Kaukauna, WI- Five drivers that have tasted victory on the first Tuesday of August at Wisconsin International Raceway have filed their entries for this Tuesday’s (August 3, 2021) Gandrud Auto Group 250. Casey Johnson, Johnny Sauter, Dennis Prunty, Rich Bickle, Jr and Ty Majeski all have their sights set on keeping any new names out of the record books.
Johnson was a late entry for the 2017 event putting together a late hour deal to race a car he had never turned a lap in. While he crossed the line second, Johnson would soon be holding the $10,000 check as Kyle Busch’s car was too light in post race inspection. Since then, Johnson has been tough to beat at WIR. In addition to his Red, White and Blue State Championship at Kaukauna he recorded back to back Fox River Racing Club Championships in 2018 and 2019. The two time and defending ARCA Midwest Tour Champion cruised to the White race victory earlier this season and has been nearly unstoppable at WIR the past three seasons.
After working diligently to get his car done, Johnny Sauter will be making his first Midwest Tour appearance on Tuesday night in what is one of his favorite events. Sauter was victorious in 2010 and again when the event returned in 2014. A broken A-frame cost him the chance of a third win and an on-track mishap left him chasing down the field at the closing of last year’s 250. His father Jim won the second ever Dixieland Challenge in 1982.
He wasn’t done after winning the Slinger Nationals in 2015, Dennis Prunty continued to collect big checks by winning the Gandrud Auto Group 250 in 2016. He finished fourth in 2017 and again cracked the top ten a year ago in the Tuesday night traditional event at WIR. Luck has not been on the former Slinger Super Speedway Track Champion’s side but he looks to change that on Tuesday. A podium finish was in reach for him in his only other Tour start of the year, at Madison in May, until mechanical gremlins sidelined his efforts.
While he has seen this race slip through his fingers multiple times, Rich Bickle, Jr is in search of his second and final win in the Gandrud 250. He first won this event in 1989, his first ARTGO Challenge Series win. He would go on to finish second twice, once to Steve Holzhausen in 1992 and again to Steve Carlson in 1998. The five-time Snowball Derby winner has played the strategy correctly as of late, only to be thwarted in the closing laps. In his 45th and final season, the former NASCAR standout has won twice at Slinger where he is a four-time Nationals Champion and won May’s Joe Shear Classic at Madison, his first Midwest Tour win.
Ty Majeski, a four-time Midwest Tour Champion comes into Tuesday night looking for a third consecutive Gandrud 250 victory. Butch Miller, Dick Trickle and Steve Carlson have all won in consecutive years, Carlson did it twice. Nobody has put three-in-a-row together however. A win Tuesday would do that for Majeski and would be a fourth consecutive feature win in ARCA Midwest Tour competition. Majeski, the 2020 Snowball Derby Champion has captured the checkered flag at Jefferson, Milwaukee and Wausau so far in 2021, will WIR be next?
