Published: May 5, 2015
Apel bounces back, gets victory at Superspeedway
Bennett makes 181 consecutive start at Slinger
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — Given how strong Dennis Prunty looks in the super
late model division lately, two-time defending track champion Steve Apel knew
he couldn’t get too far behind early on, even if it is two races into the
season.
Apel bounced back from a rough opener with a feature victory
Sunday at Slinger Superspeedway, leading the final eight laps for his 18th
career victory.
Also picking up feature victories were Mike Held (limited
late model), Adam Peschek (area sportsman), Nick Schmidt (Slinger Bees) and Joe
Mueller (Figure 8).
Lowell Bennett, who injured his ankle in the opener,
competed Sunday to extend his points-race streak at Slinger to 181 straight
starts.
In the super late model race, Nick Wagner spun in Turn 4 to
bring out the caution on lap 52, with Prunty out front and Apel in second. When
it came to set the field for the restart, Prunty chose the high line, while
Apel took the inside line.
However, Prunty’s car has been strong on the outside groove
for more than a season and it was no surprise he took the high line.
“I wasn’t too confident; the car was really getting away
from me,” Apel said about how he felt going into what turned into the final
restart of the race. “It was getting really loose. I was just hanging onto it.”
On the restart, the last two drivers to win the track championship at Slinger,
the two were side-by-side going into Turn 1. Off of Turn 2, Prunty had a slight
hiccup as he tried to power the car down the straightaway. That allowed Apel to
shoot down the straightaway and take the lead.
From there, Apel just held on, but it was far more relaxing
knowing Prunty’s car wasn’t back there.
In the season opener April 26, Prunty led all 75 laps en
route to the victory. On Sunday, he worked his way from the eighth starting
spot into the top-five by lap 10.
Prunty took the lead on lap 46 after he appeared to make
slight contact with Apel’s left-rear quarterpanel, which got him loose. Apel
gently applied a retaliation.
However, for the next few circuits, Apel struggled to keep
up with Prunty and it looked like the 2012 track champion was ready to make it
2 for 2.
Then the caution came out.
Coming off Turn 2, Prunty nearly caused a multi-car accident
as he couldn't get up to speed. He said he wasn't sure what the issue was, but
he recovered in time to salvage a third-place finish behind Apel and Conrad
Morgan.
“We just weren't able to get it done today,” Prunty said.
“The car wasn't real good,” Morgan said. “The car was good
for four or five laps and then it'd go bad. I just tried to hold onto second.”
Tim Lampman finished a career-best fourth and Josh Wallace
was fifth.
“The run felt good,” Lampman said. “It felt good to get out
in front.”
For Lampman, it was an impressive day for him as he led his
first career laps in a super late model. It was just his 24th career start in a
super late model, and he started racing it in 2012 after he took about 10 years
off from attending open test sessions in a late model at Lake Geneva Raceway.
He also had the fastest lap of the race.
“I'm very excited; I'm thrilled,” Lampman said. “I can't be
any happier with that, to get a top-five finish.”
As for Apel, in each of his last two championships seasons,
he's used a hot start to set the tone for the season.
In the opener, he had an oil line problem and finished
ninth, two laps down.
“It was definitely huge,” Apel said of getting the victory
after struggling the week before. “We set fast time and finished second in the
heat race, but in the feature we got up to third and maybe only had a
third-place car.
“We did a good job this week checking everything twice to
make sure we had everything covered and it showed.”
In 2013, he won four of the first nine races, and in 2014,
he won four of the first seven races. He's trying to do the same again this
year for a different reason: his wife is expecting their first child on the
second-to-last Sunday of the season.
Apel is trying to win a third straight track championship
and third overall. If successful, he'll beat Robbie Reiser's record as the
youngest to three track championships. Apel is 26. Reiser was 30 when he won
his third title in 1993.
“Definitely going to try to race as much as possible and get
as many wins out of the way as possible in case she goes into labor on a Sunday
night,” Apel said with a smile.
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