May 4, 2015 – When the green flag dropped for Sunday’s ARCA Midwest Tour presented by Scag Power Equipment 7th Annual Joe Shear Classic, Johnny Sauter had one thing on his mind…victory lane.
Sauter started on the outside of the front row followed by his nephew Travis Sauter. Nick Murgic and Andrew Morrissey started inside of them. Johnny jumped out to the lead but not without early lap challenges from Murgic and Morrissey. Once Sauter was able to put some distance between himself and the rest of the field, he set sail. He went on to become the sixth winner of the event.
“This just means so much to me to win this event. I have been trying for three years now. Joe Shear Jr. (son of the late Joe Shear) is my best friend, so I know this will me a lot to him, too. My dad and Joe Shear had a pretty neat relationship, so winning this after losing my dad, just makes it that much more special,” said Sauter from victory lane.
With about three laps to go, Johnny encountered lapped traffic and with Travis closing in, he almost made a daring move going in between the two cars, but he thought better of it. Travis was able to close within a car length, but once Johnny was cleared he was able to pull away a little bit.
Travis finished second to his uncle, but was happy for him and the victory. “I know how much this win means to him. Joe Jr has helped him so much over his career that it will be really special for both of them.”
Johnny and Nick Murgic led the field to the green and Sauter pulled a way a little bit. But after only one lap was complete a spin in turn four brought out the caution. Skylar Holzhausen, Griffin McGrath, James Swan, Jim Olson, and Jeremy Miller were among those involved.
At the restart, Sauter once again chose the outside with Murgic to the inside. Travis went to the inside leaving Morrissey the outside. Johnny once again jumped to the lead but Morrissey was aggressively trying to take that away. Unable to get the job done he settled into second.
The second and final caution came out three laps later when Natalie Decker came to a stop on the front stretch. She was unable to continue.
Second through sixth were running bumper to bumper in the early going biding their time. Ty Majeski had made his way into the third position rounding out the podium. It was a good start to the season for Majeski, who finished first out of the ARCA Midwest Touring Stars.
The next event for the Stars and Cars of the ARCA Midwest Tour is May 16th for the Cabin Fever 100 at State Park Speedway in Wausau, WI.
Be sure to follow the ARCA Midwest Tour on Facebook (/midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).
To learn more about the Automobile Racing Club of America Midwest Tour, log on to arcamidwesttour.com. The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is among the leading auto racing sanctioning bodies in the country. Founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum, the organization administers more than 100 events each year in multiple racing series, including the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, the ARCA/CRA Super Series, the ARCA Truck Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour, plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedway.
1 Johnny Sauter
2 Travis Sauter
3 Ty Majeski
4 Nathan Haseleu
5 Nick Murgic
6 Tim Sauter
7 Andrew Morrissey
8 Dave Feiler
9 Austin Nason
10 Ricky Baker
11 John Beale
12 Bobby Wilberg
13 Nick Panitzke
14 James Swan
15 Chris Weinkauf
16 Jason Weinkauf
17 Dillion Kralovertz
18 Paul Shafer, Jr
19 Jim Olson
20 Bobby Kendall
21 Ross Kenseth
22 Casey Johnson
23 Mike Litchfield
24 Skylar Holzhausen
25 Natalie Decker
26 Jonathan Eilen
27 Griffin McGrath
28 Jeremy Miller