Sunday was already a day of firsts at Slinger Super Speedway (WI). The Super Late Model 75-lap feature marked the first race for Slinger's Elite 8 Super Late Model Series, as well as the inaugural visit by the ARCA Midwest Tour to the quarter-mile.
The co-sanctioned event also turned into a day of firsts for reigning track champion Luke Fenhaus. By virtue of winning the Slinger season opener, he also scored his first career ARCA Midwest Tour win. Perhaps more importantly, he snagged what he considered his first legitimate victory against two of the best in the state of Wisconsin, Casey Johnson and Ty Majeski.
Fenhaus held off both of the Wisconsin standouts over the course of Sunday afternoon, taking the top step on a podium that featured the trio of drivers.
“This one means a lot to me. To outrun those two beside me is a huge deal. I wanted to get one clean one with Ty," said Fenhaus after the win. "Slinger Nationals, he had an incident. Milwaukee Mile, we were super fast and got screwed over in that one. To beat the 5 [of Johnson] and the 91 [of Majeski], they’re the two best in Wisconsin, so it’s a pretty big deal.”
Of course, Fenhaus was also pleased to finally have an ARCA Midwest Tour win to his credit. Fenhaus finished second in series points in 2021 to Majeski with four top-fives and eight top-10s in nine races, including runner-up finishes at Madison and Jefferson.
“I finally got the monkey off my back. I thought I’d get it at State Park, being my home track, and never got it there. Maybe the Dells, maybe somewhere else. We finally got it.
“We dominated all day, so if I threw it away at the end, I was going to be really upset. We got it done.”
On long runs, Casey Johnson was arguably Fenhaus' greatest threat for the win. However, Johnson struggled to find speed on restarts, which prevented him from battling for the win late.
“At times, it was the fastest thing on the track. Just the restarts, it took a little bit of time to get going. It didn’t have the fire-off speed every other restart, I don’t know what was going on.
“It was a great car. Luke had a good one. It was fun working our way through the pack.”
Majeski left Slinger with a third-place finish, citing his own restart performance as the deciding factor.
“I made some mistakes on the restarts. I got into Luke on one and let the 11 get through. I just didn’t play the race out right on my end. I messed up a couple of restarts and didn’t have the track position to race for it at the end.”
-Photo credit: ARCA Midwest Tour