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LaPier Takes First Win In Bandolero Summer Shootout
By John Wiedemann - racingwisconsin.com
MILWAUKEE (August 17, 2005) - The Summer Shootout returned to the Milwaukee
Mile on Wednesday night for week number seven of the nine race series.
Jimmy Hanson, Mike Pieko, Jr., Curt Gnatzig and Kyle LaPier all took home
victories from the “mini mile” when the night’s action was
complete. All of the youngsters in the stands took home prizes too as
they were given tickets to the Saturday events of the upcoming NASCAR Elite
Weekend race at the Milwaukee Mile.
The nights racing started with the Allison Legacy cars making their final
appearance of the season at the Mile. Once again Jimmy Hanson showed
that he had the car to beat as he ran away with the heat race. Bobby
Yonkee ran second with Adam Carlson battling for the position throughout the
race. Woody Colclasure joined the action this week and came in fourth in
Hanson’s secondary car.
The feature race proved to be much of the same as the heat race. Jimmy
Hanson took the lead from his pole position starting spot and never looked
back. The battle between Yonkee and Carlson provided the most excitement
of the race. Carlson took the inside line to pass Yonkee at the midpoint
of the race but, Yonkee battled back to within one car length with two laps to
go. With one to go Yonkee moved to Carlson’s rear bumper and then made
his move on the inside of turn four on the last lap. The two cars drag
raced to the line with Yonkee taking second and Carlson settling for third.
The first heat race of the evening for the Legends brought out the Schaal/Gnatzig
battle. Curt Gnatzig and Ernie Schaal have spent almost the entire
series not more than a car length apart from each other. Tonight would
be a little different as Ernie Schaal was able to pull away from the field and
take the heat race win. Gnatzig would have another Schaal top battle
with though as Don battled him for the second spot. Don Schaal would
finish in third as Gnatzig never gave up the spot. Back in the pack Tom
Henricks, Jeff Schroeder and Michael Wankowski put on a great show, exchanging
positions almost every lap.
The caution flag flew in the second Legends heat as quickly as the green came
out. Michael Bilderback had transmission problems on the start of the
race that eventually finished his night. On the restart Kyle LaPier
jumped to the lead but Ryan Miles would not let him get away. Miles
pulled to the inside on the backstraight, held the car low through the third
and fourth turns and took the lead away. After the pass Miles pulled
away to a big lead and took the win. LaPier crossed the line in second
place followed by George Giesen and newcomer Ric Mattie.
Ernie Schaal took the early lead in the Legend feature race from his pole
position start. LaPier started second but got off the track coming out
of the fourth turn and fell way back in the pack. Miles capitalized,
taking over second spot but then he also went off the track leaving Gnatzig to
challenge Ernie. Then the unexpected happened as Ernie Schaal missed a
shift and spun the car in the first turn. Gnatzig passed by and took
over the lead with Miles and Don Schaal chasing him. Gnatzig was able to
extend the distance between himself and Miles and took home his fifth feature
win. Miles finished second followed by Don Schaal, George Giesen, LaPier
and Ernie Schaal.
Mike Pieko, Jr. says he doesn’t like starting in the back of the Thunder
Roadsters pack but, the fans sure seem to enjoy it. Piecko started third
with Davey Cox and Eddie Mecum, Jr. in front of him for the heat race.
Cox took the early lead with the rest of the field bumper to bumper behind
him. On the second lap Mecum slid high in turn four allowing Piecko to
take over the second spot. The race seemed to belong to Cox until, with
one lap to go, he slid high in turn four as well. Piecko took advantage
of the slip and took the win. Cox would recover for second with Mecum in
third.
In the Thunder Roadster feature, Cox jumped to the early lead and tried to
pull away. Piecko wasn’t waiting long this time as he grabbed second
spot passing Mecum and pulled right up behind Cox. Just before the
halfway point of the race, Piecko made his move, driving underneath Cox in the
third and fourth turn. Cox tried to hold on but his car pushed high in
turn four and forced him to drive around the outside of the turn
barriers. Mecum took advantage of Cox’s issues and grabbed the second
spot. With two laps to go, Cox recovered to pull up to Mecum’s bumper
but spun while trying to make a pass. Pieko took the checked flag for
his fifth win in the series. Mecum maintained second followed by Cox and
rookie racer David Weir.
A large group of Bandolero’s showed up to challenge the “mini-Mile” and
put on some of the best racing seen in the division. Kyle LaPier and
Michael Cooter battled at the front of the pack for the early part of the race
with LaPier holding on to the top spot. Kyle Jusits and Dwight Dunlap
moved up into the third and fourth positions when a caution came out for a
spin by Brandon Heisler. With only a few laps to go, there would be a
green-white-checker finish. On the restart, LaPier jumped out to a big
lead as Cooter seemed to start off slow. Cooter, Jusits and Dunlap
battled hard for the final laps with Jusits taking over the second spot
followed by Cooter, Dunlap, Dave Cooter and Bobby Yonkee.
The Bandolero feature was the last race of the evening and proved to be the
best race of the night. LaPier started on the pole with Michael Cooter
in the second spot. An early spin by Cooter brought out the caution and
dropped him to the back of the pack. The restart put Jusits on the rear
bumper of LaPier where he would stay for much of the race. Dunlap took
over the third position. Cooter worked his way back through the field,
moving into the fourth spot when caution came out for a spin by Bobby Yonkee.
The restart would see the top four cars pull away from the field to have their
own race. Jusits moved to the inside of LaPier and briefly took the lead
but, LaPier used the high line to his advantage through the fourth turn to
take the lead back. In the meantime, Dunlap snuck into second place but
slid high on the next lap allowing Jusits to retake the second spot and Cooter
to take third. Coming to the white flag lap, Jusits once again tried the
low line through the forth turn and got into LaPier. Trying not to spin
LaPier, Jusits backed off and got into Cooter. All cars recovered
perfectly and LaPier was able to hold on to his first series win followed by
Jusits and Michael Cooter.
“I tried to turn low to avoid Kyle (LaPier) and got into Michael (Cooter).
I didn’t know he was there, I was concentrating so hard on trying to pass
Kyle,” said Kyle Justis. “If I went any higher, I would have spun
Kyle and we all would have wrecked.”
Commenting on the close racing, Kyle LaPier said, “I started losing my
brakes at the end and was doing all that I could to hold on to the lead.”
RESULTS
ALLISON LEGACY
Feature: Jimmy Hanson, Bobby Yonkee, Adam Carlson, Woody Colclasure
Heat 1: Jimmy Hanson, Bobby Yonkee, Adam Carlson, Woody Colclasure
LEGENDS
Feature: Curt Gnatzig, Ryan Miles, Don Schaal, George Giesen, Kyle LaPier,
Ernie Schaal, Jeff Schroeder, Tom Henricks, Michael Wankowski, Ric Mattie,
Michael Bilderback (dns)
Heat 1: Ernie Schaal, Curt Gnatzig, Don Schaal, Tom Henricks, Jeff Schroeder,
Michael Wankowski
Heat 2: Ryan Miles, Kyle LaPier, George Giesen, Ric Mattie, Michael Bilderback
BANDOLEROS
Feature: Kyle LaPier, Kyle Jusits, Michael Cooter, Dwight Dunlap, Bobby Yonkee,
Ryan Milligan, Andy Luebbke, Brandon Heisler, Dave Cooter
Heat 1: Kyle LaPier, Kyle Jusits, Michael Cooter, Dave Cooter, Dwight Dunlap, Bobby
Yonkee, Ryan Milligan, Andy Luebbke, Brandon Heisler
THUNDER ROADSTERS
Feature: Mike Piecko, Jr., Eddie Mecum, Jr., Davey Cox, David Weir
Heat 1: Mike Piecko, Jr., Davey Cox, Eddie Mecum, Jr., David Weir
The remaining nights of competition are August 24 and August 31.
Practice starts at 6:00pm, with racing at 7:00pm each night. The series
features free admission as race fans are invited to come out and watch the
races from bleachers in the infield of the Milwaukee Mile.
Through the 1960’s, The Milwaukee Mile was a hotbed of weekly short track
racing on the ½-mile and ¼-mile ovals that shared the frontstretch of the
historic speedway’s one mile oval. Grass roots racing makes a
weeknight return to America’s Legendary Oval on a modified oval using a
portion of the speedway’s newly-redone infield road course, set within turn
two of the mile track.
For nine Wednesday nights this summer, young and young-at-heart racers
competing in Legends Cars, Bandoleros and Thunder Roadsters will chase a
points championship in the SUMMER SHOOTOUT Series presented by the Junior Pro
Series, at The Milwaukee Mile.
For full coverage of the Summer Shootout, visit www.racingwisconsin.com/summershootout
For ticket information and details on the IRL IndyCarSeries, USAC Racing,
NASCAR Midwest Series and Governor’s Cup event weekends at The Milwaukee
Mile this summer, visit www.milwaukeemile.com.
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