2009-10 Round 6

Duane Sweeney Memorial Grand Prix - Road Course At Badger Raceway

Round 6 of 14

December 3, 2009

Sweeney Stomp 2009

FAST FACTS

The Sweeney Stomp

WHAT: The Sweeney Stomp

WHERE: Muskego, Wisconsin, Road Course at Badger Raceway

WHEN: Thursday, December 3rd 2009

U.S. TELEVISION SCHEDULE: YouTube.com, and Indy Slot Car website

2008 CHAMPION: Ev Kamikawa

2008 POLESITTER: Mike Fitzlaff

TRACK LAYOUT: Road course

RACE LENGTH: 20 minutes

TRACK RECORDS: Qualifying – 51.008, Mark Walczak in 2007, Race –244 Laps Mark Walczak in 2007, Fast Lap – 3.961, Mark Walczak in 2006

RACE ROUND: 6 of 15 in the 2009-2010 Indy Slot Car Series

INSTANT REPLAY:

From the time the teams moved into a relocated and renamed Badger Raceway, formerly Bayside International, the question was who would stop the four race winning streak of Mark Walczak. Early on in practice, the answer was nobody. In qualifying it would be Mike Fitzlaff who would throw down the time to beat. He had to wait until Walczak would finish his qualifying attempt where his car started having handling issues relegating him to last on the field.

The first heat of the evening saw Amy Butler take on three of the four members of Spehert-Foyt Racing. Chris Spehert and Mike Fitzlaff would battle early on for the lead swapping the position often until Chris had an accident that caused him to pop off a pick-up shoe. He would lose five laps trying to replace it. This left Mike Fitzlaff to take the win ahead of Amy Butler. Chris Spehert would finish third with Andy Spehert finishing fourth.

The second heat saw Larry Rotter, Mike Lack, and Dan Margetta face off with Mark Walczak. Who would stop Walczak? Well it would be Walczak himself. The handling issues he suffered in qualifying continued to plague him in the heat race. This left the other three drivers to battle for the win. It would be settled late as Dan Margetta would hold on for two lap win over rookie Mike Lack, with Rotter another lap behind. Walczak would finish fourth fourteen laps down.

The third heat was the easiest of the night as Ev Kamikawa would jump out at the start and never look back. He would cruise to a ten lap win over John Wiedemann and Matt Hayek, as both drivers were seeing this track for the first time. Hayek had joined the series the year prior, but it was right after this race.

The fourth and final heat race would see Mike Kristof jump out to a 7 lap lead over Tom Spehert had issues finding his car on the track, brought on by his pre-race talk with the bartender and Dean Strom had car control issues. The second half was another story as Kristof had the issues and Spehert who got some strong black coffee made up laps left and right. However he would fall a lap and a half short as Kristof would hang on for the win.

The finals would see pole sitter Mike Fitzlaff take the early lead only to have it disappear in a puff of smoke as his car would catch fire in the pits ending his race. This would leave Ev Kamikawa to do battle with Dan Margetta for the win while Mike Kristof would cruise around to finish third. Kamikawa would collect the win as Margetta would have a couple of offs while trying to push his car to catch Ev.

THE SPRECHER SWEENEY STOMP HISTORY (14 events, 1994 - Present)

Year Race Winner

2004-Jan Larry Rotter- Edge Super Speedway

2004-Dec Jim Iverson- Bayside International Raceway

2005 Jim Iverson

2006 Jim Iverson

2007 Mark Walczak

2008 Ev Kamikawa - Badger Raceway

2009 ?????????????

Top Stories

The series heads to Badger Raceway for the first of two consecutive open class events. Mark Walczak comes into this event having won the last two events and taking over the seasons points lead for the first time. Threw five events this season there have been three winners. Mike lack has one win, while Ev Kamikawa and Walczak both have two wins.

Stats Watch

The win by Walczak was the 18th of his career good for 6th place all time

Chris Spehert collected his 14th career heat win, good for 13th place all time

-Matt Hayek’s 3rd career heat win moves him into a tie for 21st all time

Walczak had his 45th career finals appearance good for a tie for 8th place all time

-Chris Spehert moved into 14th all time with his 18th career finals appearance

-Matt Hayek collected his 3rd finals appearance, good for 25th all time

Larry Rotter’s 174th career start places him 4th all time

-Andy Spehert moved into a tie for 18th all time with 57 career starts

-John Wiedemann moved into a tie for 25th all time with 22 career starts

- Mike Lack moved into 27th all time with 21 career starts

Larry Rotter and Tom Spehert tie for 5th place all time with 26 career DNFs

-Andy Spehert moved into a tie for 14th with his 13th career DNF

-Mike Lack’s 3rd career DNF ties him for 23rd all time

-Dean Strom is tied for 26th all time with 2 career DNFs

Who’s Hot

Mark Walczak has won the last two events

Mark Walczak has won the pole in four of the five events

Ev Kamikawa, Mike Lack, and Mark Walczak have all made three of the five finals this year