PLOVER, WI – Gabe Sommers Racing made the drive out to Slinger Super Speedway this past weekend for the Keith’s Marina Race Against Cancer for 75 laps of Elite 8 Super Late Model racing. Looking to build on a ninth place finish at the famed high banks back in April with the ASA Midwest Tour, it would be a day of notebook building and seeing what ideas had a realistic opportunity to pan out.
Starting off strong in practice over the course of the morning, Gabe would find himself no lower than fifth in any practice session, and would turn a total of 35 laps by the time the checkered flag would wave on the sessions, while putting himself at the top of the speed charts in the waning minutes. A quick drivers meeting would follow before the schedule flipped into qualifying for the local divisions. The No. 15 would go just a touch slower in pursuit of a fast time than he had in the morning, slotting into the seventh position and just 0.065 off of provisional pole in an extremely tight 21 car field.
Rolling off from fifth in the lineup for the 75 lap feature event, Sommers would quickly roll from fifth to second and find himself near disaster when a kerfuffle collected several cars in his vicinity early. Most were able to keep it rolling after, and the field resumed the racing action. Looking out the windshield, Gabe set his sights on the single car remaining in front of him. Stalking the back bumper of the leader, the No. 15 darted both high and low, trying to find a clean way to get to the point. Finally, a slip up by the lead car allowed Sommers to stick his nose inside for position, finally pulling ahead for the lead on the 47th lap of 75.
With under thirty laps to go and a clear track ahead of him, minus a couple stray lap cars, Sommers set the No. 15 on kill and pulled away from the company on his tail. By the checkered flag, it was evident that nobody in the field had anything for GSR, as Gabe would speed across the finish line with a 4.308 second margin of victory over second place. Happy about his results, Gabe stated from the winner’s deck that the team had felt great about their race pace, and once they got ten laps into the feature, the car really came alive and made big strides from their last visit to Slinger.
If you missed out on seeing Gabe score a win at Slinger, head on over to Jefferson Speedway this Saturday, May 25 for some ASA Midwest Tour racing! You can also watch along on TrackTV.com if you aren’t able to see us in person!