By: Kevin Ramsell
West Salem, WI – Many eyebrows were raised on Saturday as the ASA Midwest Tour took to the track at the 55th Annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, Wisconsin.
Among those storylines that caught the fans eyes is the performance that current ASA Midwest Tour Rookie of the Year contender and Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist Ty Fredrickson is showing at the 55th annual event. On Thursday, he won the Futures super late model race and on Friday, became the 11th different winner of the Dick Trickle “99” event, winning two of the three segments.
The other story is the championship battle between defending champion Gabe Sommers and Levon Van Der Geest as the two are separated by 16 points coming into this weekend.
In qualifying, two-time Oktoberfest 200 winner Andrew Morrissey started off the day by beating out Fredrickson by 0.019 to win the “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” fast qualifier award.
Morrissey rolled a two to create an 11-car invert for tomorrow’s main event.
Michael Hinde was third with five-time ASAMT champion Ty Majeski qualifying fourth. Defending winner and series champion Gabe Sommers rounded out the top five.
Unofficially, with Sommers qualifying fifth and Levon Van Der Geest qualifying 11th, Sommers gained six points on Van Der Geest. Sommers exited qualifying with a 22-point lead.
The two squared off in the 8-lap odd heat race with Van Der Geest taking the lead from Harley Jankowski with four laps to go, with Sommers following him all the way to the checkered flag. Van Der Geest was able to gain one point point on Sommers.
Sommers will enter’s Sunday’s season finale with a 21-point lead over Van Der Geest.
Former Oktoberfest 200 winner Johnny Sauter won the even heat while Ty Fredrickson sneaked by Dalton Zehr at the line to finish second.
The other race of the night was the qualifier race where Kody King, who finished second in Thursday’s Futures race, won the qualifier race to secure the seventeenth starting position for Sunday.
Bryce Miller finished second with Travis Volm in third. Derek Lemke was fourth and RJ Braun rounding out the top five.
The action will get underway early on Sunday morning with the annual pancake breakfast starting at 7:30am. Pumpkin coloring contest at 9am. On track autograph session at 10:45am and racing underway at noon. The 602 Crates and Vintage cars will be in action and the afternoon will be capped off with the ASAMT Oktoberfest 200 season finale.
For ticket information, please visit midwesttour.racing or Oktoberfestraceweekend.com.
