Heitz Closing In On Title Fight

(Milwaukee, WI) -- Joe Heitz started the season in a bit of a hole to his Husarsbilt Cup championship contenders by missing the second and fifth rounds of the season, but a recent charge and a missed race by points leader Mike Lack, brings the two back within fighting distance. Heitz scored his third win at the streets of Rapids, with a comeback win over defending race winner John Shea. 

This is the third time this season that Heitz has taken his Good Vibes Racing Splenda Chevrolet-Daboiler from pole position to victory lane. Heitz set a new track record for a single qualifying lap. Shea started along side Heitz on the front row in his #3 Pennzoil Team PenskeHO Chevrolet-Daboiler, the only entry from FAST II: The Castaways', John Wiedemann, third, Good Vibes' other car, the #20 of Mike Kristof, fourth and CBD Racing's Brad Core with a solid fifth place to start.

The first heat featured the slowest four qualifiers and Pete Dorn and Dean Strom ran one-two early on, but a lack of power kept Dorn from challenging late, with James Spehert moving into second in the heat, but ninth for the evening, while Strom and Chris Spehert finished tenth and eleventh, with Dorn moving on to another final.

The middle heat saw Kristof, Core, hometown hero Ev Kamikawa and FAST's Steve Rist. Kristof and Core both struggled with handling, while Kamikawa using his experience kept his car clean, staying on track and opening a lead of Rist in the first half. Rist proved to be fast in the second half and was able to chase down and pass Kamikawa to take the heat win, while Kamikawa and the #12 Team PenskeHO team had to wait and see if their lap total would hold up for the transfer spot.

The three fastest qualifiers lined up in the last heat, with Heitz, Shea and Wiedemann all running together early on. Nearing the midpoint, Shea opened up a small lead over Heitz, with "JW" right there. As time started to run out, the 21 was able to get past the 3, eventually taking the heat win and the bonus points for the most laps in the heat races, with Shea taking the transfer spot away from his Team PenskeHO teammate. Wiedemann would settle for fifth in the race.

The 20-minute final saw Shea open a lead that looked like the veteran would repeat at the only street course on the IndySlotCar Series schedule, growing up to a significant five laps. Pete Dorn would end his race early, crashing out on lap 89, to finish fourth. Just past half distance Heitz began ripping off fast laps and slowly reeling Shea in. Rapids was the site of the beginning of the "flood gates" that the Heitz/Kristof partnership was known for back in 2022, with Heitz repeating the following season, with the comeback complete with a couple of minutes left to take the checkered flag, it was Heitz's third win at the track. Shea's second place was the best of his part time season, the owner of Victory Motor Speedway will be back in the field in two weeks when the series returns to the newest oval on the schedule. Rist's podium finish was the first since the Deckertring back in October.

With Lack missing the race, his 91 point championship lead is reduced to 37 after Heitz was able to score every point available, including the win and for the Firestone P1 Award, a heat win and the most laps in the heats. Both Heitz and Lack are expected to be entered in the remaining four events on the schedule, so it should be an interesting battle right down to the end of the HO Indy 500 in eight weeks.

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