Hayek Repeats At West Bend Grand Prix

(West Bend, WI) – Defending champion of the West Bend Grand Prix, Matt Hayek returned to victory lane at the Lack Track with a dominating

performance to capture his first win of the IndySlotCar season. Hayek’s victory made him the third different winner in as many races so far this

season.

Dean Strom has made every final and won one race this season, and now he can add a pole win to those stats as he beat John Wiedemann by just over

three hundredths of a second to put his name at the top of the speed chart. The Pole win was the sixteenth of his career, tying him with

Mike Fitzlaff for tenth in the IndySlotCar all time stats.

With the “Last-To-First” choice for heat race setup, the top four in qualifying were the first out to contest the heat race and Bill Black

topped the fast four to win his way into the feature race. Strom finished just two laps back and Mike Lack beat Wiedemann by a half lap

to take third.

The second heat race, with the 5th through 8th place qualifiers, was a bit of a mess at the beginning with drivers having a difficult time

trying to find their pace on the short and technical road course. Hayek had it figured out but needed to dodge the flying cars of Pete Dorn,

Mike Kristof and Steve Rist to try to survive. Although he qualified 5th, Hayek showed the race speed in his car, turning three more laps

than Black in his heat. None of the other drivers could match the pace of the first heat, so Strom and Lack moved to the final to race heat

winners Black and Hayek.

While Strom, Hayek and Lack battled at the front of the pack at the start of the final, Black struggled, falling out of contention early.

Strom then had his own handling issues in turn one and two, allowing Lack and Hayek to battle it out at the front. Lack pulled ahead to a

three lap lead at the halfway break and it looked to be a showdown between the Super High Intensity Team teammates for the West Bend Grand

Prix.

Pitstops went well for all drivers as they all stopped for ten seconds or less. But after the pitstops, Hayek picked up the pace, took the

lead away from Lack, and never looked back. As Lack struggled a bit with handling, Hayek cruised to victory by twelve laps over second

place. Strom made a charge late in the race but ended up two laps short of Lack when the checkers flew.

Hayek’s victory put him into a tie with IndySlotCar Hall of Famer Jim Iverson for ninth in the all time stats with 17 career wins. The win

also moved him to second place in the point standings, 21 points behind Strom and six points ahead of Lack.

A scheduling change has moved the next race, the Halloween Havoc, away from Quarry Heights Raceway and will have the drivers returning to the

Lack Track. Will any of the drivers apply what they learned in this event to help them move up, or will the same drivers return to the final

with the same results? We will see in two weeks.

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