Nottestad wins race and track title

Jacob Nottestad and Ryan Gutknecht entered the final weekly racing program at the Slinger Super Speedway Sunday afternoon separated by just eight points in the battle for the late-model track championship.

Nottestad emerged victorious in the 50-lap feature to secure the title.

Gutknecht tangled with a car and got a flat tire, but still had a chance to catch Nottestad as the caution flag waved with four laps to go.

Nottestad, however, prevailed. Gutknecht ended up fifth. Tom Berens was second, Cole Thomas was third and Zach Prunty was fourth.

“Man, this is awesome to be back-to-back champion. I didn’t think we could do it,” Nottestad said from victory lane, “A few weeks ago, we were down a lot of points and we rattled off two feature wins. We were in contention and we knew what we had to do.”

Gutknecht was just happy his car made it.

“To be honest with you, I’m just glad to bring the car home in one piece after that race,” he said. “We weren’t even sure we were going to race this year, so to finish second in points is still pretty good.”

In other races:
•  Joe Shelby and Prunty were the winners of the late model heat races. Nick Egan was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 12.092 seconds.

•  Ricky Gebhard won the 25-lap Slinger Bee feature after run-away leader Billy Braun broke out under the allotted 15.2 second lap time on the final lap resulting in a disqualification just feet from his first victory. Brady Held finished second and secured the track championship.

Slinger Bee heat races were won by Tom Elsinger Jr. and Benn. Brandon Mennicke was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 15.235 seconds.

•  James Lynch won the 25-lap Legends feature over Aaron Moyer and Gary LaMonte.

•  Robby Morrison won the first Legends heat race, and James Lynch took top honors in the second Legends heat race. Aaron Moyer was the fastest in qualifying with a lap of 13.421 seconds.

•  Del Schuler joined his father Randy as a feature winner at the Slinger Speedway as he won the 25-lap Super Cup main event for his first career victory.

Brandon Vines and Landon Hocking were the winners of the Super Cup heat races. Rob Baaske set the fast time for the division with a lap of 15.073 seconds.

•  Carter Nilson won the Bandolero 25-lap feature over Alex Hartwig and Anna Price.

 Keagen Benz won the first Bandolero heat race and Carter Nilson won the second heat race. Alex Hartwig was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 14.498 seconds.

•  Ryan Lovald won the Figure 8 main event while Rick Bruskiewicz secured his first career track championship in 14 years of competing in the division.

•  Jerry Held won the Bar Car race driving the Finish Line entry.

Slinger Super Speedway has one session left this season, the inaugural Wisconsin Invitational bracket-style racing event on Sunday, Sept. 27. Gates open at noon. Racing is at 2 p.m.