obviously Ryan (Gutknecht) could cut the corner way better,” Sauter said after leading several laps and scoring his best finish in a late model,” He did me a favor going to the top there on a couple of those restarts to keep the others behind me.”
Evan Hassler started twelfth and finished third behind Gutknecht and Sauter after surviving an intense battle with Billy Braun who finished fourth. Mike rebounded from an early race incident to finish fifth. Matt Urban led the opening laps and finished sixth ahead of Ryan Weyer in seventh and Jerry Eckhardt in eighth. Mark Eswein finished ninth and Tom Berens was tenth.
Late Model heat races were won by Mark Eswein and Simon Seyfert while Jon Reynolds Jr. was the fastest qualifier after posting a lap time of 12.023 seconds.
Nick Bruley won a wild 35-lap Sportsman feature over Alex Lopacinski who finished second. Jake Schraufnagel and Brian Holtz were third and fourth respectively and held the top two spots late in the race but were penalized a row after two false starts on the final restart. Chris Beine finished fifth. Sportsman heat races were won by Chris Beine and Tom Elsinger Jr. and Jake Schraufnagel set fast time with a qualifying lap of 12.735 seconds.
Tanner Berge held off a fast closing Dennis Prunty and John DeAngelis to win the 25-lap 602 Crater main event. Rob Braun and Bill Prietzel completed the top five finishers in fourth and fifth. John DeAngelis was the winner of the 602 Crater heat race and Tanner Berge was the fastest qualifier with a time of 12.093 seconds.
The High School Racing Association division returned to Slinger with a strong field of entrants and Jackson Martindale won the 20-lap feature over Gracie Flanagan and Peyton Payne. Charlie Thompson was fourth and Xander Weeks finished fifth. Peyton Payne and Caleb Arneson were the winners of the High School Racing Association heat races and Gracie Flanagan set fast time at 15.680 seconds.
Shane Becker made his return to the Figure 8 division a successful one as he took the victory in the ten lap main event over Scott Goetzke who was trying to score his 100th Figure 8 victory. Rick Bruskiewicz finished third ahead of Bill Shavik in fourth and Jim Ward in fifth.
