SWAN CAPTURES SECOND STRAIGHT OKTOBERFEST WIN, SPOONMORE GRABS TITLE

Topics:  James Swan, Jeremy Spoonmore

Matt Panure & Eamon Bauman
Mid American Stock Car Series
October 7, 2012

WEST SALEM, Wis. (October 7, 2012) – For the second straight season five-time Mid-American Stock Car Series Champion James Swan left his mark by cruising to an Oktoberfest feature victory. Once he had received his accolades, Swan welcomed the newest member to the club of MASCS titlists.

With a car and motor on loan for the final event at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway Jeremy Spoonmore ate up a 45 point deficit to Lyle Nowak and grabbed the 20th Mid-American Stock Car Series Championship in dramatic style.

“I still can’t believe it. It’s too surreal,” said Spoonmore, clearly holding back his emotions. “We worked our butts off this week and got everything ready to go. Last weekend, when I was on fire, I got out of the car and I thought ‘man… we worked so hard this year, and now it’s all down the tubes.’ But, nobody gave up.”

Spoonmore and Nowak had been exchanging the point lead throughout the second half of the MASCS season. Things all seemed to be skewing to Nowak’s favor when he grabbed the win at Elko two weeks ago and placed second at Rockford while Spoonmore had his much publicized troubles. On a cool, crisp afternoon and evening, however, it was Nowak chasing the gremlins that stood between him and his second MASCS crown.

An early twist in an already thick plot came as Lyle Nowak prepared to take the green for qualifying. Nowak lost control of his machine, spun out of turn four and made contact with the outside wall on the front straight. As he went to pit lane to survey the damage, Mid-American drivers and teams who had already qualified jumped into action making the necessary repairs to Nowak’s machine so he could qualify.

Spoonmore received his timed trips just before Nowak and set the fastest time, looking to assure himself the bonus points to cut into the deficit. Nowak timed in 19th, tightening the battle.

After the heat races were completed, Spoonmore had gained one more point on Nowak, leaving the deficit at 26 before the start of the 40-lap main.

With Spoonmore starting 11th and Nowak deep in the pack starting 19th, the field was led to green by Travis Rodewald and Ryan Gutknecht. Gutknecht secured an early lead, while Rodewald was left to deal with a hearty challenger.

Tom McClintock started an early charge through the field and challenged Rodewald for the runner up spot by lap four. As McClintock surveyed, Brian Back slid into the top five by lap seven and started to close in on the top duo.

On lap 12 McClintock secured the lead by sliding to the inside of Gutknecht, with Back following in short order. Back continually closed the gap on the entry of the turn on McClintock, but could not find enough room to make a pass on the bottom line.

As the battle raged up front, Swan cruised inside and outside, jumping to the top five from his tenth-place starting spot by lap 15. Not far behind, Spoonmore sat in seventh, but still did not have enough of a margin to take the point lead from Nowak.

The only caution of the race fell on lap 16 when Eric Buchholz was sent spinning in the middle of the pack. He was narrowly avoided by Nowak, who was riding in 13th.

Before returning to green flag conditions the field squared off two-by-two at the cone. Most stayed in position until Jack Stern made some ground by jumping to the outside line. When the field was set back into motion, Back slid up the track in turns one and two, allowing McClintock to secure the lead once more.

Swan quickly disposed of Gutknecht and set his sights on the top two. As Swan began to challenge, Spoonmore jumped to the high side and picked off two spots in two laps, grabbing fifth and inched closer to the title.

The most critical move for Swan, and Spoonmore was made on lap 19 when he worked to the inside of Back. After making slight contact, Back slid up the track and Swan grabbed second. Back slid to the tail end of the top ten, putting one more spot between Spoonmore and Nowak, handing the point lead to Spoonmore.

“I tried getting under Brian a couple times – I’d have to keep slowing down in the center to keep from getting into him, but then I wound up sliding into him anyway. I really feel bad about that over there,” Swan said of the pass on lap 23.

Just two laps later Swan had closed the gap on McClintock, and pounced on an opportunity to take the lead when the Onalaska driver slid up the track. “He just went in, tried to follow me in, and he went a little high, and I turned underneath him and got by him. Wow, that was awesome,” Swan said of the pass.

Spoonmore was happy to follow Swan to second and pad his advantage with 15 laps remaining in the 2012 season. As the laps clicked off it became apparent that Nowak’s struggles were continuing. Unable to make any further moves, Nowak’s machine began to fade and he fell back to 17th before the checkered fell.

Content to cruise to the checkered, Spoonmore finished in the runner up spot for the second straight Oktoberfest. Jack Stern made an impressive late run to third, local favorite Dan Gilster was fourth and Back recovered from the earlier slip to take fifth.

For Swan the win was his third trip to the stage for an Oktoberfest win. On Friday Swan claimed the ASA Truck Tour Title with a win as well. He also grabbed a win at LFS in June. Although he missed two races, Swan still finished fourth in season standings.

“I struck on something a couple years ago, and that car is just phenomenal,” Swan said. “I definitely have to thank Brian Holtz for letting me drive that car. We purposely saved that car for the half miles, Madison and La Crosse, and it has won everything it has been in.”

Before taking his final bow as Oktoberfest champion, Swan congratulated Spoonmore on his first title.

Spoonmore then admitted on stage he was happy to see the green flag, so he could race, and let the chips fall where they may.

“We were going to go for the win. I had nothing to lose,” Spoonmore reflected. “It was all in Lyle’s hands, and we drove our butts off, and I wanted to win the race. And if I didn’t win, you know, I got second, and I didn’t really think – I didn’t even know that I won until the end here when my dad told me.”

Spoonmore was sure to thank all who helped make it possible for him to contend for his title including his crew, his car owners Randy and Claire Aubert and Ron Bloomberg who loaned him the machine.

“It was a great year. It’s surreal, I still don’t believe it,” he said.

The mood was a little different around Nowak’s racer after the event as he came seven points shy of his 18th career title. However, Nowak still sported his trademark smile and a sincere appreciation for Spoonmore’s run to the title – proving once again, although he may not have come out on top this season, he is still a true champion.

Finishing just behind Spoonmore and Nowak, Ryan Farrell rounded out the season third in points – claiming the Rookie of the Year title.

Brad Keith borrowed Jack Stern's racer and won the first annual six-car, six-lap "Great Punkin' Runoff". The brainchild of former Mid-Am racer Timm Shmitt and TMS Landscaping. The race is a winner take all challenge race consisting of all the member quick qualifiers and feature winners of the season. Keith was awarded $1,000 for the win.

The Mid-American Stock Car Series 2012 banquet is set for Saturday, January 19 at the Wintergreen Resort and Conference Center in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. More information will be available later this offseason.