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Hermannator Opens 2007 Summer Shootout In Victory Lane
by John Wiedemann, racingwisconsin.com MILWAUKEE (April 28, 2007) – New cars, new paintjobs, new drivers, a new class and new racing pavement kicked off the 2007 Summer Shootout Series at the Milwaukee Mile. The result was the same door to door racing excitement as in the past years with some new faces in victory lane. Perfect weather for a race day greeted the forty-seven drivers in five classes. One of the largest fields of Super Cup Juniors in series history provided the competition that threatened Morgan Schissel’s dominance of the division. The youngster from Marshall, WI won his heat race from the pole while Camden Murphy, a 2006 winner, took the lead on lap one of his heat race and cruised home for the victory. In the twelve lap feature, third place qualifier Cullen Breeden took the second spot away from Murphy with Schissel taking the point. For the next five laps the top three of Schissel, Breeden and Murphy ran together and pulled away from the field. A caution with seven laps in the books brought the field back together. Continuing to run perfect laps for the rest of the race, Schissel took the first checkered flag of the season. Breeden, Murphy, Cody Lipstreuer and Garett Goodwin rounded out the top five. For the first time, the Senior Division of the Super Cup Series made an appearance at the fast and tight “Mini Mile”. With fifteen cars showing up for the challenge, the group was split into two heats to determine the lineup for the feature. In the first heat, Andy Forster worked his way up from the back of the pack, through the field, to take the win. Heat race number two had Erik Gehrke start in the middle and charge to the front for the victory. The feature race lined up all fifteen cars for an eighteen lap race. Starting from the outside front row position, Jeff Myers took the lead away from Forster early and tried to pull away. Mick Ellis and Jake Jump took turns challenging Myers for the lead but neither were able to get close enough to pull off a pass. While Myers held the top spot, the battle was on for second place between Forster and Jump. Just after Myers took the checkers, Jump snuck past Forster and grabbed the second position at the line. Erik Gehrke finished in forth place followed by Jim Scanlon in fifth. Commenting on his win Myers explained, “I figured out the line in the heat race and knew that the feature was going to be good. I haven’t won in a while and wanted to get a win for my sponsors. Once I got to the front, there was no way I was going to let anyone by.” In Allison Legacy action Mikie Breiner swept the heat race and the feature holding off John Beinlich and Colin Laurson to take the class wins. With some of the top drivers from last year moving to the Legends division, including last years champion Kyle Jusits, the Bandolero division is wide open. Aaron Moyer, who finished third in the 2006 Championship, fired the first shot in the 2007 Championship battle, winning the heat and feature races. Starting on the pole for the feature, Moyer was followed by newcomer Vern Fagerberg and Jesse Bernhagen for the entire race. The black #140 of Moyer lead every lap in a race that was slowed once by caution. Adam Rawski and Iron Mountain, Michigan’s Cory Cootware crossed the line in fourth and fifth places. 2006 Legend Champion, Michael Bilderback, has moved on to late models leaving another division looking for a new champion. Eleven cars hit the track to see who would start the season on the top of the standings. Former Bandolero hotshots Kyle Jusits, Blake Brown and Alex Arleno were joined by Brad Plunkett to form the 2007 Legend rookie class. Plunkett made a big splash by charging to the front from the fifth position and winning the heat race. The win allowed him to share the front row with Tim Narr in the feature. After leading the first lap of the feature, Narr fell back with Dave Townsend, Plunkett and Cody Townsend moving past. A couple laps later, Plunkett got together with Dave Townsend and muscled his way to the lead. The caution flag waved when Dave Townsend locked up the brakes in turn three and parked his car in front of the wall. With the field bunched up, hard charger Blake Brown found himself in the fourth position right behind the leaders. While all the action was happening up front, Brown had stepped up through the field from his ninth position starting spot. After taking the green flag leaders Plunkett and Cody Townsend got together in the third and fourth turns allowing Brown to charge to the front. The caution flag flew again to compress the field one more time. On the restart, Brown jumped to a huge lead as Cody Townsend and Herman Greinig tried to work their way past lapped cars. Greinig, the “Hermannator”, took over the second postion and set his sights on Brown but, there seemed to be too few laps left. “The 71 car (Blake Brown) had me beat, he had about 10 car lengths on me and I wasn’t going to catch him,” Greinig said. With the white flag ready to fly, something was amiss on Brown’s car. Greinig was catching up to him quickly on the back straight. One circuit later Greinig took over the lead from Brown’s Legend, which was clearly not up to speed. The 60 year old “Hermannator” took the checkers for his first win in the Summer Shootout Series. Brown limped across the line in front of Dave Townsend to barely hold on to second place. A mechanical problem had left Brown’s car stuck in third gear and out of victory lane. The Summer Shootout returns to the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday, May 26th. Practice starts at 11:00am, with racing at high noon. 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. RESULTS Heat 1: Camden Murphy, Cullen Breeden, Cody Lipstreuer SUPER CUP – SENIOR DIVISION Heat 1: Andy Foster, Jake Jump, Mike Whitmore ALLISON LEGACY Heat 1: Mikie Breiner, John Beinlich, Colin Laurson BANDOLEROS Heat 1: Aaron Moyer, Vern Fagerberg, Jesse Bernhagen, Adam Rawski, Andrew Karich, Corey Cootware, Brandon Heisler LEGENDS Heat 1: Brad Plunkett, Cody Townsend, Herman Greinig, Tim Narr, Alex Arleno, Dave Townsend, Blake Brown, SJ Kimmell, Kyle Jusits, Tom Hendricks, Rich Miller |
