By: Kevin Ramsell
Kaukauna, WI – Tuesday’s ASA Midwest Tour’s Gandrud Auto Group 250 at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin is in the history books. The traditional first Tuesday of August event going back to 1981, continues as one of the marquee Midwest short track events.
Ty Majeski’s fifth victory surpassed Dick Trickle with the second most wins in the event formally known as the Dixieland 250. He is only two victories behind Steve Carlson’s seven victories.
It was also the 38th victory for the five-time ASA Midwest Tour champion, following up his first win of the year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Indiana.
Fenhaus Happy To Be Back Up Front
Luke Fenhaus finished fourth, but made a strong showing as he led late in the 250-lap event, even having a three second lead with 30 laps to go, until a decision on a restart changed his result.
“For sure, we had them covered with 30 to go. And I was confident that nobody was gonna catch us,” Fenhaus recalled. “Then the yellow flew and I was gonna take the top because I still felt like we could’ve beat him (Majeski) fair and square on the top. But the team and I went back forth on the radio during the yellow and ended up choosing the bottom obviously and was just not the way we should’ve went. But we win as a team and we lose as the team. At the end of the day it’s on me and I know better than to put myself in those spots.”
“Really good race car, was glad we had a good car, feels good to be back running up front,” Fenhaus said. “Had a horrible restart, wrong lane choice, caught myself in a bad spot by the start finish line with the Ty a car length ahead of me. Then drove over my head, I took full accountability with what happened, and I know better than to make those mistakes again. But thankful we had a fast race car and could run up front again and hopefully we can carry this momentum going forward.”
Van Der Geest Clarifies Late Race Incident
Levon Van Der Geest, by far, had the fastest car in the final 20 laps of the race. The Kulwicki Development Driver finalist passed Majeski for second with 13 laps to go and had a great battle with Derek Kraus for the lead.
The two young guns were racing side-by-side keeping the fans on the edge of their seats with five laps to go, when from an in-car camera behind the pair, it appeared that Van Der Geest hit a bump causing his rear tires to lift and his car bumped into Kraus causing Kraus to spin, bring out a caution. Both were sent to the rear for the incident.
Van Der Geest clarified that what happened was that his right rear tire hit the back of Kraus’s left rear tire and jumped it, giving the impression that he hit a bump.
“Yeah, all I want to say is I believe neither me or Kraus did anything wrong at the end of the race. I ran my line and he did his job of pinching me down in the battle for a huge race like that,” Van Der Geest clarified. “I didn’t hit a bump like the article said, I ran the same like I ran every other lap. Me and Kraus weren’t banging doors. We just were racing close and we ended up jumping tires. It’s tough seeing everything you’ve ever wanted staring at you one lap and then the next having it all ripped away. We’ll rebound. We had the car to beat.”
Sommers Shares His Side
Defending ASA Midwest Tour Champion Gabe Sommers crossed the finish line first on Tuesday night, but was penalized in post race for having an unapproved tire on his car. In the event, teams were only allowed to use six tires, four to start and two extra. Any extra tires to be used would come with a one lap penalty. This was discovered after the race.
“It was a miscommunication on a tire,” Sommers confirmed. “They never docked us a lap when we went back out with the emergency spare. The plan was never to run back to the front, my car was wrecked. The front suspension was drug off from the flat tire. We didn’t have all the same parts but we put on what we could find. We were just gonna ride around and salvage the best finish we could. As we took the green after the restart, the car was a rocket and thought we really had something. We worked really hard the whole race and it just sucks what happened, but that’s in the past now and we are looking forward to Iowa next week.”
The changes they made surprised Sommers when he went back out.
“The damage made us have to change suspension parts and the parts we put on were not the same as what was originally on there and it was two times better then the car was before we blew the tire.”
Foam Blocks Did It’s Job
There were two incidents on two Tuesday where the foam blocks got tested on the backstretch.
The first test came on lap 147 when Andy Monday had a hard hit after sailing into the inside barriers after he and Joe Valento made contact trying to avoid the slow car of Riley Stenjem. Suffice to say, Monday’s car was destroyed, but was able to walk away.
The next day Monday posted on Facebook that they were assessing the damage and what direction they will go into the rest of the season. They also wanted to thank everyone who reached out offering full race cars, parts, cash and support. His interview can be found on the Midwest Tour Facebook page.
Brent Edmunds also found himself in the same foam barriers with 28 laps to go after contact with Fenhaus. His damage wasn’t as severe as Monday’s but was done for the night.
“I’m good. Car is a little damaged but I’ll get it back together,” Edmunds confirmed after competing in his first Gandrud Auto Group 250, a bucket race event for him. “Yeah it was a struggle all day but made a lot of progress throughout the race. Had a chance at a top 5 by the end so I’d say it was going very well.”
Shafer Surprised with a Podium Finish
2021 Gandrud Auto Group 250 winner Paul Shafer Jr. admitted his day was up and down, but was pleased with his third place finish in the 2024 event.
“We were all a little surprised, but definitely glad that it turned out that way,” Shafer said with his typical smile. “Car and driver struggled most of the day, but we made some positive changes before the feature. In the race, I think we were pretty good, just struggled with a little bit of race craft things from a lack of seat time this year, but by the end of the race we wound up up front.”
The ASA Midwest Tour heads to Hawkeye Downs Speedway on Saturday, August 17th. More information can be found at midwesttour.racing.
A replay of the Gandrud Auto Group 250 can be found at tracktv.com.