Gabe Sommers Racing made their 2025 Midwestern racing debut this past Saturday, partaking in the Alive For 5 Series’ Icebreaker 100 at Dells Raceway Park. After a mostly successful stint down in Florida in Alabama while cutting teeth with new equipment, Gabe and his crew were excited to get back to the familiar bullrings of Wisconsin.
As the two time defending Alive For 5 Series champion, all eyes would be on the No. 15 as a serious contender in a field of over thirty Super Late Models. They left nothing to doubt in practice, putting it at the top of the charts in the final scuff session before qualifying.
Changing rubber compounds left behind by the 602 Late Models and Midwest Trucks made for a bit of a mixed bag for the Super Late Models in qualifying, with many of the often top performers falling into an unlucky spot with the track conditions, and the No. 15 Ford was, unfortunately, an example of the track conditions. A 13.213 second lap time was good enough for 13th of 35 and locked into the show on speed, but GSR looked to improve on the effort come feature time.
A mandatory “Odd Dash” gave the locked in teams a chance to dial in their platforms further, and the Travis Sauter led crew went to work on finding a solution resulting in more raw pace for the upcoming Icebreaker 100 feature.Gabe would elect not to get aggressive in the eight lap dash, finishing third after starting from second place and falling in line on the bottom of the track when space allowed.
WIth all support divisions wrapped up, it was now time to throw the green flag on the 2025 Alive For 5 Series season. Rolling off from 13th on the grid, Sommers had to find his groove early and move forward as opportunities presented themselves. A jumble of traffic blocked the way forward for the first fifteen laps, leaving the No. 15 to fall down the order to eighteenth on the leaderboard before an opening became available.
Finally able to get on the loud pedal, Gabe started to roll up through the order as the race reached quarter distance. A couple of quick cautions dotted the laps, and with the subsequent lane choice more spots became available for the taking. By Lap 34/100 the No. 15 Ford had moved up to the twelfth spot on the track when disaster struck. Contact between the two cars ahead of Gabe stacked up the field unexpectedly in Turn 4, shooting the front end of his car into the air before crashing back down with extensive damage. The day would end 66 laps prematurely, left with nothing more than a broken racecar and some promise of speed being found in the setup that day.
GSR will look to turn their luck around on May 4 at Madison International Speedway, making the trip to battle the stars and cars of the Midwest Tour in the Joe Shear Classic 200.