2012-13 Round 4

West Bend Grand Prix - Lack Track

October 13, 2012

Round 4 of 16

Lack Is Back Winning West Bend Grand Prix

West Bend, WI - Running a partial schedule this season, Mike Lack proved he still is a contender after capturing the pole and then winning the West Bend Grand Prix IndySlotCar Series race on Saturday afternoon. Lack hit the track early in the qualifying session and laid down a lap on his home track that no one could match. KVHO teammates John Wiedemann and Mike Fitzlaff qualified second and fourth with points leader Mark Walczak running the third fastest lap.

Dan Margetta,returning from a 2 race lay-off due to a concussion, showed a lot of speed in the first heat race on the short twisty road course and took the win over Fitzlaff and Dean Strom. Lack dominated the second heat race with Ev Kamikawa finishing second and leading the battle for the final feature transfer spot. For the second week in a row, Mike Kristof flew off the track and crashed out of the heat race. Walczak and Wiedemann raced hard for the victory in the third heat race until handling problems plagued Walczak allowing Wiedemann to pull away with the victory. Walczak was unable to pass Kamikawa for the transfer spot and the points leader had to settle with fifth place for the event.

The feature race started with Lack taking the lead and leaving the rest of the field to battle for second place. Kamikawa and Wiedemann traded off the second place position while Margetta struggled with keeping his quick racecar on the track. At the mid-point break, Lack held a big lead with Kamikawa in second place followed by Wiedemann and Margetta. Lack's pitstop was a struggle and left many wondering if he would suffer the death-card that plagued him a couple seasons ago. Back on the track and following the completion of pitstops by the rest of the field, Lack still maintained the lead but now it was only a couple of laps over Wiedemann. Wiedemann was able to make up the laps but once he took the lead away from Lack, the battle was on. The two teammates ran side by side in the final minutes of the race. Swapping the lead, of only a few car lengths, the race was on for the win. Two laps prior to the finish, Wiedemann spun coming off the backstraight and Lack was able to pull away to take the checkers. Kamikawa and Margetta finished third and fourth.

The win was Lack's eighth career victory in the series, tying him with teammate Fitzlaff for eleventh in the all-time IndySlotCar Series standings.

Walczak maintained the points lead, now by twelve over Wiedemann followed by Fitzlaff and Strom. Lack jumped up four spots to fifth in the standings with his win, but he still plans on racing a partial schedule.

The series heads to Wauwatosa, WI on Thursday, October 25th for the Halloween Havoc at Quarry Heights Raceway, the first of two races at the track this season.