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Schaal, Jusits And Piecko, Jr. Return To Victory Lane At The Mile
By John Wiedemann - www.racingwisconsin.com
MILWAUKEE (August 24, 2005) – The Summer Shootout is winding down for 2005
but the action is heating up. With only one more week remaining in the
season, drivers are making their final moves in the points chase. All of
the divisions had repeat winners as Michael Piecko, Jr. won his sixth Thunder
Roadster feature, Kyle Jusits took home his third Bandolero Milwaukee Mile
Winners’ cap and Ernie Schaal made it to victory lane for the second time in
the Legends.
Mike Piecko, Sr. took over the Davey Cox ride this week and jumped out to the
early lead in the Thunder Roadster heat race. Mike Piecko, Jr. and Eddie
Mecum, Jr. followed closely behind in the early portion of the race.
Understeer issues became a problem for Piecko, Sr. and when he pushed way wide
in turn three, Piecko, Jr. and Mecum drove underneath. The same
understeer issues seemed to plague Mecum as well and Piecko, Jr. drove away,
taking the win easily.
The Thunder Roadster seemed to belong to Mecum as he took the lead and held
off Piecko, Jr. for the start of the race. Even though a pesky Piecko,
Jr. followed closely, Mecum was able to keep a car length between them.
Then at the midpoint of the race, Piecko, Jr. decided that it was time to make
his move and dived to the inside of Mecum’s car entering turn three. Mecum
slid high coming off turn four and got into the dirt off the track. With
the better traction coming off the turn, Piecko, Jr. took off with the lead
and Mecum was left in second. Piecko, Jr. crossed the finish line with
his sixth feature win in a row. Mecum finished second followed by David
Weir in third.
Talking about the winning pass, Piecko, Jr. said, “I wasn’t sure I would
make it halfway through the corner, but it worked out fine.”
“We’re going to make him (Mike Piecko, Jr.) start a lap down,” laughed
Mecum, Jr. before the start of the night. Maybe next week, they will.
Last week, Dwight Dunlap stated that all he needed was the correct gear and he
could win in the Bandoleros. Dunlap started fourth in the heat race and
quickly moved into second place on the first lap. Michael Cooter took
the lead early but spun his car off of turn two giving the lead up to
Dunlap. With Kyle Jusits on his rear bumper, Dunlap led the rest of the
race to take the heat race win. Jusits tried a last lap pass on the
outside but settled for second place followed by Dave Cooter, Andy Liebke and
Michael Cooter.
The Bandolero feature had Jusits on the pole but, Dunlap took the lead on the
start. When Dunlap slipped in turn two, Jusits jumped back in to the
lead along with Michael Cooter in second place. The caution came out
when Michael Cooter spun his car and the field bunched back up with Cooter in
the back. On the restart, Jusits resumed the lead followed by Dunlap and
Ryan Milligan. Cooter worked his way up through the field but would not
have time to challenge for the lead as Jusits pulled away from the pack.
Jusits took the win for the third time in the series and resumed his point
lead in the division. Dunlap held on to second place and Michael Cooter
recovered to finish in third. Ryan Milligan and Andy Liebke put on a
great battle in their second week in the series. Liebke drove to the
inside of Milligan on the last turn of the race and was able to take the
fourth place spot while Milligan settled for fifth.
The first Legend heat race was all about Michael Bilderback and his new
ride. Bilderback had a white number two car, since the familiar black
number two was destroyed the previous weekend at the Young Lions Nationals in
Nashville. The new car wasn’t bad as Bilderback took the lead early
and was never challenged for the win. Ryan Miles was fast early and held
the second spot until the car got away from him and he spun off of turn four.
Finishing in second was George Giesen followed by Don Schaal and Miles.
The second heat race was a sign of things to come with Curt Gnatzig charging
to the lead followed closely by Ernie Schaal. Schaal closed to within
Gnatzig’s bumper and tried an inside pass on the last turn but Gnatzig was
able to hold him off and take the heat race win. Herman Greinig finished
in third a few car lengths behind Schaal and Gnatzig.
The feature race started with Gnatzig on the pole and he took the early
lead. Bilderback took over the second position followed by Giesen,
Miles, Ernie Schaal and Greinig. Schaal wasted no time moving up to the
third spot and, when Bilderback got loose in the third and fourth turns,
Schaal and Miles improved their positions. As the leaders got into
lapped traffic, Schaal closed in on Gnatzig. Schaal tried to make an
inside pass through turns three and four but couldn’t pull it off as the two
took off down the frontstraight. Then, in turn one Schaal got into the
bumper of Gnatzig.
“He let off and I wasn’t ready to brake,” explained Schaal. “I
didn’t mean to lay the bumper on him. He was pointing at me and I
figured he wasn’t real happy.” After the race, Schaal spoke with
Gnatzig and reported, “Curt say’s I got one coming.”
After the incident, Schaal took the lead on the backstraight and didn’t look
back. The win was the second for Schaal in the last three weeks.
Gnatzig was able to maintain the second position and Miles crossed the finish
line in third. Bilderback finished in the fourth spot and Greinig
finished fifth.
RESULTS
THUNDER ROADSTERS
Feature: Mike Piecko, Jr., Eddie Mecum, Jr., David Weir, Mike Piecko, Sr.
Heat 1: Mike Piecko, Jr., Eddie Mecum, Jr., Mike Piecko, Sr., David Weir
BANDOLEROS
Feature: Kyle Jusits, Dwight Dunlap, Michael Cooter, Andy Liebke, Ryan
Milligan, Adam Rawski, Dave Cooter
Heat 1: Dwight Dunlap, Kyle Jusits, Dave Cooter, Andy Liebke, Michael Cooter,
Ryan Milligan, Adam Rawski
LEGENDS
Feature: Ernie Schaal, Curt Gnatzig, Ryan Miles, Michael Bilderback,
Herman Greinig, George Giesen, Don Schaal, Tom Henricks, Ryan Vanderboom, Ric
Mattie, Jeff Schroeder, Michael Wankowski
Heat 1: Michael Bilderback, George Giesen, Don Schaal, Ryan Miles, Ric Mattie,
Jeff Schroeder
Heat 2: Curt Gnatzig, Ernie Schaal, Herman Greinig, Ric Mattie, Michael
Wankowski, Tom Henricks
Next week, August 31st is the final night of competition in the 2005 Summer
Shootout series. Practice starts at 6:00pm, with racing at 7:00pm.
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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