DeAngelis wins 1st career feature

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 19, 2015

DeAngelis wins 1st career feature

Hubertus driver pulls off feat on special night

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

SLINGER — With a straightaway lead, Hubertus’ John DeAngelis Jr. was the last person who wanted to see a caution twice in the last 13 laps of Sunday’s super late model feature at Slinger Superspeedway.

Now the old DeAngelis might’ve panicked. The new DeAngelis was calm. So was his spotter, Kody Hubred, in his ear.

“He said my car was good,” DeAngelis said. “I trusted him. I trusted my crew chief. I trusted my motor builder.

“We kept our cool.”

DeAngelis held off Rob Braun on restarts with 13 and eight laps to go to win his first career super late model feature and he did it in the 22nd annual Alan Kulwicki Memorial. He also did it with Kulwicki’s old number on the car — No. 7. Kulwicki donned the No. 7 on his car when he won the then-NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship in 1992. Kulwicki died five months later in a plane crash.

Was it destiny for DeAngelis to win? Maybe.

“I kept my cool and that’s all it took,” he said.

DeAngelis also celebrated appropriately: doing the Polish victory lap, made famous by Kulwicki.

Braun went on to finish second for the second time in three races this season. Lowell Bennett was third, Rich Loch was fourth and Dale Prunty was fifth.

Steve Apel, who is one of the seven drivers in the national Kulwicki Driver Development Program, rallied for an eighthplace finish after starting 13th on the restart with 13 laps to go. Apel and Dennis Prunty made contact with 13 laps to go while running in the top four.

Prunty finished ninth.

“At the halfway point I thought I had a car that could win the race,” Braun said. “It felt really good. But as the race went on we got tighter, tighter and tighter.”

This kind of thing has happened before for DeAngelis: a feature victory on a special night.

In 2011, DeAngelis won his first career limited late model feature on Slinger Nationals night. When asked if he should get some kind of nickname related to his stepping up in the big moments, he said maybe.

“It is just as cool as when I won my first limited late model feature,” DeAngelis said. “Tonight it’s even more special because it’s Alan Kulwicki Memorial night and I was chosen as a finalist for the Kulwicki DDP program and No. 7 — he was No. 7 — and the Polish victory lap.

“It’s the perfect story.”

What else was perfect was DeAngelis’ car. He said he couldn’t recall having a car as strong as this one Sunday night.

“Without a doubt,” he said. “This car was spot on. I could put it anywhere.”

DeAngelis started racing late models in 2010 at Slinger. He won three career features in a limited late model.

Last season was DeAngelis’ first in a super late model. He went on to win the track’s Rookie of the Year award in the division after finishing seventh in the points standings. He began to build up some momentum toward the end of last season, picking up three top-five finishes in the final six races.

DeAngelis was also the second-fastest qualifier at Slinger Nationals.

In the season finale, a part failure forced De-Angelis to finish 16th. However, it was the best car he’d ever had at Slinger.

This season, he finished eighth in the opener and didn’t start in the May 3 feature as he was at Madison International Speedway with the ARCA Midwest Tour.

Before Sunday, De-Angelis hadn’t given much thought about chasing a championship, which was one reason why he missed the May 3 event at Slinger. That’s not the case anymore.

“I think this puts us back in the points chase,” DeAngelis said. “It’s built all of our confidence.

“These guys work their tails off. It’s nice to do something so rewarding for them.”

Chris Blawat led the first 12 laps of the race after starting on the outside of the front row. DeAngelis started the feature third and moved into the lead on lap 13.

Once there, he pulled away from the pack with each lap. But at the quarter- mark of the race, three of the top-four drivers hadn’t won a super late model feature (DeAngelis, Tim Lampman and Ryan DeStefano).

On a restart with 13 laps to go, DeAngelis got the jump on Braun. It happened again on a restart with eight laps to go. Braun, who didn’t win a feature last season, said he wasn’t bothered by DeAngelis being ahead of him when they crossed the line on either restart.

“I just couldn’t get going on those restarts because I was so tight,” Braun said.

When he came off of turn four, DeAngelis’ arm could be seen waving out the window as he took the checkered flag.

With the victory, DeAngelis’ name goes into the record book alongside some of the greatest shorttrack racers in history to win at Slinger.

“I’m still shaking; it’s just so surreal,” he said. “I wouldn’t think in my second year in a super late model that I’d be winning a feature, but it happened.”

The other feature winners Sunday were Alex Prunty (limited late model), Andy Welter (area sportsman), Heather Stark (Slinger Bees) and Scott Goetzke.