By: Kevin Ramsell
Kaukauna, WI – One of the more memorable Gandrud Auto Group 250’s was contested on Tuesday night at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, WI where the final decision came in post-race tech than at the finish line.
On the track, defending ASA Midwest Tour champion Gabe Sommers held off five-time Tour champion and four-time defending winner of this event, Ty Majeski for the win.
After the race, it was discovered that Sommers had an unapproved tire which came with a one lap penalty. After the penalty was given, he was credited with finishing ninth in the official standings.
Majeski did pass tech and gain his official fifth win in the historical Midwest short track event.
“This one is not as quite as special as the other ones, as I don’t like winning this way, but I have lost them this way as well,” Majeski said after learning he was the official winner. “You just got to put yourself in position and you never know what will happen. We got in that run in with the four (Luke Fenhaus) and got pretty wounded from that with our tow knocked out a little bit. It was not enough to compete at the end. It was really frustrating to have a chance to win the race on a late race restart and not have too much to race with, so that was frustrating at the time. But we never gave up.”
The event saw several lead changes along with several cautions throughout the 250 laps.
Andy Monday had the worse accident of the night on lap 147 when he was involved in a three car incident with Joe Valento and Lowell Bennett. The incident sent Monday hard into the foam barrier on the backstretch wall destroying his car. He was able to walk away.
With 28 laps to go, Fenhaus and Majeski were battling for the lead on a restart when the two got together in turns one and two. Sommers went low to make it three wide causing a little scramble where Fenhaus made contact with Brent Edmunds sending Edmunds into the foam barriers on the backstretch. Fenhaus came into the pits for repairs, handing the lead to Majeski.
On the restart with 21 laps to go, Derek Kraus got by Majeski for the lead. Behind him, Levon Van Der Geest was making a strong charge to the front passing Majeski for second with 13 laps to go.
Van Der Geest was challenging Kraus for the lead when the caution flew with nine laps to go when Joe Valento spun in turn three.
Van Der Geest continued to battle with Kraus for the top spot until five laps to go when it appeared that Van Der Geest hit a bump going into turn one causing his rear tires to jump up and hit Kraus while they were in a side-by-side battle for the lead. This caused Kraus to spin and bring out a caution. Both drivers were sent to the rear for the involvement in the caution.
This handed over the lead to Sommers, who held off Majeski for the unofficial win.
After tech was cleared with Majeski as the winner, Andrew Morrissey finished second with Paul Shafer finishing third. Fenhaus was fourth and Van Der Geest rebounded to a fifth place finish.
Majeski also had the fast qualifier award for the event.
The ASA Midwest Tour will be heading to Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, August 17th. More information can be found at Midwesttour.racing.
A replay of tonight’s event can be found at tracktv.com.
