Published: Sept. 11, 2018
Alex Prunty began racing because of his
uncle, wins super late championship
By Nicholas Dettmann
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
SLINGER — When Alex Prunty was 5 or 6 years
old, he sat inside uncle David Prunty's race car bleeding the brakes. At that
moment, growing up in a family with a long tradition in short-track racing,
that little boy first gave thought about whether he was on a similar path.
Fast-forward 20 years later.
That little boy, all grown up, is a champion
of the super late model division at Slinger Super Speedway.
“It's what I aspired to do from Day 1,” Alex
said.
“It was never, ever even close to being forced
upon,” he added when asked if he had a choice to go into racing or not. “It was
one of those deals where dad was pretty straightup honest with me saying this
if is what you want to you, you're going to be in the garage every night. I'm
not going to play these games of me being in there by myself. He really pushed
me to succeed, put in the time and understand that people that work on the cars
understand how they work. Go get an engineering degree and understand how these
cars work are the guys that are successful.”
Alex Prunty finished fourth in Sunday's 75-lap
super late model feature as part of the track's
finale of its 71st season of racing to wrap up
his title run, becoming the fourthyoungest super late model champion in track
history.
And speaking of history, Prunty accomplished a
feat only done one other time in 71 years of racing at Slinger: win a track
championship in three divisions. He joined Southeastern Wisconsin Short-Track
Hall of Famer Miles “The Mouse” Melius in that category. Melius won a midget
title in 1949, a stocks title in 1954 and five modified titles in 1958, 1960,
1961, 1964 and 1967. Prunty won a Slinger Bees title in 2010, which was just
his second year in racing, and two limited late model titles (2012 and 2015)
before adding the super late title Sunday.
Maybe fitting was Melius' logo was on the side
of Alex's car.
“How cool is that?” he said. “What a neat
accomplishment.”
Brad Mueller won the super late model feature
for his third victory of the season. He was followed by Grant Griesbach and
Dennis Prunty. Chris Blawat, the 2016 track champion, was fifth. For Mueller,
the three feature victories this season where the most he's had in one season
since winning five in 2003.
Also picking up feature victories were Tyler
Schley (limited late model), Jayden Buckley (Super Beez), Zach Greer (Slinger
Bees), Bill Shavlik (Figure 8), Ryan Gutknecht (midwest sportsman), Jake
Schraufnagel (area sportsman) and Jessica Talley (American Super Cup Series).
Gutknecht’s and Schraufnagel’s feature
victories capped championship seasons in their respective divisions. For
Gutknecht, it is his third midwest sportsman title in five years, while
Schraufnagel joins his father, Ken, as a track champion. Ken Schraufnagel won
the 2008 Slinger Bees title.
Brandon Tackes won the Super Beez track
championship for his second career title at Slinger (Slinger Bees, 2014), while
Brady Held (Slinger Bees), Ryan Lovald (Figure 8) and Shaun Scheel (limited
late model) won their first track championships.
Scheel edged EJ Waldron by 36 points for the
title. Last year’s champion, Gutknecht, finished third, 46 points behind. It is
Scheel’s second career championship, but first in a late model. In 2005, he won
a 4-cylinder bandit title at Jefferson when he was 15 years old.
To come away with the championship was also a
relief for Scheel as Gutknecht had been building momentum in the final weeks of
the season with four top-two finishes in five races, including two wins in a
row Aug. 5 and Aug. 12. However, a planned off week Aug. 19, followed by
back-to-back rain outs, helped Scheel hold off the division’s reigning
champion.
“It hasn’t sunk in that we’re a late model
champion, especially at a prestigious track like Slinger,” Scheel said.
As for Alex Prunty, he had a comfortable lead
heading into the final points race, leading his uncle Dennis by 70 points. If
Dennis Prunty had a
max points day, Alex needed to finish seventh
or better to win the championship.
Because of the gap, Alex said it wasn’t
nerve-wracking waiting out consecutive weeks of rain outs to see how the
championship was going to play out. He tinkered with the car a little bit each
day, just to make sure nothing fell out of place. But, for the most part, he
was calm.
When he got into a race car in 2009, there was
never a plan for Alex. It was just see how much he liked it or didn’t like it. He
quickly learned not only did he like it, but there was talent too.
Two of Alex’s crucial career progressions came
when he moved into a limited late model in 2011 and then won the Kulwicki
Driver Development Program national championship in 2016.
Alex sent the message to his dad, Dan, about
how serious he was about racing when he moved into the limited late model
division. His father said if Alex wanted to do that, everything was on Alex,
minus helping with the engine.
“I was able to go find sponsors and find the
money to be able and go and do it and that’s when he realized the kid must
really want to do it,” Alex said.
Winning the Kulwicki national title gave him
the confidence and maturity he’d been searching for, let alone the funding.
This season, Alex was one of only three drivers
to start every feature in the super late model division – Griesbach and Conrad
Morgan. One of his closest competitors, Gary LaMonte, last year’s champion,
didn’t return to the track after a controversial finish between him and Steve
Apel on July 22. LaMonte was penalized for what appeared to be
contact with Apel that spun out Apel while they
battled for the lead.
“I can’t control when people decide they don’t
want to race here,” Alex said. “I come here to race every single week with a
smile on my face and we’re here to win.
“We had a great year. You can’t take anything
away from that.”
And he put in the work, which started after the
2017 season.
He attended a four-day seminar in Charlotte,
North Carolina, called the GRIP Seminars, presented by Gary Crooks Racing.
According to its Facebook page, the seminar isn’t designed to “give you the
’secret’ setup, but rather to provide the necessary working knowledge needed to
have a better understanding of your race car.”
After achieving something he’s dreamed about
since he was 6, Alex said there is still unfinished business.
“To win the Slinger Nationals,” he said.
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