Published: June 19, 2018
In start No. 101, Keith finds Victory Lane
SLINGER SUPER SPEEDWAY
By Nicholas Dettmann
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
For reasons unknown, Brad Keith, while sitting
on a boat on the lake with his wife, Kelly, and their 7-month-old daughter
Hadley, looked at his wife and did something he never does.
“I told my wife I think we have a good chance
to win,” Keith said. “I never say that. I’m usually pretty humble.”
His hunch was right.
In his 101st super late model start at Slinger
Super Speedway, Keith won his first career feature, holding off a late push by
defending track champion
Gary LaMonte courtesy of a caution with four
laps to go in the 60-lap main event.
“It took long enough,” Keith said Monday. “At
certain times, I wonder if it was going to happen.”
That was especially true as he sat and watched
drivers such as LaMonte or Dennis Prunty or Steve Apel win seemingly at will.
“Are we ever going to get that opportunity?”
Keith said. “You wonder if everything was going to fall into place.”
And lately, he had good reason to think that
as it seemed every bad luck thing that could happen in a race car did the last
several weeks.
“A lot of it has things go your way,” Keith
said.
“Everything fell into place.”
Conrad Morgan finished third in the feature,
followed by Grant Griesbach and John DeAngelis Jr.
Also picking up feature victories Sunday were
Nick Egan (limited late model), Matt Urban (Slinger Bees), Rick Schaefer (Super
Beez) and Rick Bruskiewicz (Figure 8).
And talking about everything falling into
place, Keith won the milestone feature on his first Father’s Day.
“It was pretty special,” Keith said. “You won’t
forget that.”
Keith had to work for it, too. He started the
feature in eighth place after the invert after being second-quickest in
qualifying. Most of the season, Keith said he believed he had a fast race car,
one certainly good enough to challenge for wins.
Despite that, he was weary of his chances to
win the race moments before the feature.
“I don’t think I ever really thought it could
be it,” Keith said. “It seems like there hasn’t been a lot of passing in the
super lates this year.”
Keith’s eighth-place starting spot matched the
furthest back on the grid a driver has had to come from to win a race this
season in the super late model division. On May 6, Prunty started eighth.
Otherwise, the starting spots of the
eventual feature winners in the division were
fifth, fourth, fifth and first.
“You think for your first one, you’d win from
the front row and not mid-pack,” Keith said.
Sixty laps at Slinger is not a lot of time to
work with when a lap lasts less than 12 seconds in a race setting. Not to
mention, the side-by-side racing makes it difficult to pass.
But, Keith found a way and did so quickly,
working his way to the lead on lap 19.
“I knew that at some point our luck was going
to change,” Keith said.
With four laps to go, Travis Dassow and Nick
Wagner crashed to bring out the yellow flag.
Keith chose the outside line for the restart
and did so because he knew LaMonte’s car is typically not the strongest on a
short run. He believed that played to his advantage.
Shortly after the green flag waved, LaMonte and
Keith made slight contact, but Keith got the run off Turn 2 and surged to sole
possession of the lead.
“It felt like 160 laps,” Keith said. “I was not
letting that one slip away last night.”
The victory wasn’t Keith’s first in a super
late model. In 2015, he won a super late model feature at La Crosse. But, this
one was different.
Keith has been going to Slinger as a driver or
as a fan since he was 8 years old. He grew up in Slinger. This track is close
to his heart. It means a lot to him. He is a track champion and has 15 feature
wins in other divisions at Slinger.
It also means a lot to the family.
Keith’s family has invested plenty into the
sport and Slinger. Keith’s Marina in West Bend sponsors at least one race night
a season and have been a supporter of the track and its competitors for several
years.
“It’s pretty cool,” Keith said. “My first
feature win came in a Mid-am car on Keith’s Marina night in 2006.”
He added, “My dad was excited. To get your
first win on your first Father’s Day is pretty special.”
The next race at Slinger is one of those
Keith’s Marina-sponsored nights. And it’s a fundraiser for cancer research.
Several raffle prizes, door prizes will be
available for fans with proceeds going toward Chix 4 A Cause.
“We’ve got door prizes; a lot of good stuff,”
Keith said.
For more information on the fundraiser or to
get tickets, contact Keith through Facebook or go to Keith’s Marina, 4339
Highway 33, West Bend or Kurly’s Grand Larsony, 143 Main St., Kewaskum
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