by Gregg Paul
DOC 360 Touring Star Nathan Haseleu captured his second consecutive ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings win at Norway Speedway. A fitting triumph not only as it was a race sponsored by DOC 360, but in the way that Haseleu spent two thirds of the race fending off Dalton Zehr for the checkers.
A clean, well fought battle that Haseleu knew he was in the thick of.
“It was a lot of work,” said Haseleu. “He (Zehr) was there and a little bit faster at times then we’d get away a little bit, like a car length or whatever. They kept counting the laps down…20,15,10 and it got to 10 and to 5 and I thought if he doesn’t hit me to move me out of the way I think I can hold him off.”
Before Haseleu had the chance to hold off Zehr, he had to work his way to the front from his ninth starting position.
Dan Lindsley and Tom Gee Jr. led the field to the green flag with Gee Jr. grabbing the early lead. However, just three laps later Gee Jr. would drift high in turn three losing the lead to Lindsley and dropping another spot to third as Team i-Gogs Sunglasses Touring Star Jonathan Eilen made his way past Gee Jr. as well.
The first yellow of the night would fly on lap 5 when Shawn Majkzrak looped his car into the infield coming off turn two. That would bunch up the field for the restart, where the cone made its presence known for the lane choice that would be the one to take the whole race.
Jonathan Eilen took to the outside when the cone appeared and Dalton Zehr and Team i-Gogs Sunglasses Touring Star Jeff Storm followed.
Eilen got the jump on the restart but Lindsley would fight back on the inside for a few laps. Eilen would finally clear Lindsley for the lead on lap 7 and opened the door for Zehr to follow into second. Jeff Storm soon put the pressure on Lindsley for third, but another yellow would slow the cars on lap 9.
Team Vita Ice Touring Star Jeremy Miller brought out the yellow when he spun in turn 3 and several cars piled in trying to avoid. The Weinkauf brothers both got a piece of the accident, along with Team i-Gogs Sunglasses Touring Star Rich Bickle. Team DOC 360 Touring Star Jason Weinkauf and Bickle went through the grass to the outside of turn three with Weinkauf getting a left front flat tire and sparks flying from under his car as he pulled off for repairs. Team Spiked Island Touring Star and VDL Fuels fast qualifier Chris Weinkauf suffered right side body damage on his car, but he was able to pull away and continue. Only Miller was done for the night following the melee.
Zehr jumped to the outside when the cone appeared, and brought Gee Jr., Team i-Gogs Sunglasses Touring Star Dan Fredrickson, and Haseleu along.
After a false attempt at a restart, Zehr got the jump at the second restart and pulled into the lead. Eilen moved into second, but Zehr was already pulling a few car lengths ahead. Gee Jr. got past Lindsley on the outside of turn four opening the door for Haseleu to follow into the fifth spot.
Haseleu was making his move and soon got past Gee Jr. for the third spot on lap 17 as Fredrickson hitched to Haseleu’s bumper to pull into fourth.
Zehr, who has already won at Norway Speedway several times this season, opened up his lead to over five car lengths on Eilen. The defending ARCA Midwest tour champion had his mirrors full of both Haseleu and Fredrickson.
The yellow would come out once again on lap 32 when Tom Lindquist went off the track in turn three in a cloud of dust. The outside walls at Norway Speedway are several feet away from the racing surface, and the ground has very loose dirt mixed in with the grass.
Nathan Haseleu would take advantage of the cone for the next restart, although it would not even last a full lap under green. Coming off of turn four several cars got off the pavement and into the dirt, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Joey Pontbriand could not see where he was going, and drifted off line and into the same dirt. Pontbriand kept drifting off the track and slammed hard into the foam barrier that surrounds the flag stand at Norway Speedway. Pontbriand’s car nearly slid off the embankment from the old horse track to the outside of the paved oval, but he managed to keep the car dangling precariously over the edge. The race would be red flagged so safety personnel could remove Pontbriand’s car from the track.
Haseleu would once again choose the outside, and nearly took the lead at the drop of the green flag. Zehr would fight back as the duo ran door handle to door handle for several laps before Haseleu finally took over the lead on lap 34.
Haseleu then creeped out to a few car lengths advantage over Zehr, but he could not pull very far away from Zehr. As the race neared the halfway point, Haseleu’s lead was at best two car lengths and at worst had Zehr all over his rear bumper.
A yellow for debris on lap 57 bunched up the field again, and it would be Haseleu picking the outside when the cone came out. It proved to be the right move, as Haseleu got another great restart and pulled ahead of Zehr.
The cat and mouse game between Haseleu and Zehr was now on as Haseleu would sneak out a few car lengths before Zehr would reel him back in. When the leaders approached lapped traffic, it appeared that Zehr would have the opportunity to make up lost ground, but Haseleu maneuvered the traffic like the veteran that he is should do.
Zehr proved to be no slouch through the traffic and remained glued to Haseleu’s bumper.
Haseleu seemed to be getting off of turn two much better, but Zehr made up the ground in turns one and three. Haseleu inched ahead, then Zehr would fight back. The duo kept up the same maneuvers for nearly thirty laps.
There were ten laps to go and Haseleu could not shake off Zehr. Haseleu continued to be better off the corners whereas Zehr made up ground entering the corners. With the laps winding down, Zehr knew he had to make a move soon.
Every time Zehr tried to make that move, Haseleu had the perfect counter move. Zehr would dive to the bottom and Haseleu pinched him just enough to hold him back. Finally Zehr just ran out of time as Haseleu made it to the checkers a mere .02 seconds ahead of Zehr when the checkers flew.
Haseleu could have thought that Zehr might make more of a banzai move to make a late race pass, but he was happy that it never got too dirty despite all the dust on the track.
“He drove me real clean,” said Haseleu. “We were able to beat him to the checkers. He might have bumped me a little bit, but not enough to move me completely out of the way. We’ve built a lot of traction into the car the last couple of years to try to get down the straightaways and it seemed to work out pretty good.”
Not only did Haseleu have to hold off Zehr, but he had to navigate through the constant dust storm from the many cars running their wheels off the racing surface.
“I’ve never raced on dirt before but I’m assuming it is something like that,” said Haseleu. “Every year when we come here there’s a lot of people dropping off. There’s a lot of dirt and rocks and everything flying around.”
Dalton Zehr tried everything he could to get around Haseleu, except for merely punting him out of the way.
“I made the wrong choice picking the inside, whenever I lost the lead,” said Zehr. “Normally the inside has a pretty good start here but it seemed like side by side the outside was the place to be. It was impossible to get out there and actually start a pass, so it made for a tough, tough track to get next to a guy.”
Zehr was able to duck inside of Haseleu getting into the corners, but Haseleu could pull Zehr off the corners.
“It seemed like he (Haseleu) was getting good bite off, good drive off, he had a good powerplant there,” said Zehr. “He was definitely getting it hooked up. We were good through the center of the corner. We could come in a half car width below him and fill his mirrors but we just couldn’t get the nose under him completely. We had a few times where we actually got to his door, and we ran a good hard, clean race and he would do what he had to do, pinch my exit off a little bit and he had a good drive off and clear me by the next corner. That’s exactly what short track racing is supposed to be like.”
One can only hope that every short track race can be just like the DOC 360 100 at Norway Speedway turned out to be.
The next event for the ARCAMT is at Marshfield Speedway on Sat., August, 31st. For complete event details log on to arcamidwesttour.com
Be sure to follow the ARCA Midwest Tour on Facebook (midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).
To learn more about the Automobile Racing Club of America Midwest Tour, log on to arcamidwesttour.com. For questions call the ARCA Midwest Tour office at (262) 729-4111 or Tim Olson at (612) 327-5831 or Steve Einhaus (630) 212-6022 at or e-mail Tim Olson at tim@arcamidwesttour.comor Steve Einhaus at steve@arcamidwesttour.com.
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is among the leading auto racing sanctioning bodies in the country. Founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum, the organization administers more than 100 events each year in multiple racing series, including the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, the ARCA/CRA Super Series, the ARCA Truck Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour, plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways.
