2017-18 Round 13
Stardust 500 - Stardust Speedway - Vegas
March 1, 2018
Round 13 of 16
Lack Slams The Door In Vegas
(Greendale, WI) -- After a series of races where it looked like Mike Lack might be opening the door to challengers to the Husarsbilt Cup championship lead, the victory at the Stardust 500 slammed any such hopes shut. A dominating win and his closest rival and teammate, John Wiedemann, finishing fifth lets Lack take an 80 point lead into the final three events of the season. Short of not making an appearance at a coupe of races, the "Drive for Five" seems to be well in hand.
The defending champ showed early on he was bringing his "A"-game to this race, landing the pole position and setting a new track record for a single qualifying lap of 1.763 seconds on the D-shaped Stardust Speedway. Mike Fitzlaff made a rare appearance on the front row in qualifying, but would quickly fall to the back of the field, while Pete Dorn showed surprising speed, qualifying fourth and advancing to this third career final and second final-four in a row, while never challenging for the lead, he easily held off veterans Tom Spehert and Matt Hayek. Hayek was awarded the Hard Charger prize after moving from ninth in qualifying to fourth place at the checkers, while Tom Spehert stepped up to the final for the first time since the opening round at the Mini Milwaukee Mile.
Mike Kristof made the only early exit of the night with a crash out his heat race. John Wiedemann attempted to bump Dorn out of the transfer spot to avoid his sixth fifth place finish of the season. Chris Spehert made a solid run to sixth place, but said his sights are set on the HO Indy 500. Amy Butler made little noise at a track she has dominated recently, winning the fall Stardust race. Ev Kamikawa was taken to the infield care center after climbing out of his car after complaining of feeling ill in the cockpit.
Stardust 500 Fast Facts
Race date: Thursday, Mar 1
Track: Stardust Speedway, 1 mile tri-oval, Greendale, WI
Race distance: 500 laps
Twitter: @indyslotcar
IndySlotCar Website: indyslotcar.com
2016 race winner: Matt Hayek (No. 15 MaD Motorsports Dallara-Honda)
2016 Chick-fil-A Brookfield P1 Award winner: Matt Hayek (No. 15 MaD Motorsports Dallara-Honda)
Qualifying record: Matt Hayek, 7.326 seconds, 2017; Single lap record: Mark Walczak, 1.763 seconds, 2012
Race record: Ev Kamikawa, 11 minutes, 2.1 seconds, 2014
YouTube Broadcast: IndySlotCar Channel
At-track schedule (all times local):
6:30 – Driver introductions
7:00 – IndySlotCar Series Practice
7:20 – Qualifying for the Chick-fil-A Brookfield P1 Award (single car/ four laps)
7:45 – Heat races
8:30 – Stardust 500
Race Notes:
· John Wiedemann’s second win of the season at Quarryfest Deslotmania finally allowed him to cut 20 points off Mike Lack’s Husarsbilt Cup championship points lead. But, with just four races left, JW needs to finish ahead of his Angry Squirrel Speedsport teammate in every race to try and get close by the HO Indy 500 finale.
· Wiedemann moves to 10th in starts, all-time, with 153, ahead of Amy Butler and moves to 11th in all-time laps run, with 30,076, jumping over Chris Spehert.
· While Lack leads JW in points by 57 for the top of the standings, just 12 points separate Ev Kamikawa from Mike Fitzlaff for third, and Dan Margetta, Bill Black and Pete Dorn are just five points apart for fifth.
Stardust 500 PRE-EVENT QUOTES:
Pete Dorn No. 88 Black-Atom Racing: I like giving Margetta the Pete-down on track!
Dan Margetta No. 3 Penske HO Racing: I’ll be in Las Vegas if you’re looking for me.
John Wiedemann No. 19 JAM Racing: We’re going to have all three Angry Squirrels in Vegas, the only question is which one of us takes the win, Amy has won the fall race the last two years.
STARDUST 500 HISTORY (10 events, 2006 - Present)
Date Race Winner Event Name Track
9/28/2006 Jim Iverson Reinhart FoodService 400 Milwaukee International
9/27/2007 Jim Iverson Reinhart FoodService 400 Milwaukee International
9/18/2008 Mike Fitzlaff Reinhart FoodService 400 Milwaukee International
10/8/2009 Ev Kamikawa Reinhart FoodService 400 Milwaukee International
10/7/2010 Chris Spehert Reinhart FoodService 400 Milwaukee International
2/2/2012 Dean Strom Stardust 400 Stardust Speedway
3/14/2013 Dean Strom Stardust 400 Stardust Speedway
2/27/2014 Ev Kamikawa Stardust 500 Stardust Speedway
3/3/2016 John Wiedemann Stardust 500 Stardust Speedway
3/2/2017 Matt Hayek Stardust 500 Stardust Speedway
Most Wins – 2-Ev Kamikawa, Dean Strom, Jim Iverson