Sets Fast Time And Captures The Feature
by Gregg Paul
The beautiful thing about racing is that there are so many times that the fastest car is not the one that ends up winning the race. Whether it is because of a late race restart, mechanical issues, or getting beat by strategy, sometimes having the fastest car isn’t always what will take you to victory lane.
Vita Ice Touring Star Skylar Holzhausen blew that logic away by having the dominant car all day at the Marshfield Motor Speedway and winning the ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings Marshfield 100 on Saturday night. Holzhausen set fast time by being the only car to get into the 17 second bracket and then leading the final 44 laps for the victory.
A victory that was extremely satisfying considering how close he was last year to doing the same thing.
“We really needed it,” said Holzhausen. “This place…the win has been eluding me, so after last year having just dominated this place it’s nice to come back here again and get this win for the whole team and just for the points deal and build on for Milwaukee.”
The race began with defending race winner and ARCA Midwest Tour champion, i-gogs Touring Stars Jonathan Eilen and Dan Fredrickson, on the front row. At the drop of the green flag, it was Fredrickson getting the jump for the early lead. DOC 360 Touring Star Chris Wimmer moved into the third spot, while Skylar Holzhausen quickly moved up from his eighth starting position.
Fredrickson and Eilen battled nose to tail for the early laps and steadily pulled away from Wimmer in third. Spiked Island Touring Star Jacob Goede was holding down the fourth spot while Eugene Gregorich Jr. moved into the fifth spot.
Skylar Holzhausen ducked inside of Gregorich coming off of turn two when Gregorich went wide and into the grass down the backstretch. Gregorich threw up some sparks when his car got back onto the asphalt.
Holzhausen was on a mission to get towards the front, and was taking no prisoners in getting there. Once he got past Gregorich, he moved in on the top three. By lap 15 Fredrickson, Eilen, Wimmer, and Holzhausen were nose to tail and pulling away from the fifth spot.
That fifth spot was being held by Skylar’s father Steve Holzhausen, and the father was closing in on the son.
Skylar would get past Wimmer on lap 29 and moved in on Eilen for the second spot. It would take another three laps before Skylar moved around Eilen and into second.
Once Skylar moved into second, he quickly chased down Fredrickson. Lapped traffic played a big part of that, but Skylar definitely had a fast car. Although the traffic helped Fredrickson grow his lead back to about five car lengths.
By lap 36 Skylar moved back onto Fredrickson’s rear bumper. They soon encountered lapped traffic that was racing side by side ahead of them. Spiked Island Touring Star James Swan, and Jeremy Lepak were racing ahead of the leaders, and Fredrickson used them as a pick to clear past Skylar.
Skylar eventually got around the lapped cars and closed back in on Fredrickson’s rear bumper. Skylar ducked to the inside of Fredrickson but could only pull even. Fredrickson would pull away by a car length, but could never shake Skylar. Just as they lapped the car of rookie points leader Dennis Prunty, the yellow would fly for a spin by i-gogs Touring Star Jeff Storm in turn four.
The cone came out and Fredrickson took to the outside along with Wimmer, Steve Holzhausen, i-gogs Touring Star Andrew Morrissey, and Gregorich.
The first attempt at a restart would be waved off when the field was deemed not to be aligned properly. The second attempt was a bit better, but Skylar had a clear jump as the green flag flew. Fredrickson closed back alongside Skylar as the duo raced side by side for a lap. However, Skylar got a good run coming off of turn two and cleared past for the lead.
Once Skylar moved into the lead he quickly pulled away from Fredrickson and opened up his lead by several car lengths. Lapped traffic also seemed to help Skylar, as the gap increased as he made it through a bit better than Fredrickson did. Skylar’s lead would grow to a half straightaway as he seemingly was on cruise control.
Meanwhile a bit further back in the field, i-gogs Touring Star Rich Bickle was picking off cars left and right. Bickle moved inside and outside. With just 25 laps to go Bickle moved into the top five from his sixteenth starting position. Once he moved into the top five, Bickle set his sights on catching the leaders.
With 19 laps remaining Bickle moved past Steve Holzhausen into the top five. Bickle then moved past both Eilen and Wimmer and into the third spot with 5 laps to go, but by then was too far away to catch the top two.
Free from lapped traffic and pulling away from the competition, Skylar Holzhausen cruised to the checkers for his second career victory in the ARCA Midwest Tour. A win that was much needed for the team and redemption for not getting the win last year.
“I don’t know if I had a car that good as the year before,” said Skylar. “I got close once. But this one has been pretty good to me.”
The restart was critical to the win, but Skylar knew he still had the car to beat.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen there,” said Skylar. “There were a lot of lapped cars getting in between us so I was hoping that it would help out. It did end up helping us out.”
Fredrickson was both ecstatic and disappointed with his second place finish.
“The way we practiced here today and the way we thought it was going to go we were ecstatic with second,” said Fredrickson. “I had a good lead and he (Skylar) was having a hard time getting by us there. It just stinks to lose on a restart.”
For Skylar Holzhausen the victory was his second in the ARCA Midwest tour to go along with his win at Elko two years ago. The fast time he set was his first career pole in the Midwest Tour.
The next event on the schedule is ARCAfest at the Milwaukee Mile on Monday and Tuesday, July 8th and 9th. Log on to www.arcafest.com for all of the event details.
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.
