SLINGER, WI – For the second time in three weeks, Steve Apel worked his way to the front of the super late model feature field and drove away with the victory as he topped the PMF 75-lap main event Sunday night at the Slinger Super Speedway.
“I’ll tell you what, that was fun racing with Rich (Loch) and I could get clear of him and set sail,” Apel told the crowd from victory lane after taking the lead from Rich Loch on lap 11 and then capturing the victory over Brad Mueller, “I figured Brad (Mueller) was coming and wins like that don’t come very often and it’s been twice this year, but I’ll take it.”
“We had a good race and I was alongside Alex (Prunty) for a bunch of laps and then I got to the outside of him and it was a hard battle,” Brad Mueller stated after an intense late race battle with Alex Prunty to finish second, “We haven’t found everything yet and we are going to get better.”
“We’ve been playing with the air pressures lately trying to get better late runs,” Alex Prunty said following his third place effort driving his car that sported his father’s racing number on it in honor of Father’s Day, “All I had a fun week with my Dad and tried to get him a win tonight but a third place will have to do.”
Mike Held raced with the lead pack the entire event and brought home is second straight fourth place finish while NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter made a trip to the Slinger high banks to get ready for the upcoming Slinger Nationals and left with a fifth place finish.
“We’ve got to learn how to run these races a little bit better and just got to learn how to play rough a little bit,” Held said, “It’s fun watching everybody get after it but I just couldn’t make up any ground.”
“The car was bottoming out at first but it got better the longer it went,” Sauter explained afterwards, “We’ve got to figure out the short runs for when we come back but it was better than I’ve been but still not great so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Rich Loch paced the opening ten laps with Steve Apel settling into second place just ahead of hard racing for position between Alex Prunty, Brad Mueller, Mike Held, Luke Fenhouse and Brad Keith. Apel was able to run down Loch for the lead on lap 11 and those two edged away out front just before the first caution flag waved on lap 22 when Fenhouse slid sideways in turn two while trying to pass Held for the fourth position. Apel maintained the lead over Loch as racing resumed while Prunty moved ahead of Mueller for third and Brad Keith edged Held to take the fifth spot. The caution flag waved again on lap 38 when James Swan exited the speedway with a mechanical issue evidenced by white smoke trailing from his car. Once again Apel charged to the lead on the restart as Loch tried to fend off challenges from Prunty and Mueller. In the late stages, Prunty was able to nudge Loch out of the way for second on lap 67 and Mueller took advantage of the situation to slide into third. As Loch tried to ease back into line, his car came together with Brad Keith’s car which resulted in the two tangling into turn one to draw the final caution flag of the event. After some cat and mouse games between the leaders on a few aborted restarts, Apel was able to charge into the lead while Prunty and Mueller staged a side by side battle for second. Apel drove to the victory while Mueller edged Prunty for second with Mike Held and Johnny Sauter completing the top five finishers. R.J. Braun finished sixth ahead of Jacob Vanoskey in seventh and Chris Blawat in eighth. Justin Mondeik finished ninth and Nick Wagner was tenth.
Alex Prunty won the super late model fast dash and Luke Fenhouse topped qualifying by turning in a lap in 11.307 seconds.
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Qualifying Results
1) 4F Luke Fenhaus
2) 48K Brad Keith
3) 72H Mike Held
4) 51A Steve Apel
5) 92M Conrad Morgan
6) 39P Alex Prunty
7) 55L Rich Loch
8) 89M Brad Mueller
9) 38W Nick Wagner
10) 92B RJ Braun
11) 5S Johnny Sauter
12) 15S Gabe Sommers
13) 97S James Swan
14) 26B Chris Blawat
15) 72S Randy Schuler
16) 44M Justin Mondeik
17) 84V Jacob Vanosky
Fast Dash Results
1) 39P Alex Prunty
2) 72H Mike Held
3) 48K Brad Keith
4) 51A Steve Apel
5) 92M Conrad Morgan
6) 4F Luke Fenhaus
Feature Results
1) 51A Steve Apel
2) 89M Brad Mueller
3) 39P Alex Prunty
4) 72H Mike Held
5) 5S Johnny Sauter
6) 92B RJ Braun
7) 84V Jacob Vanosky
8) 26B Chris Blawat
9) 44M Justin Mondeik
10) 38W Nick Wagner
11) 55L Rich Loch
12) 48K Brad Keith
13) 72S Randy Schuler
14) 97S James Swan
15) 92M Conrad Morgan
16) 15S Gabe Sommers
17) 4F Luke Fenhaus
Slinger Super Speedway Press Release – Story By Dan Margetta
Photos courtesy of Ron Erstad Jr. and Bob Schneider Jr.
