HASSLER LEADS YOUTH MOVEMENT WITH SLINGER VICTORY

Slinger, Wis., July 20—Young guns swept the podium positions Sunday night at the Slinger Speedway as Evan Hassler held off Jayden Johnson and Ryan Weyer to score his first Uptown Motor Cars late model feature victory of the season in the 50-lap main event.
Hassler tracked veteran Dennis Prunty for the lead during the opening laps and pounced into the top spot when Prunty exited the race on lap 22 with mechanical problems. That left another veteran in Jon Reynolds Jr. to challenge Hassler and the defending track champion put the pressure on until a flat tire just past the halfway mark sent him off the track. With veteran drivers Prunty and Reynolds having their issues, youngster and current point leader Jayden Johnson stepped up to take his shot at Hassler and the lead. Johnson stayed on Hassler’s bumper and made numerous challenges while another youngster, Ryan Weyer moved into third place. While Johnson was able to duck inside of Hassler’s rear fender on occasion, Hassler proved to be too strong and he held off Johnson to capture his first feature victory of the season. Johnson had to settle for a strong second place result while Weyer turned in his best performance to date with a solid third place finish. Zach Prunty rebounded from an earlier spin to finish fourth while Jacob Vanoskey completed the top five finishers in fifth. Jerry Eckhardt drove to a strong sixth place finish ahead of Tyler Hromadka in seventh and Simon Seyfert in eighth. Cade Jaeger made his Slinger late model debut with a ninth-place result while Reynolds came back from the flat tire issue to finish in tenth.
Nicholas Lemberger and Jayden Johnson were the winners of the late model heat races and Jon Reynolds Jr. was the fastest qualifier with a qualifying lap in 12.131 seconds.
John DeAngelis was the winner of the Raceway Bar and Grill 602 crater division 30-lap main event as he took the checkered flag ahead of Justin Poenitsch and Alex Lopacinski. Al Stippich was fourth and Dan Thomsen finished fifth. Mitchell Strobel was sixth. Justin Poenitsch won the 602 crater heat race and Al Stippich was the fastest qualifier at 11.805 seconds.
Brady Held outdueled Jake Schraufnagel to win the 30-lap Bobcat Plus sportsman feature while Brandon Tackes finished third. Jay Kalbus and Jimmie Evans completed the top five finishers in fourth and fifth respectively. Brady Held also won the sportsman heat race and Jake Schraufnagel set fast time for the division after completing a lap in 12.763 seconds.
Blake Nottestad scored a convincing win the 25-lap Outdoor Dock and Lifts super beez feature. Mark English raced in the lead pack the entire race and took the checkered flag in second place while Paul Reagles finished third. Merek Pankow and Jason Uttech finished in fourth and fifth respectively. Mark Dewey won the 15-lap super beez semi-feature and Josh Wilhite finished in second. Moran Zerwinski’s third place finish secured a spot in the main event and Joe Kuehn took the final transfer position by finishing fourth. Rick Schaefer was fifth. Super beez heat races were captured by Joe Kuehn, Tim Anderson, and Merek Pankow while Blake Nottestad was the fastest qualifier with a lap time of 13.260 seconds.
Gracie Flanagan won the High School Racing Association main event over Peyton Payne and Aiden Laubenstein. Flanagan was the winner of the HSRA heat race and set fast time as well to score the complete sweep.