Sauter Cures Cabin Fever At Dells Raceway Park Holds Off Zehr In Crash Filled Race Written By: Gregg Paul The definition of cabin fever is a state characterized by anxiety, restlessness, and boredom, arising from a prolonged stay in a remote or confined place. Cabin fever describes the extreme irritability and restlessness a person may feel in these situations. This definition also applies to the Cabin Fever 100 at Dells Raceway Park on Saturday night. Several drivers seemingly suffered from anxiety and irritability during the running of the race. Ten cautions, lots of bumping and banging, and impatience by many drivers made for an appropriately titled race. Travis Sauter, who is the hottest driver in Wisconsin if not the entire US, somehow found the cure as he held off a hard charging Dalton Zehr to capture the checkers at Dells Raceway Park. “That race was an embarrassment,” exclaimed Sauter in Victory Lane. “That’s ridiculous, all those wrecks. Half those guys shouldn’t even be out there.” Those remarks may have been out of the frustration of having to endure so many restarts that erased the huge leads that he had. “Awesome race car again. My guys are awesome,” said Sauter. “Just had enough at the end to hold off Dalton (Zehr). All those restarts were killing us. The tires were starting to go off the corner there, but I’m sure it was that way for everyone. I just needed longer runs, but those were hard to come by.” The longer runs were definitely hard to come by, but the race did start with a tribute to the legendary Dick Trickle. The race was started with the green and yellow being displayed and all the fans standing and hoisting a beer in the air in remembrance. That would leave 99 green flag laps of racing. Andrew Morrissey jumped out to the early lead as racing got underway while Jeremy Miller and Steve Holzhausen battled side by side for second. The carnage started early as the first caution came out on lap 8 when new track qualifying record holder Dalton Zehr got into the back of Dennis Prunty and spun him off of turn four. Traffic bottled up in front of Prunty as he slowed up. Zehr wasn’t able to do so and bumped Prunty around, and both drivers were sent to the rear. The green flag would come out again, but it wouldn’t last for long, as there was a huge pileup in turn one. Rich Bickle went around and several cars were damaged trying to avoid him. Erik Darnell’s night was finished as his car was too damaged to continue. Morrissey would get the jump on the restart and ease back into the lead. Jeff Storm moved alongside Jeremy Miller in a battle for second while Josh Wallace and Steve Holzhausen were side by side for fourth. The field began to string out single file as they put a few laps on the board. Travis Sauter began his march towards the front and moved into the top five when he got around Michael Bilderback. The leaders were encountering lapped traffic on lap 27, and some were able to get through better than others. Jeremy Miller would work his way around Morrissey for the lead on lap 29. Holzhausen would get underneath Storm for the third spot and opened the door for Sauter to follow through into the fourth spot. Just as the racing was getting interesting the caution flew again on lap 30. Jerry Blystone spun in turn two and Chris Blawat would spin to avoid contact. Miller took off in the lead when racing resumed, with Morrissey on his rear bumper. Storm maintained the third spot, but Sauter would get around Holzhausen for fourth. Two laps later the yellow would come out again when Rich Bickle got into the back of Dennis Prunty, spinning Prunty in turn three. No sooner had the green flag come back out, the race was slowed yet again as the cars failed to make it out of turn one on the restart. Ten cars piled up into turn one blocking the track. The race was red flagged to clean up the mess and sort out the field. When racing finally resumed Miller once again took the lead with Morrissey on his rear bumper. Sauter moved into the third spot getting around Storm for third on lap 32. The field strung out quickly this time, as Miller stretched out to a few car lengths lead. Sauter moved into second as he got underneath Morrissey in turn two. That opened the door for Storm to follow into the third spot. Sauter caught up to Miller as the pair of #5’s fought for the lead. Sauter would duck to the inside of Miller coming off of turn four and moved into the lead on lap 45. Dalton Zehr made his way into the top five a lap later as he got past Holzhausen just before another yellow came out. Pete Carlson and Jerry Blystone spun in turn four to bring out this caution, and it was determined by track officials that this would become the halfway break. The cars stopped on the front stretch and the crews had ten minutes to make adjustments or repairs to their cars. During this break the cars of Rich Bickle and Dennis Prunty parked near each other on the track. Prunty came over to discuss the incident with Bickle earlier in the race and the conversation became a tad animated. The conversation did not appear to be the most friendliest of conversations, but that would prove to be typical of this evening. As the second half of the race got underway Sauter moved away from Miller quickly and began to stretch out his lead. That lead would grow to a full straightaway lead over Miller by lap 65. Dalton Zehr, who picked up a few spots with the cone on the restart, moved his way into third place on lap 69 as he got around Storm. Sauter caught up with lapped traffic as Zehr got around Miller for second on lap 78. Sauter appeared to have a little trouble with the lapped cars, but Zehr gained only a little ground on Sauter. Another yellow on lap 78 for the spin by Nathan Matz in turn four bunched up the field yet again. The race lasted only another lap under green before the yellow would fly yet again. This time it was for Bobby Kendall stopping in turn three with a flat tire. Sauter would get another jump on the restart, but Zehr quickly moved in and brought Storm with him. Zehr would move right up to Sauter’s rear bumper as another yellow would come out on lap 89. Kelsey Bauer stopped on the ramp exiting the track in turn two with a flat tire. That set up another restart followed immediately by another caution. As the green flag flew, Dennis Prunty moved to the high side of Rich Bickle in turn one. Coming off of turn two Bickle spun and lit up the tires trying to keep the car low and off the wall. With all the smoke from the tires, Tim Lampman could not see where to go and unfortunately picked the wrong spot. Lampman slammed into the passenger side of Bickle’s car setting off a fit of rage by Bickle. Outraged by the crash, Bickle nearly tripped as he exited his car and headed straight for Lampman. Bickle was furious at Lampman and voiced his displeasure over the incident. Bickle then appeared to throw a punch in Lampman’s direction, but it was unclear as to what he may have hit. You can see for yourself with the video evidence foundHERE. Another couple of restarts and yellows led to a ten lap shootout to decide the winner. Sauter got a great jump on them except for the last one, and that almost cost him the lead. Sauter spun the tires coming off of turn four and pitched the car sideways. He was not only able to hold on to it, but held onto the lead as well. Once he regained control of his car, he inched away from Zehr lap after lap. Zehr was perhaps holding back as he moved in closer to Sauter as the laps were winding down. Zehr was perched on the rear bumper of Sauter as they came to the stripe with just two laps remaining. Going into turn one Zehr got a great run on Sauter and tried to carry that off the exit of turn two. However, Zehr would slip coming off the turn and bounced the car off the backstretch wall. That was all Sauter needed to pull away and head for the checkers. Sauter was obviously excited about the win, but he wasn’t about to back down from his comments about the quality of the racing on this evening. “It was just ridiculous,” said Sauter. “I just don’t understand. Guys just obviously can’t race. That’s the bottom line. We had a great car and just had to hold them off on those late restarts. The tires were starting to go away, but if we got five or ten laps we could drive away a little bit. We weren’t getting that many laps so it made me a little bit nervous, but I had enough to hold him off.” Sauter had his own ideas as to why there were so many yellows, but was it the double file restarts? “I don’t think so,” said Sauter. “Everyone should be in control of their own car but apparently some guys aren’t and that’s the bottom line. If you’re involved in two, three, four cautions in a race you should probably pull off just for the benefit of the people sitting in the grandstands.” You could tell he probably wanted to say more, but quickly deflected the conversation back to his own car. “I was worried coming here tonight because I kind of figured it would be a wreckfest, but luckily we were ahead of it all,” said Sauter. Dalton Zehr proved his new track record in qualifying wasn’t a fluke as he had ot make his way from the back to the front twice after being involved in incidents on the track. “We got sent to the back I think on lap 2 or something like that for just a racing incident,” said Zehr. “They stacked up and I accidently spun Dennis (Prunty), the previous track champion here and we both got sent to the back. But I tell you what, him and I were racing pretty hard trying to stay ahead of one another through the field but I don’t know what happened along the way. He was right there on my bumper and I think he must have been involved in another caution.” Zehr definitely used the numerous cautions to his advantage as well as utilizing the cone. “A lot of cautions gave me a lot of opportunities to move forward,” said Zehr. “I would have liked to have seen a little more longer green flag stints but that’s just part of racing. Cautions breed cautions, but to come from where we were at the back of the pack to second was just really neat. Sauter….he’s made a name for himself as a top, top driver but I feel like we put pressure on him. I slipped up there with two to go and bounced it off the wall pretty good on the backstretch and from there Sauter just had to coast and he had it won. He had it won either way I think regardless of the hit but I gave it 110% and that 10% got the wall. It was a really good race and I think Sauter and I will have more good races like that.” Zehr was asked about his opinion of Sauter’s comments on the ridiculous driving going on throughout the race. “You know, I don’t feel like it’s ridiculous,” said Zehr. “We all have our nights where sometime you’re the bad guy when you’re really not. I dumped Dennis but I don’t want to stick a bumper on anybody intentionally. I mean I can’t say that because I am sure I have done it and I am sure I will but I still try to relatively race clean. To dump Dennis like that was completely non-intentional. That happens though. Mistakes are made and people go for the same real estate at the same time and cars spin out. These things are right on the ragged edge. I give my hat off to these drivers. I think everybody here is a good driver. There’s a few that are just going to tear up equipment but you’re going to have that in any sport. I think we have a good field of cars here.” At least on this night, Travis Sauter bested this field of good cars. Which leads one to wonder if that trend will continue and if there is a track that Sauter will not run as good at and see his streak end anytime soon. “I hope not. We try to go to them all to win, so that’s the plan and we’re 2 for 2 here in Wisconsin this year,” said Sauter. Results of the Cabin Fever 100 1. Travis Sauter (Prairie du Sac, WI), 2. Dalton Zehr (Port Orange, FL), 3. Jeff Storm (Waterford, WI), 4. Jeremy Miller (Rockton, IL), 5. Steve Holzhausen (Bangor, WI), 6. Andrew Morrissey (Deforest, WI), 7. Josh Wallace (Genoa City, WI), 8. Dennis Prunty (Knowles, WI), 9. Tommy Pecaro (Markesan, WI), 10. Tim Schendel (Sparta, WI), 11. Jim Olson (, IL), 12. Steve Rubeck (Rockford, IL), 13. Nathan Matz (Burlington, WI), 14. Pete Carlson (LaCrosse, WI), 15. Jerry Blystone (Portage, WI), 16. Robert Kendall (Montello, WI), 17. Rich Bickle (Janesville, WI), 18. Tim Lampmann (, WI), 19. Kelsey Bauer (Elkhart Lake, WI), 20. Michael Bilderback (WIS DELLS, WI), 21. Tim Sauter, 22. Chris Blawat ( , WI), 23. Erik Darnell (Beach Park, IL), 24. Landry Potter (Lake Geneva, WI),
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:31:03 +0000
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