Published: July 26, 2014
The legacy of Slinger
Young drivers ready for pressure
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — The flames are still burning on top of the torches
being carried by the Slinger Superspeedway legends, Al Schill, Lowell Bennett,
Conrad Morgan, Jerry Eckhardt, etc. Those were the guys that made the racing at
Slinger famous after the track transformed from dirt to asphalt in the 1970s.
However, the flame is starting to flicker.
That’s why May 27 may be the turning point in Slinger
Superspeedway history 10 or more years down the line. That’s the hope, at
least.
On that date, Steve Apel, Austin Luedtke and John DeAngelis
were 1-2-3 in the super late model feature. Each driver is 25 years old or
younger.
Toss in young and up-and-coming drivers like Ryan DeStefano
and Braison Bennett, also in the super late division, and Slinger is seeing a
youth movement ready to take the track into the next 30 years.
The pressure is on.
“We are the future,” DeAngelis said. “Lowell, Conrad, Jerry,
they’ve all been racing for so long; it’s expected for them to be out front. To
be up there with them and not having as many years under our belt was pretty
awesome.
“We’re the future and that’s all there is to it,” he added.
“They’re not going to be here forever.”
Those guys aren’t alone.
Other notable drivers younger than the age of 25 include
Alex Prunty, a two-time track champion (2010 Slinger Bees and 2012 limited late
model), Grant Griesbach and Ricky Heinan, all whom compete in the next tier
division under the super lates at Slinger — limited late model.
“You like to see new people come into this sport,” Lowell
Bennett said. “Otherwise our sport is going to be dead because I’m going to
have to retire unfortunately and you hope to pass on the torch to my son and
the other young guys.”
Going into this season, DeStefano, the defending limited
late model champion, Braison Bennett and DeAngelis were expected to thrill fans
with one of the closest Rookie of the Year battles in at least 10 years in the
super late model division. So far, they haven’t disappointed. DeAngelis is the
top rookie in the points battle, leading DeStefano by four points. Bennett is
15 behind DeStefano.
“We all used to run limited lates together and beat up on
each other,” DeAngelis said. “Now we’re all up in the super lates beating up on
each other trying to win Rookie of the Year. It’s tough racing.”
DeAngelis has showcased his ability plenty of times, winning
the limited late model on Slinger Nationals night in 2011. This year, he was
second fastest in qualifying in the super late model event.
“I was really hoping nobody was going to beat me,” DeAngelis
said. “That would’ve been awesome, especially in my first time in a super late.
It would’ve been the best feeling there ever was. It was awesome to be second
fastest.”
Others like Apel, Luedtke and Braison Bennett have assembled
solid resumes, too.
Apel is the defending super late model track champion and is
the division’s winningest driver since the start of the 2011 season with 14
victories. Luedtke is the 2010 super late model Rookie of the Year, and Bennett
is a sixtime limited late model feature winner at Slinger, which includes a
triumph on Nationals night in 2012. Bennett also has eight Slinger Bees feature
victories to his credit.
“It’s definitely going to take some of these younger guys to
step up to the plate and get better,” Morgan said. “They’re the future of this
place. The me’s (Conrad Morgans) and Lowell Bennetts of this place is getting
near the end of it.”
The aforementioned legends of Slinger are still competitive,
which has given die-hard fans of the track, a blast from the past. This season,
Morgan has won two features and Bennett has won one. Schill, one of the
winningest drivers in track history, certainly since the track transitioned to
asphalt in the mid-1970s, has also visited victory lane. He won two features in
2012.
While it has been great to see the “old guys” still plugging
away and running up front, there will be a time they will have to call it a
career.
They know that.
The young guns know that. Each are aware of their importance
to the race track and its future.
“I really hope a lot of these limited guys start moving up
soon because those guys are going to be gone,” DeAngelis said.
Morgan added, “If you don’t have young guys coming up,
eventually there isn’t going to be any super late model guys racing anymore.
The rest of us are going to pull the pin and go fishing. Somebody’s got to step
up to the plate and take over.”
However, what may be different for these young drivers is
the challenges the sport of auto racing faces.
When Bennett, Schill and Morgan surged into the picture as
young drivers, there was a better certainty racing was going to stick around.
The same can’t be said these days as an unstable economy continues to put dents
into auto racing, specifically at the nation’s short tracks.
“I was a young guy at one point, too,” Lowell Bennett said.
“When I came down here in 1981, the second time I came here I battled with Joe
Laufer and won the feature.
“But that was me back then. It’s a very, very important
thing. We need to have all ages in this. As I stress to everybody is that we’ve
got to keep the fun in our sport. We’ve got to have fun.”
Drivers like Prunty and Braison Bennett have a family name
etched deep into local short-track racing fans’ hearts, which makes it almost a
must for them to keep going.
“I know we’re the next generation,” said Braison Bennett,
who is a third-generation driver. “I’m just doing it for fun; not looking to
make it into NASCAR. I just do it for fun, it’s my hobby, it’s what I love
doing.
“I will be here awhile. I’ll probably be racing until I’m as
old as my dad.
“This track is special to me,” he added. “I’ve been coming
here since I was barely able to walk.”
A turning point in Slinger Superspeedway history happened in
1987. The race included NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Dale Earnhardt,
plus Alan Kulwicki, Mark Martin, Rich Bickle, Tony Strupp and Joe Shear to name
a few. Looking back on it today, it was one of the important moments in
speedway history.
The hope is 10 or 15 years from now, people will look back
at May 27, as the day Slinger moved into the next generation.
“I think what will be cool is they could look at everybody
in that top three ... I think we’ll all have track championships,” Luedtke
said. “Multi-time track championships.”
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