Heitz Rolls Through March Madness

(Wauwatosa, WI) -- Joe Heitz moved flawlessly through the March Madness bracket at Quarry Heights Raceway, it was the Good Vibes Racing driver's fifth win of the season and puts him well within reach of the Husarsbilt Cup championship with just two events left on the schedule.

The good vibes showed up early at the third visit to the beautiful Quarry Heights track of this season as Mike Kristof, Heitz's Good Vibes Racing teammate took the Firestone P1 Award, it was the veteran driver's second pole position at the track this season, having also score the P1 Award at Halloween Havoc. With this being a bracket format event, seeding was based on qualifying and that put Heitz on the other end of the bracket with the second seed. Hometown hero Matt Hayek, who appeared to be the most likely to take away the pole from Kristof, came up a little short and would hold the third seed, Dean Strom would hold down the four.

The 10 car field meant there would be two first-round match-ups to advance to the quarter finals. The eight-nine pairing saw CBD Racing teammates facing off, Brad Core the nine and Bill Black the eight. Core took and early lead and too many mistakes by Black would allow the #6 car to advance to the quarters. In the seven-ten race, Dean Strom kept Ev Kamikawa behind him for almost the entire match-up and moved on with Kamikawa's Team PenskeHO outfit settling for tenth on the night, the same position they started from.

The quarter finals started out with what turned out to be the biggest surprise of the evening, Brad Core, the ninth seed against top seed Mike Kristof. The 20-car thought it would strategic to choose the slightly more difficult blue lane against Core, but Kristof couldn't keep the car on the track and the whole idea unraveled as Core turned out to be not only quick, but very smooth and had very few offs and opened up a lead in the first half that Kristof could not overcome when he moved to the quicker yellow lane, ultimately Core's CBD Racing Chevrolet-Daboiler would hold a one lap lead when the checkered flag flew. Kristof's loss is the earliest exit for the top seed in March Madness history.

Meanwhile, the rest of the quarters would see three-seed Hayek move past six-seed Steve Rist, a mild upset saw John Wiedemann get his #45 FAST II: The Castaways Honda held off four-seed Dean Strom from FAST, and in the most significant race for the Husarsbilt Cup championship was the two-seed of Joe Heitz taking out seven-seed Mike Lack, relegating the current points, Lack to seventh for the second race in a row.

This meant the first semi-final would feature a five versus a nine, Wiedemann and Core, and this would be the closest match-up of the evening as Wiedemann, thinking much like Kristof, that choosing the most technical lane would offer an easy path to victory. But once again, Core kept it smooth and quick in the yellow lane, while Wiedemann had to make sure he didn't dig too deep of a hole in the first half to be able to overcome in the second half when the drivers flip-flopped lanes. For most of the second half it didn't look like "JW" had made a wise choice and with just two laps remaining in the 90-lep contest, Wiedemann's #45 would get by the 6. It was Brad Core's first final four of the season, meaning fifteen different drivers have made appearances in the finals this season.

In the other semi-final, Heitz would have to challenge Maty Hayek. Heitz was choosing the red lane to try and throw his competitors off in the second half and it worked. Hayek opened up a three-lap lead by halfway, but once Hayek moved from the quicker green lane, he struggled in red and despite the home crowd growling at Heitz as the laps ran out for Hayek's 15 car to challenge, Heitz would move on to the title match, while Hayek would settle for fourth and Core getting the final step of the podium.

In the championship round, Heitz again chose the challenging red lane against Wiedemann who started in blue. "JW" was only able to build a lead of less than a lap and  it would not be enough as the second half started Heitz quickly passed Wiedemann and then the 45 tried to push hard and just 16 laps in to the second half, Wiedemann's Droplight car hit the wall in turn one hard! Coincidentally Heitz would show up in the same spot and as the 45 spun, facing head on with Heitz's #21 Splenda Chevrolet-Daboiler, Wiedemann's car would bounce off and out of the track ending his race and Heitz taking the win.

Heitz's fifth win of the season and 20th of his career, pulls him within ten points of Lack for the Husarsbilt Cup championship with just two events left to run. Starting with the "open-class" Larry Rotter Memorial Grand Prix at Turtle Creek Park Raceway and the grandaddy of them all, the 33rd running of the HO Indy 500 at South Shore Superspeedway.

It's a short one-week turn around to the Rotter Memorial and teams and drivers have to prep cars for next Thursday.

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