One of my goals each year is to visit a track they I have never been to before and when you have been doing this as long as I have that gets a bit more difficult every year! With a last minute business trip put before me this week it made sense to fly direct out of Chicago and after booking my flights I realized that with a little extra driving I could go the the Slinger Speedway, billed as the world's fastest paved 1/4-mile oval, for their signature event The Super Seal Slinger Nationals.
The Super Late Models are the headliners with a big 200-lap main event and the Pro Late Models serve as a strong support class with forty laps of feature racing. Practice and qualifying would take place during the late afternoon hours and after battling some traffic around Madison on what must be some never ending road construction I pulled into the town of Slinger at 5:30, more than an hour before the scheduled first race of the evening at 6:45. As soon as I exited I-41 I was in line for parking at the track which was still a mile away according to my GPS. As the line crept along a police officer drove by in the opposite direction announcing on the intercom that we would now be parking in the ski area since the lots around the track were already full.
It wasn't more than a half-mile walk from where I parked and as I walked toward the track I was amazed and impressed by the crowd that had gathered on this near perfect Tuesday night and I felt fortunate when I was able to find a decent seat near the end of the front straightaway. The Speedway does have a lot of seating capacity and they needed all of it tonight as by the time we were ready to go racing the place was absolutely packed. I asked a fan in front of me if this event always drew like this and he smiled and said "it used to" so it was great to see the fans flock back to it once again.
The laps go by fast as quick qualifier Steve Apel timed in at 11.147 and that earned him a sixth row starting spot for the main event as the top twelve of thirty-one in time trials locked themselves into the show and were then inverted. Obviously I was impressed with that as you all know how I feel about "straight up " starts.
A 30-lap qualifying race for the Super Late Models was up first with the top four advancing with Chris Weinkauf holding off many time track champion Dennis Prunty to take the win. This race did start straight up with Weinkauf coming from fourth and Prunty from eighth to move on and proving that this was definitely a two grooved race track. Young Derek Kraus who is now a regular on the NASCAR K&N series finished third with Ryan DeStefano holing off Florida driver Stephen Nasse for the final transfer.
It was now just a few minutes past 7 p.m. and the twenty-three car Late Model feature would come to the track. Front row starters Brian Holtz and Shaun Scheel would run side-by-isde for the first several laps before Scheel gained the advantage, but he was soon passed by Tyler Schley who made a bold move around the outside to take the lead. The race would stay green and by the time that Jacob Nottestad moved to second Schley had a full straightaway advantage without many laps to go. With just three remaining though the caution waved when Iowa's Brody Willett punted Jacob Hassler exiting turn two and for the restart it would be Schley on the bottom with Nottestad up top in a full double file alignment.
As the green flag waved it was clear that Schley was not going to give Nottestad much room up top, and after the white flag waved they raced door to door down the back stretch. Both drivers went deep into turn three and when Schley pushed up the track in four it forced Nottestad to lift to keep it straight in the loose stuff allowing Schley to take the win. It was obvious that the crowd, and the announcer who did the victory lane interviews were not impressed with Schley as he explained that the car pushed up the track a bit in four. And when the announcer asked his Nottestad for his thoughts he responded "we all know who won tonight" which drew quite a cheer.
The gentleman in front of me was in agreement though that Nottestad would have still been a straightaway behind at the checkers if not for the late caution, so for both of us and at the pay window, Schley was the winner. Scheel finished in the third spot, Jesse Barnhagen made a nice run from twelfth to fourth and Zach Braun was fifth.
The Last Chance race for the Super Late Models was up next with supposedly just the top two moving on. Of course later we would find out that eight more drivers would be added as provisionals, but at the time it made for some big excitement as eighteen year old local favorite R.J. Braun started eighth and chased down two of the big name visitors in Nasse and Josh Brock to take the win.
It was now just a little past 8 p.m. and I was thinking that I might just have a chance to watch the entire feature and still get down to Chicago at a reasonable time, but after a long break and then the full introductions that an event like this truly deserves, the clock would trip past nine before the green flag finally flew. Still, with laps clicking off twelve seconds at a time this one could go fast without many cautions and it would be Alex Prunty moving to the early lead.
The caution waved on lap fourteen when Matt Kenseth slowed on the back stretch with a throttle linkage issue and the accordion effect sent the Kyle Busch Racing #51 driven by Chandler Smith into the turn three wall. This would give Kenseth's crew time to make repairs and he would rejoin the back of the field for the restart. The race would resume with some entertaining action mid-pack as Prunty led the way before another caution slowed the pace and soon after the restart the second place car of John DeAngelis spun Prunty coming out of turn two. This sent the rest of the field for a scramble with Dennis Prunty making hard contact with the wall and R.J. Braun driving nose first into the styrofoam barrier protecting the pit entrance.
Knowing that the cleanup for this would take some time and wondering just what my parking situation was I reluctantly decided to call it a night so that I could get to my hotel shortly after midnight knowing that I had just seen both Kenseth and Ty Majeski race from the back on that lap fourteen restart up to seventh and eighth before the red flag. So it was no surprise to see that Kenseth was the eventual winner with Majeski as his runner-up. I assume that DeAngelis was not penalized for his involvement in the red flag as he finished third, Steve Apel was fourth and Alex Prunty took fifth.
Slinger has always been on my bucket list and it was even better than I had anticipated. Lessons were learned should I ever try to attend the Nationals again as I will get there earlier and will not have a morning flight ahead of me the next day, but after seeing the racing there my next goal will be to catch one of their Sunday night weekly shows.
As I wrap this up my flight home is about to board and if all goes well perhaps I will catch tonight's features at the Grundy County Speedway. If not my next events will be on Tuesday as the Caleb Hammond Memorial will be run at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, then on Wednesday night I look forward to returning to the CJ Speedway for the Deery Brothers Summer Series.
Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!
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