SPOONMORE WINS FEST BATTLE, HOLTZ WINS MID-AM WAR

Topics:  Jeremy Spoonmore

Gregg Paul
Mid American Stock Car Series
October 7, 2014

Jeremy Spoonmore knew that heading into the final Mid-American Stock Car Series race of the year at Oktoberfest that his quest for the championship would probably go unconquered. Yet the racer’s mantra always seems to be just win and let the points take care of itself. While the points wouldn’t take care of Spoonmore quite the way that he had hoped, he did close out the 2014 season by capturing the win at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway.

Although many would think that there would be disappointment in losing the championship, Spoonmore was surprisingly more upbeat that one might expect.

“You know what? No. I thought maybe I would be but I’ve been wanting to get Fest so bad that this feels just as good as the championship,” said Spoonmore. “Really after tonight it was great.”

Lyle Nowak, who was eliminated from championship contention after the big wreck at Rockford last week, jumped out to the early lead driving Dan Gilster’s back up car. Jeff Holtz slid into the second spot with Gilster following in third.

Nowak began to pull away from Holtz and looked strong in the early going before the yellow would come out on lap 4.

Ryan Gutknecht spun coming out of turn four and hit the wall to bring out the yellow and end his night early. Gutknecht had also crashed during the heat race and had scrambled just to get his car ready for the feature.

Jeff Holtz would get the jump on the outside on the restart and clear Nowak for the lead in turn three on lap 5. Nowak would fight back on the inside and race side by side with Holtz for a couple of laps, but Holtz would pull away soon after.

Jeremy Spoonmore worked his way past Gilster into the third spot, then moved in on Nowak for second by lap 9.

Holtz was able to extend his lead by several car lengths while Spoonmore and Nowak raced for second. Spoonmore would clear Nowak for second and open the door for Brian Back and Tyler Bauknecht to follow past Nowak.

Once Spoonmore had moved into second, he began to close in on Holtz in the lead. By lap 13, Spoonmore was on Holtz’ rear bumper but could not make a move to pass. Spoonmore was able to get into the corners a lot better, but Holtz was able to get better drive off and pull away down the straightaways.

Back and Bauknecht made it a four car train for the lead, opening up a full straightaway on Nowak in fifth. Bauknecht would get past Back for third as the cars past the crossed flags of halfway with Holtz still holding off Spoonmore.

Spoonmore began to take a peek on the inside, but just as he would make a move a lapped car would set a pick for Holtz to allow him to keep the lead. Holtz then pushed up in turn one but just as Spoonmore tried to duck underneath, the lapped car of Craig Stark set the pick that Holtz needed to keep the lead. That allowed Bauknecht to catch up to Spoonmore’s rear bumper by lap 31.

Perhaps Spoonmore began to get impatient as he gave Holtz the chrome horn as they came up on the lapped car of Mark Brooner. Holtz moved up the hill with Spoonmore trying to squeeze between. As the leaders past Brooner, Bauknecht went all the way to the inside wall to get past Brooner.

The yellow would come out with five laps to go for an incident between Jack Stern and Kody Hubred with both being sent to the rear.

Holtz would get a jump on the restart but Spoonmore wouldn’t give in that easily. Spoonmore looked to the inside of Holtz coming off of turn four and would clear for the lead by the time they got to turn one with just twelve laps to go. Bauknecht would get past Holtz as well for second.

Holtz perhaps knowing the race win was lost seemed to back off and Rick Corso would get past for third place as the laps were winding down.

Bauknecht would catch Spoonmore but could never mount a challenge for the lead in the closing laps.

Spoonmore would secure his third win of the season and his first Oktoberfest feature win.

“I worked the car real hard to get to him (Holtz),” said Spoonmore. “We were battling there nose to tail. He was a little bit better there through the middle. I just got my right rear tire hot and tried to cool it down and get back to him. When that caution came out I was like ‘I got a chance now’. I didn’t want to get too greedy but I thought I had a pretty good chance. Then we got a good restart.”

Spoonmore could get into the corners better, but couldn’t get off the corners as well as Holtz.

“I could get in and roll to the middle and get underneath him,” said Spoonmore. “He could get that drive off. I knew if I could just cool the tires down, give me a few laps that once I got to his door that I could get by him. It worked out.”

For Jeff Holtz the disappointment in losing the race paled in comparison to the joy of winning the championship.

“It feels great. I’m glad it’s over,” said Holtz. “We had a really good year and couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to work with and stuff but it is very satisfying.”

While the battle for the championship never materialized, Holtz knew that he was relatively safe to win the title.

“I knew if I started all the races today I shouldn’t have a problem,” said Holtz. “Once the heat race kind of turned out the way it was I am like we got to win this thing and make sure we got everything under control. Hopefully things went our way and we won the heat race.”

It would have been fitting to win the championship in style by winning the last race of the year, but Holtz was content to wrap up the title any way possible.

“That would have been perfect but we didn’t need that restart with five to go,” said Holtz. “For some reason the car didn’t seem the same that. It wasn’t sticking and turning right but I just wanted to finish in one piece. It wasn’t worth wrecking and losing it just for the win. I’m glad that Spoomore won. He got second in points and we raced good and clean all year and it was a good year for him also.”

A good year indeed for both Spoonmore and Holtz. Two wins, the 'Split 40' overall win and second in points for Spoonmore and three wins and the title for Holtz. Another exciting year in Mid-Am comes to a close.

Mid-Am Feature Finish
1. 95- Jeremy Spoonmore
2. 33- Tyler Bauknecht
3. 88- Rick Corso
4. 38 - Jeff Holtz
5. 34 - Maxwell Schultz
6. 23- Dan Gilster
7. 3- Lyle Nowak
8. 36- Brian Bach
9. 21 - Rick Tackman Jr
10. 26 - Jack Stern
11. 8 - Erik Pierce
12. 38 B - Brian Holtz
13. 132 - Scott Dunning
14. 47 - Kenny Joosten
15. 04 - Craig Stark
16. 80 - Dusty Krebs
17. 66 - Chris Storey
18. 00 - Mark Brooner
19. 48 - Kody Hubred
20. 30 - David Slack
21. 01 - Ryan Gutknecht
22. 98 - Greg Beebe