Slinger Super Speedway 06.24.07

My 12th track and my 13th event in 2007 was held at Slinger Super Speedway - the World's fastest 1/4 mile. Some things in life are a marketing ploy. This is NOT just marketing - this is reality! I went to the track for the first time last year after EVERYONE said the track is awesome. I had been to dozens of race tracks before Slinger. The first race a year ago was a 6 lap dash for cash for the top 6 Super Late Model drivers. I said "WOW" out loud every time they raced by - all 6 laps! The acceleration of the super late models is absolutely incredible! The track is a highly banked 1/4 mile - so they go very fast around the corners of the bowl. This time I was only laughing at their unbelievable acceleration.

The races are more laps than most other tracks. I think the Super Late Model semi-feature (B-main, last chance qualifier, ...) was 30 laps long. The cars get around the track so fast. Divisions at the track were Super Late Models, Limited Late Models, Mid American Sportsman, 4 cylinders, guest cars, spectator eliminators, and Figure 8 cars. The Midwest Sportsman division races every other week, and it was their week off.

The Wisconsin Sport Trucks were the guest series at the track. They are basically go-karts with a small truck body. They came from Wisconsin International Raceway - about a 100 mile haul each way. Most of the drivers came anyhow. They race on the 1/4 mile low banked track at WIR. They didn't appear to be doing much braking on the high banks at Slinger. They were interesting. The cousin of my friend from college was the fast qualifier.

The Super Late Models points leader is Dave Prunty. He is a 4-time track champion in the division. He was the fast qualifier, and passed the leader in the feature at around lap 50 of 75. He passed #10 Mike Strupp - who was having an awesome race. #10 quickly pulled out to a large lead, and held it after several cautions. His motor started to sound rough, like it was only on 7 cylinders. Like they always say - the cars runs best right before the motor blows. He kept going anyhow, and finished a well-earned second. Kevin Harvick Inc development driver Cale Gale made his first career Slinger Speedway start at the wheel of Shawn Roethle’s #53 Chevy, but he was unable to qualify from the semi-feature to the feature. He had contact with a car late in the race and was unable to recover.

The Limited Late Model division had many drivers that I saw at the final stockcar races at Lake Geneva Raceway on October 1, 2006. I was wondering where some of those drivers had come from. The feature was won by defending series champion and points leader Chris Ratajczyk.

The spectator eliminator series was won by a guy with a muscle car who claimed it was down a cylinder. Yea, hardly. Reminds me of the guys who raced in the 4 cylinders who almost won the feature by consistenly posting laps 0.8 seconds faster than his qualifying time.

The event ended with the figure 8 cars. They really excite me - they are totally crazy! A car (#55 Donald VanCamp Jr.) and a truck (#4G Scott Goetzke) were battling hard for the win with 2 laps left. They pushed it hard through the X at the center of the 8, and they both kept their foot in it as the got off of the asphalt into the dirt. The car got severely out of shape, and drove full speed head-on in the wall. He rolled the car onto its roof. He got out a few minutes later so he must have been okay. They called the races done. The sent the car and the truck to the back of the pack, and awarded the win to the third place car.