Published: Sept. 13, 2016
Lingford doesn’t let this one slip away at Slinger
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
SLINGER — Eric Lingford didn’t think about the disappointment every
day. However, he thought about it enough to where it bothered him.
“We weren’t going to let this one get away,” Lingford said.
He didn’t.
Lingford finished fourth in Sunday’s midwest sportsman feature and
won the division’s track championship, his first title in his third full
season of racing.
“It sounds awesome,” Lingford said of his new title.
Ryan Gutknecht won the feature, followed by Brian Holtz, last season’s
champion, Lingford and Landry Potter to round out the top five.
Lingford went into the final race leading Gutknecht, the 2014 track champion, by 62 points. After qualifying, it was 61 points.
To win the championship, Lingford needed to start the feature, which
he did. At that point, the goal was to make sure the car finished in one
piece for the champions picture after the afternoon races.
In 2010, Lingford fell 15 points short of Al Stippich in the
thunderstock division title chase. He lost the championship in the last
race of the season; he held an eight-point edge on Stippich heading
into the finale.
Stippich finished third that day in the feature and Lingford was fifth, losing the title.
“That was burning in the head,” Lingford said. “Around the shop, we always talk about it.”
He was also second in the 2009
thunderstock title chase, losing to Aaron Cain by 173 points, in his
first full season of racing.
“It was a big learning curve for us that year,” Lingford said of the
2010 season. “I wasn’t going to let this one slip away like that one.”
The lesson he learned was consistency.
While he won the one feature this season, he was also second three
times to win the championship by 32 points over Ryan Gutknecht.
“Complete dedication in the shop,” Lingford said when asked what
helped him win. “Nut and bolt checks, making sure everything is rock
solid. The crew guys are awesome. I just got to be the nut that gets
behind the wheel.”
He’s come a long way in a relatively short period of time after his racing career began with a part-time schedule in 2008.
“The first time I ever ran on a race track I asked myself what the
hell I was even thinking,” Lingford said. “I was pretty nervous.”
Kyle Chwala, Tom Berens, Scott Goetzke and Andy Welter also put the final touches on their championship seasons Sunday.
Chwala won his first limited late model title by 62 points, ahead of
Jordan DeVoy. It is Chwala’s third championship at Slinger in four
years. He won the area sportsman titles in 2013 and 2014.
“We were expecting to be about a top-five car,” Chwala said. “It’s kind of what we were set on.”
But a hot stretch in the middle of the season, two victories in three
victories, coupled with some struggles by Mike Held and DeVoy — the
title contenders early in the season — Chwala got in the championship
hunt and eventually took it over.
“It just clicked at about mid-season,” Chwala said.
Berens won his second straight Heros Bees championship in what turned
in to a good battle between him and Jakob Hassler for the title. They
combined to win five of the final six features and four times they were
12 in that span.
“My hat’s off to Jake,” Berens said. “He was my competition for much of the year. I had fun racing against him.”
Welter added his second track championship, also winning the
thunderstock in 2011, and Goetzke won his record-breaking ninth overall
track championship – all in the Figure 8 division.
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