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Vergatta And Booker Grab First Career Series Victories
by John Wiedemann, racingwisconsin.com MILWAUKEE MILE - WEST ALLIS, WI (5/18/2008) - Once again, new visitors to victory lane were the story of the day at the Summer Shootout. The drivers returned to the Milwaukee Mile for the third round of the 2008 series. While John Beinlich is quickly making victory lane his home, Kyle Vergatta and Matt Booker grabbed their first series victories. Camden Murphy won the Super Cup Junior feature, his first Summer Shootout win since 2006. There is something about the “mini Mile” that brings out the best in John Beinlich and his car. Beinlich seems to lap the track with ease leaving competitors to drive the wheels off their cars just to try and keep up. Challenging Beilich this week were Dwight Dunlap with rookies Colton Clevenger and Austin Mennen from Cedar Falls, Iowa. After sweeping the heat races, Beinlich started on the pole for the feature and quickly tried to put distance between himself and the pack. Dunlap was able to hang with him until just after the halfway point when he spun his ride coming out of the fourth turn. The spin allowed Beinlich to ride of to his third win of the year. Dunlap would recover, taking the checkers in second place. Mennen improved each time he hit the track and finished third followed by Clevenger. In Bandolero action Kyle Vergatta and Cory Cootware split victories in heat race action. In the feature, it was Vergatta jumping to the lead when the green dropped. Cootware dropped right in line and lapped the track right on Vergatta’s bumper. Vergatta would not be flustered and slowly started to inch away as Cootware did everything he could to keep up. In the end, it was Vergatta capturing his first ever feature victory in the series. Almost speechless in victory lane, a rarity for Vergatta, all he could say was “Great” when asked how he felt about his first win. In the last series race for Super Cup Juniors, the battle for the feature win had Camden Murphy and Kyle Brinkmann exchanging the lead multiple times per lap with Murphy settling for second. This time, Murphy grabbed the lead a few laps into the race and wouldn’t share it with anyone. Morgan Schissel who started on the pole, stayed right on behind Murphy for the rest of the race until he spun on the final lap. Schissel’s spin allowed Cody Lipstreuer to take over the second position, dropping Schissel to third followed by Krystinia Lipstreuer in fourth. The Legends division has the tightest competition of the series with just about any one of the drivers able to win a given week. Heat races were won by Cody Townsend and Tim Narr whose company, LTL Service of Wisconsin, sponsored this weeks’ event. The fifteen lap feature race started with the two heat race winners on the front row. When the green flag waved, Dave Townsend quickly moved into the second spot as Narr dropped back. Narr would run to about the halfway point until he had to pull his car into the pit with electrical problems, much to the chagrin of the fans in the LTL Service grandstand. In the meantime, Matt Booker had charged from the back of the pack through to the front position. With the Townsends and Max McNamara on Booker’s rear bumper, the caution flag would fly just after the halfway point. Dave Townsend was stopped on the track with fuel pickup problems. When the race restarted, it was a mad dash across the line and into turns one and two. Booker emerged as the leader with McNamara in second and Cody Townsend in third after a bit of off road racing. Booker got loose traveling through the fourth turn allowing McNamara to close in but not enough to lose the position. After that little scare, Booker kept the car straight and took the checkers for his first Summer Shootout victory. McNamara, Cody Townsend, Rich Miller and Adam Rawski rounded out the top five. “It was a long drive from the back to the front” said Booker as he celebrated the win in victory lane. For full coverage of the Summer Shootout, visit http://www.racingwisconsin.com/summershootout RESULTS ALLISON LEGACY BANDOLEROS |
