As a second generation race driver, Josh Wallace has a great legacy to live up to.  Father Jamie Wallace has had a great career, and now Josh can add his name to the list of winner as he captured the Sonia’s Rose Mother’s Day Special 60 at the Slinger Super Speedway.

“It feels great. It’s a good Mother’s Day present for my mother,” said Wallace.   

Mike Egan and Travis Dassow led the field of twenty cars to the green, with Egan getting the early advantage.  The field quickly strung out single file, with cars trying to bump their way past.  The new Hoosier F40 and F50 tires that are being run at Slinger this season is taking time for the drivers to get used to.  Many are worried about trying to run the high side, so the early single file racing was not much of a surprise.

The first yellow flag would come out on lap 11 when the cars of Austin Luedtke and Ron Ragan did a synchronized spin in turn three. Tommy Hromadka would spin to avoid making contact with them as they blocked the track.

When racing resumed, Egan once again got the jump on the field and Al Schill worked his way into second place.  Schill was gaining on Egan, when Egan bobbled slightly in turn four forcing Schill to lift off the gas for a split second.  That split second caused Steve Apel to run into the back of Schill’s car and spin him bringing out the second caution flag.  Schill and Apel were sent to the rear of the filed as per track rules for being involved in causing a caution, but Schill angrily left the track and the facility when he did not get his position back.

With two strong competitors now out of contention, that left the battle for Egan and Wallace to decide.  Egan and Wallace ran much of the remainder of the race side by side with Wallace on the high side.  The two traded the lead by mere fender lengths over the next thirty five laps.  Egan held a slight advantage, and actually cleared Wallace on lap twenty five.

Egan would hold the top spot as a yellow flew on lap 45 when the car of Brad Keith came to a stop in turn two with a broken tie rod.

Slinger’s Double file restarts saw Egan take the inside with Wallace on the outside.  Defending track champion Lowell Bennett had a close up view of the ensuing battle as he sat in third place as the green flag flew.  Egan and Wallace ran side by side for the next three laps, until Egan would bobble slightly coming off of turn four, and gave Wallace the break he needed to take over the lead.  From there Wallace would hold off Egan over the last twelve laps and capture his first career feature win in a Super Late Model.

“We have a really good car,” explained Wallace.  “I’ve run on the 8” tires a lot and these new tires kind of reminded me of those.  These tires are a lot harder than the ones last year.”

Yet how was he able to run the outside when so many drivers have complained that it was difficult to do?

“It’s the car set up,” said Wallace.  “With my dad here so much we’ve got his set up in the car so the car goes around on the race track pretty good on its own.”

For his part, Mike Egan lamented about a potential win that merely slipped away from him.

“Disappointed.  You know we raced awful hard for 55 laps and one little bobble and that was it.  He got me,” said a dejected Egan.  “It was a matter of who would slip first.  Both our cars were real equal and we had great side by side racing all night.  I mean we probably raced right next to each other for 40 laps.”

Was it truly a matter of equal cars and just one slight bobble that made the outcome of the race what it was, or is there more to the story of the tire issue?

“Drivers have said they do not like this tire,” said Egan. “I don’t know, I guess I am on the fence.  I don’t think it’s bad.  The tire slows the car down and it doesn’t have as much grip and they obviously don’t turn as well, and you have to work on your car a bit to get them back to being better. I don’t know, I can’t answer that I’m not sure.  On last year’s tire there is now way he would have been able to beat me like that. I guess it’s good for him and bad for me.”

Lowell Bennett came home in third place with Randy Schuler and Scott Shoeni rounding out the top five.

Mike Graczkowski led flag to flag in capturing the thirty five lap late model feature. Graczkowski started on the outside of the front row and got the jump at the drop of the green flag.  He was able to stretch out to a comfortable lead until lapped traffic allowed Chris Blawat to close in on his back bumper.

However that was as close as Blawat would get and Graczkowski was able to pick up his first career feature win since moving up to the late model division.  Blawat would wind up in second place, while Rob Braun finished third. Steve Apel, pulling double duty, came home in fourth with Ryan DeStefano rounding out the top five.

The Mid-American Sportsman race was won by Kenny Joosten.  Joosten and defending track champion Mike Borchardt Jr. battled side by side for many laps before Joosten was able to clear him.  A slight bit of contact by Joosten raised the ire of the flagman, but Joosten was able to hold on for the victory over Borchardt Jr.  James Swan would wind up in third place with Mike Lange and Jimmie Evans rounding out the top five.

John Daley cruised to an easy win in the Thunderstock division.  Daley got around Nathan Fick for the lead on lap eight and was never challenged from there.  Eric Lingford came in a distant second with Andy Welter coming home in third.  Nathan Fick held on for fourth, while Ryan Farrell, who earlier scratched his car from the dash, managed a fifth place finish.

Defending Slinger Bees Champion Joe Lang took the checkers in their feature with a resounding win over Dave Schmidt.  Alex Prunty rebounded from a mid race crash to finish in third place.  Brandon Tackes and Daniel Schroeder rounded out the top five.

Shane “The Shark” Becker captured the Figure 8 feature with defending track champion Scott Goetzke finishing second.  Willy Van Camp finished in third place, while Dustin Krebs and Rick Bruskiewicz completed the top five.

Jason Hennes won in the Speeday Guest cars.

Chris Kern won the Spectator Eliminators.