ARCA Midwest Tour Takes a Break Before Elko Speedway on September 20th
by Jana Wimmer
Aug 15, 2014 – Nathan Haseleu completed the Norway Speedway hat trick Friday night. He picked up his third straight win at the ¼ mile track in the ARCA Midwest Tour presented by Scag Power Equipment Norway 100. The win also allowed Haseleu to regain the series point lead. “We just found something with the car that works really good here,” said Nathan Haseleu, “We’d been here quite a few times and we struggled and then we found something that works good. I really wish I could apply it at some other tracks and run this good.”
Kris Kelly grabbed the early lead in the 100-lap feature event, but Haseleu wasted no time getting to the front from his fourth starting spot. On lap two he was up to second and on lap four he took the lead from Kelly.
As Haseleu paced the field up front other Touring Stars were working their way to the front. Ty Majeski and Chris Weinkauf worked their way into third and four respectively. On lap 50 Majeski caught Kelly for the second spot. The two raced side by side for one lap, before Majeski cleared for the position. Weinkauf was right there in fourth and went to work on Kelly for the third spot. The two made contact, sending Kelly around, bringing out the caution and sending both cars to the rear of the field.
The restart wiped out Haseleu’s ten car-length lead. He choose the outside on the restart, putting Majeski on the inside. Both drivers got a good start and they raced side by side for the lead. Haseleu had a nose over Majeski, but Majeski fought back on the inside. Haseleu and Majeski battled for seven laps, when Haseleu was able to clear the 91 machine and hang on to the lead.
“Before the caution came out I was taking it pretty easy,” said Haseleu, “So I thought I would be able to hold him off. I started on the outside and he got into me a little bit and then I was able to hold him down, once I got clear I felt pretty confident because the car had been good all day.”
“I got to the inside of him on that restart, he was racing me really hard and I figured I would just let him go and I thought maybe he would wear his stuff out and I was trying to save, but I didn’t have enough left at the end,” said Majeski.
Haseleu began to check out on the field, lengthening his lead to over fifteen car lengths and hanging on to win his third straight at Norway Speedway.
Local Norway driver Dan Lindsley made a charge to the front in the final 50 laps as did Touring Star Jonathan EIlen. Eilen was up to third, but Lindsley was able to pass Eilen with just a few laps remaining. Lindsley finished third, Eilen fourth and Cardell Potter fifth.
With the win, Haseleu reclaims the ARCA Midwest Tour point lead with two races remaining on the 2014 schedule. “I don’t expect them to go away,” said Haseleu of Majeski. “They’re a good team and he’s a good driver, so it’s going to come down to it and we are gonna have to run like this if we want to win it.”
“We just need to race our race and not worry about him,” said Majeski, “If you get caught up worrying about the competitor you forget about making your car the best it can be, so we just need to focus on our stuff. We’ve had really good race cars all year, we just missed it a little tonight and we hope to go into Elko and La Crosse with a little better car.”
The Midwest Tour takes almost a month break before heading to Elko Speedway in Elko, MN on Saturday, September 20th.
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 Tim Olson at (612) 327-5831 or e-mail tim@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.
