Slinger, Wis., May 25—Justin Mondeik scored his first career
Slinger Speedway Incredible Bank super late model feature victory
Sunday night in the EH Wolf and Sons Memorial Day Weekend 100 after
a hard-fought battle with Brad Mueller and Alex Prunty.
“That was a pretty wild one and honestly, Slinger has not been our
best friend,” Mondeik told the crowd from victory lane, “We’ve been
running here a long time and really struggled and we built a new car.
This is only the second race on this car and that was just wild. It feels
really good to get a win.”
To get that win, Mondeik survived an intense battle for the lead
with Alex Prunty where at one point contact between the two cars sent
both sailing towards the outside retaining wall before both recovered to
work their way forward once again. Mondeik then retook the top spot
from Grant Griesbach before holding off a hard charging Brad Mueller
for the victory. Alex Prunty rebounded from the earlier contact to finish
third followed by Jesse Bernhagen in fourth and Griesbach in fifth.
“Alex (Prunty) has a lot of experience here and he’s one of the
best and there was definitely contact but we talked after the race and
he said he didn’t mean to do it,” Mondeik explained, “I appreciate that
integrity and honesty from him and look forward to racing with him in
the future. Honestly it was just one heck of a race and I’m kind of in
shock right now.”
“I was trying and I got to Justin’s (Mondeik) right rear quarter,”
second place finisher Brad Mueller stated afterwards, “but he was clear
so I had to take second today. My guys and our families worked their
butts off this weekend and I should be tired but I’m ready to party.”
“I gave him everything I had and it was a lot of fun,” said Alex
Prunty after his third place finish, “We wheel hopped going down into
(turn) one and I went over and said I was sorry about that. It was just a
lot of fun racing and it’s really hard now to pass on the bottom with the
traction compound on the top but we had a really good car and it’s
going to be a great season.”
“That was a great race and I got to watch it from the cat bird seat
the whole time,” fourth place finisher Jesse Bernhagen explained after
advancing from the thirteenth starting position, “we were almost three
wide and ducking inside and outside and it was wild. I hope the fans
enjoyed it because I think we gave them a heck of a show.”
“I felt like we maybe didn’t have the car to win tonight.” Grant
Griesbach said after leading several laps before coming home with a
fifth place result, “It was loose after five or ten laps and I was really
hanging on. The lead was kind of gifted to us there mid-race and I
figured those guys could catch us. The 44 (Mondeik) and 11 (Prunty)
were definitely way better than us at the end and I guess we’ll take a
fifth place run.
Ryan DeStefano finished sixth after starting deep in the field due
to advancing from the semi-feature and Billy Braun was seventh
followed by Max Kahler in eighth. Nick Egan and R.J. Braun completed
the top ten finishers in ninth and tenth respectively.
Ryan DeStefano won the 20-lap super late model semi-feature
over James Storey and Jerry Mueller. Ryan Gutknecht finished fourth to
secure the final transfer spot into the main event while Tom Jasinski was
fifth. Brad Mueller won the super late model dash and Steve Apel
topped the 23-car field in qualifying after circling the speedway in
11.066 seconds.
Ryan Gutknecht won the Uptown Motor Cars late model 40-lap
feature over Zach Prunty and Evan Hassler. Jon Reynolds Jr. took the
checkered flag in fourth ahead of Jayden Johnson in fifth. Tom Berens
finished in sixth and Mark Eswein was seventh while Tyler Hromadka
crossed the finish line in eighth. Jake Vanoskey and Jerry Eckhardt were
ninth and tenth respectively. Nicholas Lemberger and Ryan Weyer were
the winners of the late model heat races and Zach Prunty was the
fastest qualifier after turning in a lap time of 12.025 seconds.
Brandon Mennicke won the Finish Line Bar and Grill Slinger bees
main event that ended at 20-laps due to the time limit expiring. Marty
Tackes finished second ahead of Kendall Becker and Travis Kreuser in
third and fourth respectively. Matthew Wandrey finished in fifth
followed by Rachel Czarapata in sixth and Morgan Zerwinski in seventh.
Joseph Blaschka finished eighth while Misty Benn and Matt Elsinger
rounded out the top ten finishers. Slinger bees heat race were won by
Nathan Lemberger and Marty Tackes while Joseph Blaschka was the
fastest qualifier with a lap time of 15.027 seconds.
Nick Ostberg won the Figure 8 feature to close out the evening
over Scott Goetzke and Bill Shavlik. Rick Bruskiewicz finished fourth and
Russ Lorbiecki was fifth.
