2017-18 Round 6
Turkey Trot - Infield Road Course at South Shore Superspeedway - St. Francis, WI
November 9, 2017
Round 6 of 16
Lack Takes The Bird
St. Francis, WI -- The 25th season of IndySlotCar is quickly becoming one of the dominating performances in that long history. Joining names such as Cianciola and Rotter, Mike Lack is putting together a record that matches any by the dominating champions of the past. With his fourth win in the first six races including what turned into a fairly easy walk to the Turkey Trot victory, the Husarsbilt Cup is almost a foregone conclusion as his points lead has now ballooned to 69 points over his Angry Squirrel Speedsport teammate, John Wiedemann.
It looked like it might be Wiedemann's night to make up ground as he scored first in qualifying, taking the pole position late in the qualifying session. Once again heats were grouped by qualifying forcing JW to face his teammate and Ev Kamikawa. But Lack and Kamikawa put on a show for the paying customers as they ran side by side for lap after lap, a dangerous thing to do, in this "De-slot" format race, while Wiedemann was unable to keep pace with the two leaders, having to settle for fifth on the night, while Kamikawa would keep it clean and pull out a one lap gap over Lack. The two would face off again in the final.
In the second heat, Bill Black had no trouble taking the victory for this third final appearance of the season, as his competitors, Amy Butler and then Matt Hayek would "de-slot" out of the race, finishing tenth and seventh respectively.
Dan Margetta made a spectacle of himself, as he overfilled the fuel on is Fuzzy's Vodka car, but eventually was able to find steady pace that kept Pete Dorn behind him, while Mike Kristof and Mike Fitzlaff would end their nights early finishing a disappointing eighth and ninth after both appeared in the final at the Halloween Havoc.
The 20-minute final started out as a reprise of the opening heat race, as Lack and Kamikawa battled wheel-to-wheel again for the first quarter of the race, but Lack opened a small lead that grew considerably as Kamikawa's pit crew bungled the pit stop, including leaving a hose for the driver to run over and had to return for a stop and go penalty. That allowed Lack to open a lead that Kamikawa could not overcome, it was the Ferrari driver's best finish of the season. Bill Black ran to a solid third, his second podium of the season, while Margetta, never a factor, would crash out early to finish fourth.
While Mike Lack takes the prize turkey home, the rest of the series takes a three week break before heading to Badger Raceway for the high speed, open-class race of the Duane Sweeney Memorial Grand Prix.
##
Turkey Trot Fast Facts
Race date: Thursday, Nov 9
Track: 2.4 mile Temporary Infield Road Course in St. Francis, WI
Race distance: 20 minutes
Twitter: @indyslotcar
IndySlotCar Website: indyslotcar.com
2016 race winner: Dan Margetta, (No. 3 Penske HO Racing Dallara-Chevy)
2016 Chick-fil-A Brookfield P1 Award winner: Dan Margetta (No. 3 Penske HO Racing Dallara-Chevy)
One-lap qualifying record: Mark Walczak, 2.852 seconds, 2008
Race record: Ev Kamikawa, 323 laps, 2015
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 (group qualifying/ fastest single lap)
7:40 – Heat races
8:30 – Turkey Trot (20 minutes)
Race Notes:
· Turkey Trot is the third of the Founder’s Five events, Mike Lack has won the first two, while both Mike Fitzlaff and Mike Kristof had made the finals in both.
· Mike Lack has made the final in all five events this season, including two wins and has padded his Husarsbilt Cup points lead to 51 over his teammate John Wiedemann.
· After being collected at each of the first two race, the Pole-To-Win fund has not been claimed for three races and is currently at 33,000 IndySlotCar bucks, which will increase to around 45,000 for the Turkey Trot.
· This will be the 13th running of the Turkey Trot at the Infield Road Course at South Shore Superspeedway, surpassing the 12 times it ran at the Inside Edge.
Turkey Trot PRE-EVENT QUOTES:
Mike Lack No. 1 Angry Squirrel Speedsport: My wife says, ‘win that turkey or don’t come home!’
Mike Kristof, commissioner: Black AND Dorn are head of me in the standings? Do new drivers just humor me their first season and then they kick my a$$ after that?
Dan Margetta No. 5 Team Castaway: I think I’ll be at this race.
TURKEY TROT HISTORY (24 events, 1993 - Present)
Year Race Winner
1993 Phil Cianciola – Inside Edge at Edgewood Superspeedway
1994 Dave Austin
1995 John Shea
1996 Ev Kamikawa
1997 Ev Kamikawa
1998 Jim Kaehny
1999 Ev Kamikawa
2000 Ev Kamikawa
2001 Larry Rotter
2002 Jim Iverson
2003 Jim Iverson
2004 Phil Cianciola
2005 Mark Walczak – Inside Edge at South Shore Superspeedway
2006 Jim Iverson
2007 Mike Fitzlaff
2008 Mark Walczak
2009 Mark Walczak
2010 Mark Walczak
2011 Mark Walczak
2012 Dan Margetta
2013 Mike Fitzlaff
2014 Ev Kamikawa
2015 Ev Kamikawa
2016 Dan Margetta
Most Wins: 6 – Ev Kamikawa; 5 – Mark Walczak; 3 – Jim Iverson; 2 – Dan Margetta, Mike Fitzlaff, Phil Cianciola