2012-13 Round 12

Deckertring Grand Prix - Deckertring

February 14, 2013

Round 12 of 16

Wiedemann Maxes Out At Deckertring

See the complete box score

Black Forest Waukesha, WI – John Wiedemann left Waukesha with all the points he could gather as well as the points lead after winning the IndySlotCar Series Deckertring Grand Prix.

Racing on Valentine's Day for only the third time in series history, the twelfth round of the 2012-2013 season saw a light turnout but tight competition on the Deckertring's long straight-aways and twisting turns through the woods. The series points leader heading into the race, Mark Walczak, chose to skip this race giving Wiedemann a shot to make up ground in the standings.

Two groups took to the circuit in qualifying with Spehert Autosport driver Tom Spehert grabing the provisional pole in group one. Dashing Spehert's hope to keep the spot, KVHO driver Wiedemann bested his time by just 75 thousandths of a second to grab his second pole of the season with a lap of 5.414 seconds.

Ev Kamikawa driving for Panther HO captured the first heat race with hometrack hero Mike Fitzlaff of KVHO in second just a lap behind, allowing both drivers to transfer to the feature. In the second heat, Wiedemann held off Dan Margetta to take the win, and both moved forward to the feature as well. Dean Strom never found a chassis that he liked and finished fifth on the night. Spehert and RJ Foyt racer Mike Kristof tied in heat race laps, so Spehert was sixth and Kristof seventh based on qualifying times.

Kamikawa took the lead in the feature race but the field held tight for the opening laps. Margetta, in the Butler-Margetta Motorsports machine, struggled and fell back a bit while Wiedemann chased down Kamikawa to battle for the lead. Fitzlaff also struggled with handling early but recovered to hang close within a couple laps of the leaders. Finishing out the first half of the race, Kamikawa pulled out to a lap lead after exchanging the point with Wiedemann a number of times.

Opening the second half of the feature, Kamikawa came in for an extended pit stop, allowing Wiedemann, who had a quick stop, to pull ahead to a couple lap lead. Those few laps were all that Wiedemann needed and he paced his way to the checkers, capturing his third victory of the year. Fitzlaff fought back to get back on the same lap as second place Kamikawa but ran out of time to finish third, a half lap behind.

After scoring the max points in qualifying, heat and feature race, Wiedemann moved into first place in the standings, passing Walczak who missed the event. Fitzlaff remains in third with TMWR driver Dean Strom and Kamikawa rounding out the top five in the Husarsbilt Cup championship race with four races remaining in the 2012-13 season.

Coming up next on the schedule is round 13, The Shrine Cup at the Shrine Desert Road Course. Wiedemann won and Walczak captured the pole position at the last race at The Shrine back in round 8 of this season.

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