Fenhaus bolts into points lead in Slinger

Luke Fenhaus swung around a bullish Dennis Prunty with five laps to go in the 75-lap Carl Wegner Memorial Sunday night at the Slinger Speedway to capture his first weekly super late model feature win of the season and take over the championship points lead.

“I was worried at halfway that I couldn’t get to the first-place car,” Fenhaus told the crowd from victory lane. “But (Crew Chief) Tom (Ress) made a good call at the end and just freed it up a little bit more and was able to turn enough to keep it on the outside of Dennis (Prunty).”

He liked that Prunty was a good sport.

“He ran me really clean so I appreciate him running me clean. He’s a really good race car driver, and I really appreciate that,” Fenhaus, who leads in the championship by 25 points over Rich Bickle, said. “We’re not going to worry about points, and we are just going to try to win the last few races. That’s the goal for the rest of the season, to set fast times and win races.”

Prunty finished second and didn’t participate in post-race interviews after spending a majority of the laps wrapped up in a tense battle with Steve Apel for the top spot before Fenhaus was able to pass both of them.

The Prunty-Apel rivalry runs deep at Slinger, and Sunday night was yet another chapter in the saga. Their battle featured plenty of wheel scuffs and door rubs as Apel tried to work the high side while Prunty left minimal real estate. In the end, Apel was forced to settle for third, and while it appeared he had a much different opinion of Prunty’s racing etiquette than Fenaus, he took the high road during his post-race interview.

“We’ll have to just watch the video but I know what I seen and what everybody else seen,” Apel told the crowd. “But this race is all about Carl Wegner and we wanted to win this one really bad. Carl helped me out a bunch in 2015 when I was out of a ride and on my own. He gave me a motor to use for the year with no strings attached. We went on to win eight races that year. We won the Red White and Blue Championship at Kaukauna and the Slinger championship here so I hope he would be proud tonight.”

Brad Keith had a strong run late and finished fourth while relative newcomer to the Slinger super late model ranks Jacob Nottestad rounded out the top five. Ryan DeStefano was sixth, Lowell Bennett wrapped up his first Slinger appearance of the season in seventh and Rich Loch was eighth. R.J. Braun was ninth and Rich Bickle was 10th.

Bickle raced in the top five for most of the event until he tangled with Alex Prunty on lap 52 while racing for fourth. The incident eliminated Prunty from the race with a twelfth-place finish while Bickle was able to complete some laps late in the race to finish tenth. Bickle’s misfortunes, coupled with the victory by Fenhaus, allowed Fenhaus to take the championship points standings lead with two point nights remaining for the super late models.

In other races:
• Ryan DeStefano won the super late model fast dash. Fenhaus was the fastest qualifier after turning in a lap in 11.148 seconds.
• Jeff Holtz took the lead on lap 28 of the 40-lap late model feature and drove to victory over Ryan Gutknecht. Braison Bennett used a late charge to finish in third position followed by Jack Stern and early leader Scott Shambeau in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Jerry Eckhardt and Tyler Schley were the winners of the late model heat races. Jack Stern set fast time with a lap of 12.174 seconds.
• Andrew Meyerhofer won the 35-lap sportsman feature in a photo-finish over Brian Holtz, who made a final corner charge coming to the checkered flag but ended up a half car length short.

Dan Calhoun finished third and Rick Redig-Tackman was fourth. Ryan Sielaff finished fifth.

The sportsman heat races were won by Rick Redig-Tackman and Holtz. Paul Wagner debuted a new car and won a fast qualifier award with a lap of 12.774 seconds.
• Evan Hassler drove to an emotional win in the 25-lap Slinger bees feature. A few weeks ago, Hassler’s grandfather suffered a medical emergency at the speedway and spent time in a hospital before returning to the speedway Sunday night to witness the victory.

Brandon Mennicke finished second followed by Misty Benn, Billy Braun and Marty Tackes.

Brian Stanczyk was back behind the wheel after some time off and won a Slinger bee heat race while Brady Held won the other heat race. Billy Braun was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 15.201 seconds.
• Matthew Moore passed Mark Fogel Jr. late in the race to capture the victory in the 12-lap Slinger sixers feature event. Fogel finished second and Brandon Tackes was third. Steven Mueller and Joshua Zacharias finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Fogel and Pat Kolehouse were the winners of the Slinger sixers heat races. Matthew Moore set fast time for the division.
• Nick Ostberg drove to the win in the Figure 8 race over Bill Shavlik and Scott Goeske. Rick Bruskiewicz was fourth and Chris Neumann finished fifth.

On Saturday, Aug. 21, Slam Fest will be held, featuring the Little Switzerland Ski Race, the Back-Up Race, a rollover contest, Whoop-Dee-Do, a push car race, team cruisers, the Gauntlet, B-track barrel race, school bus, trailer/float, and regular figure eights and a burn-out contest.

Only reserved seats will be sold. For tickets, visit slingersuperspeedway.com or the track office. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with racing at 6:30 p.m.

On Sunday, Aug. 22, the 14th annual Racing to Remember Memorial tribute event will feature a balloons to heaven event at 6 p.m. for families who have lost a child. Gates open at 4:45 p.m. Racing is at 6:30 p.m.