MID-AMERICAN STOCK CAR SERIES 2011 PREVIEW |
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Topics: Mid-American Stock Car Series
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Matt Panure
Mid-American Stock Car Series
April 13, 2011
NEWS RELEASE SPORTS/MOTORSPORTS
Contact: Matt Panure – Public Relations Director
(920)-360-7618
Mid-American Stock Car Series
MidAmerMatt@yahoo.com
www.midamericanracing.com
FORT ATKINSON, Wis. (April 13, 2011) – Defending a championship is nothing new to Lyle Nowak. The Wausau, Wis., veteran has been through this process 16 times before. So when the green flag falls on the 2011 Mid-American Stock Car Series season, there is no need to be apprehensive about the 17th time.
Right?
Wrong, said the 2010 MASCS champion. “A lot of our other championships were involved with weekly racing. You race the same people with the same cars at the same track.
“In the Mid-Am series it’s on a bigger scale because we’re racing a variety of venues with very competitive racers,” he continued. “There is a host of drivers who are capable of being champions this season. We would just be thrilled to again be in the mix with those guys.”
It may have taken a while, but Nowak said he finally was able to enjoy his championship run throughout the winter months. Along with his wife Marcy, Nowak was able to reflect on the car, the crew and the circumstances that led him to his first MASCS crown. “It was a real satisfying feeling,” he said. “To put that all together was really rewarding for us and exciting for us to share with everyone here in Wausau.”
Although the process of enjoying the championship and realizing that there is a title to defend may leave little time for celebration, Nowak is already hard at work, and ready to keep his title from the grasps of other Mid-American competitors.
“We’ve kind of put [last year] in the rear view mirror. We know how competitive this series is, we know how good these racers are,” Nowak said. “We’ve been working pretty diligently on the car and we’re going to do the best we can to make the Mid-Am series proud that we’re defending champion.”
Nipping at Nowak’s heels last summer was upstart rookie Tyler Bauknecht. Bauknecht enjoyed the best season by any MASCS rookie in series history, gathering two wins and securing runner up honors in the final season standings.
With a better understanding of each track and plenty of confidence from an incredible campaign, some of the pressure must be lifted off the soon-to-be 20-year-old’s shoulders.
Right?
Wrong again, said the Reedsville, Wis., native. “There is good and bad,” Bauknecht said of the expectations for 2011. “The good is that we did so well last year, but this year everyone will have the same, if not higher expectations for us. There is definitely a little pressure on my end of being just as good as last year, if not better.”
But Bauknecht, who will be sporting a new FiveStar S2 body, said he isn’t prepared for a sophomore slump. “I’m feeling pretty confident. We were trying different things with the setup so we can go from the back to the front. Overall I’m pretty comfortable with what my dad is doing, and our funding is a little better this year.”
Chasing those two will be Brian Back, who set an astounding nine fast times in 2010. Back failed to set fast time in only one race that awarded points for qualifying last season. In doing so, Back handicapped himself by having to start in the middle of the field at every event.
Maybe qualifying won’t be as important to Back this season, and getting a better starting position in each race would be more favorable.
Right?
Strike three, said Back. “I want to win every fast time, heat and feature this year, but it obviously won’t happen. But I’m going to give every effort to do it.
“If you want to make distance in this series you have to figure out how to qualify high and race your way to the front,” the Rudolph, Wis., racer said. “You have to take every possible qualifying point you can get and hope you have a good enough car to get up front, because that’s the only way to make up a bunch of points in a hurry.”
If Back is to make up space on the MASCS competitors, early in the season seems like the most sensible time for him to do it. With races at Rockford Speedway (where he set fast time last spring), Norway Speedway (where he set a track record in July), Marshfield Motor Speedway (where he won and set fast time) and Dells Raceway Park (where he set fast time in all three races), the odds may favor Back.
But again, Back is hesitant to assume he will be able to pad a significant points lead in that time frame. He said finishing will be the key to success this season.
“All the tracks are good tracks for me,” Back said. “You can’t expect to put distance between yourself and somebody no matter how good you’re running. There are way too many good drivers in this series. You just have to be steady and consistent all season long.”
Because he has only visited the venue once, it would seem as though Back may hit a speed bump when the series visits Grundy County Speedway on July 15. After setting fast time and racing his way to second, however, Back is excited about the return to Morris, Ill.
“People gave a lot worse impression of it than I thought. It’s one of the very few bullrings you can go to and actually race,” Back said. “Out of all the small tracks we’ve race at with Mid-American, I’ve seen more passing there than anywhere else.”
Bauknecht is also eyeing the series return to Grundy, but for different reasons. In last season’s Morris May-hem, Bauknecht broke an axel and backed into the outside retaining wall. Although it was too early in the season to tell, the accident may have cost Bauknecht a better chance at the MASCS crown.
This season, Bauknecht is looking for vengeance against Illinois’ Finest Third-mile. “If anyone ever did what I did, they would have some butterflies in their stomach,” he said. “What’s done is done. Now I want to go back and I want to win there.”
To do so, Bauknecht will have to fend off not only the MASCS travelers, but the Grundy regulars – and a driver who will be a Grundy regular for the first part of the season in James Swan.
The four-time MASCS champion said he plans on racing at Grundy through the first few weeks of the season to test. However, he’s not planning to use the track time to take notes for Grundy.
“The Dells is probably my Achilles heel,” Swan admitted. “We’re going to run Grundy to test for a few weeks and try to learn something before the Dells, because I think the tracks are similar.”
If Swan is to find some notes on Dells Raceway Park from his experiment at Grundy, he plans on being a threat to capture his fifth MASCS championship. If his luck is to change from last year, that is.
“It was a lot of bad luck put all together in one year,” recalled Swan, whose sixth-place finish was the worst in his MASCS career. “Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I’ve had so many good years before. I guess I’m kind of happy to get it all over with at once and get it over with.”
The bad luck prompted Swan and long-time Car Owner/Crew Chief Adam Berge to go over the car during the offseason. Things look well-prepared, Swan said.
“I think we have a really good chance,” Swan said of his title hopes. “Anyone could put together a good year and have a chance at the championship. I hope I’m there at the end of the year to fight with them.”
In that fight will be the usual suspects: Bill Prietzel, Mark Pluer, Jake Finney, and Scott Null – along with some of the new comers and up-and-comers.
With two stops in August, one at Norway and one at DRP, Mid-American drivers will again face a frantic three-week stretch to round out the season at Madison International Speedway, a second stop at Rockford, and the season-ending event at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
Bauknecht offered his hopes for what happens after the final checkered falls at Oktoberfest.
“I’m hoping I’ll be up there at La Crosse [hearing] that I won the championship, but who doesn’t want that? You have probably ten really good guys trying to do the same thing I want to do. It’s a matter of who’s on their A-game when it comes to race time.”
Before any of the commotion of Mid-American’s 19th season is to get heated, the first green flag will fall on Sunday, April 17 at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park, Ill.
It is a venue that has been very kind to the series’ defending champion who won the spring race in 2006 and 2008. Nowak said he always treasures a trip down Interstate 39/90. “I went there for years watching the ARTGO shows and I thought it was insane watching. Now we get to go there and compete and actually are fairly competitive. I love Rockford Speedway.”
He isn’t the only one who is ready to hit the historic high-banks. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to go out and try to win one there,” Back said. “It’s definitely the most challenging track we go to. There is no doubt about that.”
Nowak also said, he is prepared to get back to defend his title for a different reason. “I love racing with all of our friends. Marcy and I are good friends with about everyone in this series. I’m really looking forward to getting back to the track, seeing everyone and the camaraderie the Mid-Am series has.”
Only time – and hundreds of green-flag laps – will tell which of Nowak’s friends, if any, are able to dethrone him by the end of 2011.
Mid-American begins its 19th season on Saturday, April 17 as part of the 34th Annual Spring Classic at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park, Ill.
Rockford Speedway is located at 9572 Forest Hills Road seven miles north of downtown Rockford, just two miles west of Interstate 90 at the intersection of Forest Hills Road and Highway 173 in Loves Park, Ill. For more information visit www.rockfordspeedway.com
Tyler Bauknecht (33) and Lyle Nowak (32) battle at Rockford (Doug Hornickel photo)
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