Holds Off Car Owner To Take Checkers

Written By: Gregg Paul

A week ago, James Swan failed to even make the field in his ARCA Midwest Tour debut at the Toledo Speedway. A reality check, perhaps, for someone who has been used to succeeding and winning often over the past few seasons. Yet the old adage goes that there is nothing like some good old fashioned home cooking.

Swan returned “home” to the Slinger Super Speedway for the Miller Lite Spring Opener 75, and found himself in Victory Lane after the twin checkered flags flew. Swan took the lead from teammate Dave Feiler after a restart, then held off his car owner Rob Braun over the last few laps to secure the win.

Swan’s mastery at Slinger in recent years apparently had no affect on the race at hand.

“It’s not easy at all,” laughed Swan. “We changed a bunch of stuff today. Adam and I went through a bunch of things. I didn’t do anything to this car suspension-wise from last year since we focused on the Midwest Tour car. I was laying in bed last night thinking, ‘Oh no! I didn’t even set the tow in that car. So when we got her we set the tow, made a couple of adjustments and picked up half a tenth here, half a tenth there.”

Those half tenths were certainly paying dividends as it helped Swan find his way back to Victory Lane.

Swan would start the feature on the pole with teammate Dave Feiler on the outside. Feiler would get the jump at the drop of the green flag and quickly clear Swan for the lead. Lowell Bennett followed Feiler past Swan as the outside line seemed to move quicker than the inside.

The season’s first yellow would fly on lap 3 when the cars of Travis Dassow and Mike Egan made contact in turn three. Egan would spin in the middle of the track as others checked up behind him. Tommy Hromadka suffered some front end damage when he tried to stop to avoid the cars blocking the track.

This yellow was also the first opportunity for the drivers to utilize the new cone rule at the Slinger Super Speedway. Lowell Bennett and Rich Bickle were the first two to go to the outside and pick up a few spots. Fast Qualifier Rob Braun also took advantage of gaining a few spots after starting deeper in the field after the invert.

Feiler would clear Bennett after a few side by side laps after racing resumed. Swan would get around Bickle for the third spot. Michael Bilderback would also get around Bickle and climb into the fourth spot.

Bennett would stick to Feiler’s rear bumper as the pair began to put some distance between themselves and Swan. The field raced single file all around the track as the leaders began to click off laps. Feiler would finally catch lapped traffic on lap 25, and that narrowed the gaps just a bit.

The lapped traffic allowed Swan to catch Bennett and by lap 30 Swan would duck inside Bennett for the second spot. Once Feiler cleared the lapped traffic, he began to stretch his lead back out again as the rest of the leaders struggled with getting around the lapped cars.

The field would be slowed by another yellow on lap 45 when Conrad Morgan backed his car into harm’s way coming off of turn four. Two laps earlier, Morgan, who was recently elected to the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Racing Hall of Fame, spun off of turn four and into the infield. When the yellow didn’t come out, Morgan backed his car off of the grass and the yellow then did come out to slow the field.

This time it would be Swan taking the outside when the cone appeared, with Bennett, Bickle, and Randy Schuler joining him. When the green flag came out, Feiler would once again get a great jump, but Swan would fight back on the outside. A bit further back, Rob Braun would get underneath Bennett to climb into fourth.

Swan would put the pressure on Feiler on the high side and actually get around him for the lead on lap 47. Feiler would lose a few more positions as Bilderback, Braun, and Bennett would get by as well.

Meanwhile up front, Swan started to put some distance between himself and Bilderback. Braun was reeling in Bilderback and actually used the chrome horn on him once in turn three, but backed off to look for another chance to pass later on.

Brad Mueller climbed into the top five on lap 58, getting around Bennett, while a little further up Braun would get by Bilderback on the high side to take over second place. Swan was seemingly on cruise control as his lead grew to half a straightaway.

However, there are times when no lead is safe at Slinger, as lapped traffic began to become a factor. When Swan caught the traffic, Braun continued to get closer and closer to Swan. As the laps were winding down, Braun got within a carlength of Swan but could never seem to pull alongside. Mueller would get around Feiler to move into fourth, but all eyes were on the two leaders up front.

Just three laps from the finish, Swan had to bypass the traffic on the high side in turn one, and that seemed to kill any momentum that Braun had. From there Swan was able to hold off his car owner and claim the victory in the season opener.

“I was surprised at how good the car was on the outside,” said Swan. “It was really good on the outside, and I learned some things in practice and Katie’s (Swan’s fiancée, crew chief, and spotter) been getting better on the radio giving me lap times and I picked up a tenth of a second.

I never would have guessed it would work and it did. We were lapping cars on the outside and when I went out there I said ‘Holy cow is this thing good out here’. I did not realize how good it was going to be out there. It was good out there last year on the outside but right before the feature we made all the changes that we could think of that we know worked or should work, so let’s try something else. So we started checking trailing arm angles and thought oh boy here’s a problem. We started adjusting the angles and the tire pressures were probably a little too low and we forgot to put nitrogen in them so I figured I’d hold onto it as long as I could and would probably finish third. Lowell finally got ahead of me and Bilderback was all over my butt and I thought I would try to get away from Bilderback and got back up to Lowell and said I guess we’re better than I thought. Once the tire pressures came up the car came around.”

Rob Braun would wind up on Swan’s bumper and finish in second, but probably wished he had a few more laps to work on getting around Swan.

“Absolutely,” exclaimed Braun. “I was looking at those lapped cars and I was like I am catching him and thinking I got two quick cars up there and I don’t think I’m going to get by him. He waited for the right time and then I moved up nice to him towards the end so I really didn’t have too much to do. I actually let off a bit that last lap since I knew I wouldn’t do anything with him.”

Still Braun seemed to do a lot on Sunday after setting fast time and making his way to the front from the back of the invert.

“The car was really good and went through traffic good,” said Braun. “Just had to stay patient and stay out of the wrecks and we were able to get up to the front. I knew with about 40 laps to go that we had a really good car and it was working really well. It was just a matter of hitting our marks and moving on up through the traffic.”

Having a good car has apparently become the norm for Braun. Since last season Braun has become much more consistent as well as a constant threat. Something that Braun has but one simple explanation for.

“The Jerry Gunderman auction has been my turnaround,” said Braun. “When I bought those two cars that really turned our racing program around. Plus the relationship I have been able to build with Mark Feiler has also been a big reason for we’re running as good as we are.”

Braun may have bought two cars from Jerry Gunderman, but now he has three cars running up front at Slinger. All three of his cars scored top five finishes, and that is something that as an owner Braun has little time to think about.

“I think about it a little bit when I am on the track, but for the most part I race those guys as much as anybody else,” said Braun. “I feel like maybe I can lean on them a little bit more because they are my cars. I got into Dave (Feiler) a little bit coming off of turn two and saw him

get crossed up pretty good, so I was thinking ‘Whoa, that’s a pretty expensive push out of the way’. For the most part I just race guys as hard as I can race them and I expect them to race me as hard as they can race me and there’s no favoritism one way or another.”

1 97 James Swan

2 98 Robert Braun

3 2 Michael Bilderback

4 89 Brad Mueller

5 93 Dave Feiler

6 2 Lowell Bennett

7 72 Randy Schuler

8 35 Travis Dassow

9 38 Jeff Holtz

10 89 Mike Egan

11 714 Al Schill

12 75 Fred Winn

13 38 Nick Wagner

14 61 Jerry Eckhardt

15 92 Conrad Morgan

16 45 Rich Bickle

17 87 Jamie Wallace

18 55 Rich Loch

19 45 Brad Dahmer

20 3 Tommy Hromadka

Prunty Takes Terrible Car 3-Wide To Victory Lane At Slinger

Written By: Gregg Paul

The 2012 season for Alex Prunty was a relative easy one in his mind. Prunty scored four wins and eleven fast times en route to capturing the season championship in the Late Model Division at the Slinger Super Speedway. He only had one finish outside of the top five all season long.

Fast forward to 2013 and the season opener, and for most of the day it looked like Prunty would be as far removed from Victory Lane as you can imagine. Yet when the checkered flag fell it would be Prunty once again in the spotlight, especially after a daring three wide pass for the lead just a few laps from the finish.

“It was by far the hardest race I had to work for to get this one,” said Prunty. “All last year the car was great. I could do whatever I wanted with the car. The Goodyear tires were so awesome to run on because they never changed. With this tire (Hoosier) we’ve been working on this car left and right and taking huge swings with it. We qualified 7th and that was all I had. The car was terrible.”

Prunty’s car may have been terrible at the start, but one lap into the race he would take advantage of the cone rule at Slinger and pick up several spots

The cone would come out thanks to a first lap crash in turn three. Justin Poenitsch slammed into the turn three wall and the field would accordion behind him. Several other cars checked up and spun in the melee and suffered what appeared to be only minor damage. Poenitsch was done for the day however.

Mike Lichtfeld, Dan Jung, and Alex Prunty took the outside lane at the cone and moved into the top five. Lichtfeld would get the jump as the green flag flew and Jung would follow close on the rear bumper. Ryan Farrell would slip back to third, while Alex Prunty battle Pat McIntee for fourth.

Lichtfeld and Jung began to pull away from Farrell, while Ryan DeStefano started a side by side battle with Prunty that saw the duo rubbing through the corners.

The yellow would come out again on lap 16 when Brittiny Helmers spun coming off of turn two. No damage done, and she would be able to continue.

Jung and Prunty once again took to the outside when the cone appeared, and were joined by John DeAngelis, Brad Dahmer, and Jesse Bernhagen. Lichtfeld would take off when the green came out, but the field would be slowed a lap later.

Ryan Farrell brought out the yellow with a flat right front tire that bottled up the field behind him.

This time it would be Jung, DeStefano, Danny Church, and Bernhagen that took to the outside with the cone, although Lichtfeld would get out to the lead once again. Initially he couldn’t shake Jung off his rear bumper, but ever so slowly he began to stretch out his lead. That lead would become 3-5 car lengths before disaster was almost imminent.

There is an adage in racing that a car tends to run its best and fastest right before it blows up. Perhaps that was true for Mike Lichtfeld as suddenly on lap 29 his car showed the tell tale signs of dropping a cylinder. Yet that didn’t seem to deter Lichtfeld, as he continued to somehow stay in front for several laps.

Dan Jung smelled the blood in the water as he moved in closer to Lichtfeld. On lap 33 Jung would get under Lichtfeld for the lead and bring Prunty along into second. However, Lichtfeld would not let one ailing cylinder stop him from racing hard. The trio continued to battle for the lead as the laps wound down.

With Jung on the high side and Lichtfeld in the middle, Prunty made a bold move to the deep inside coming off of turn four going three wide and grabbed the lead. Prunty would clear Jung a lap later and narrowly held on for the win. Lichtfeld and his sick motor managed to squeak past Jung at the line to finish second. Danny Church and Ryan DeStefano rounded out the top five.

Prunty was incredulous that he managed to get the win, and didn’t even realize he had to go three wide to do it.

“To be honest with you I don’t much remember it,” said Prunty. “I remember seeing Lichtfeld slide up the track and I shot the gap. I didn’t know even know that I was three wide Dad told me ‘Three wide” coming in the corner. I didn’t know Jung made the move to the outside, so I had no idea. It was just another pass for me, but it ended up working out in the end. All of a sudden we came out of four and I’m clear and move up the track and all of a sudden Dan Jung is there. How did he get there? It was a crazy battle until the end.”

It was a crazy battle indeed, but for Mike Lichtfeld it was more of a story about the one that got away. Especially since he had won two of his three previous races at Slinger.

“It’s a little bittersweet feeling,” said Lichtfeld. “We kind of had a car that was out front and checked out by a couple of car lengths and had a good race with Dan Jung. Then with about 7-8 to go it just went down a cylinder and from there I was just kind of along for the ride and holding on to what we could get. It’s fortunate that we came back for a second place finish, but it could’ve been a lot worse. We could’ve been real blown up and a fifteenth place finish so second ain’t that bad.”

Two wins and two seconds in four races definitely has Lichtfeld excited for this season.

“I’m anxious, I’m really anxious,” said Lichtfeld. “I love this place. I like what Todd (Thelen) and Rodney (Erickson) are doing with it. They’re two owners who are anxious about racing and

that’s just motivation for the drivers to get out here and support these guys that are anxious for the racing and looking to treat the drivers fairly.”

Results of the Late Model 40

1. 11 Alex Prunty

2. 44 Mike Lichtfeld

3. 68 Dan Jung

4. 9C Danny Church

5. 0 Ryan DeStefano

6. 39 Tim Sargent

7. 35 Pat McIntee

8. 49 Jerry Mueller

9. 66 Al Stippich

10. 13 Brittiny Helmers

11. 89 Ryan Farrell

12. 28 Jesse Bernhagen

13. 7 John DeAngelis

14. 45 Brad Dahmer

15. 9B Braison Bennett

16. 87 Justin Poenitsch

17. 46 Ryan Miles

18. 66 Adam Peschek