Ty Majeski sits alone at the top of the all-time win list in the ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment after earning his 17th victory, fourth in a row this season, by winning the Illinois Lottery Super Late Model Showdown at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois.
It wasn’t an easy path to the record for the Seymour, Wisconsin driver as he made the winning pass with four laps to go after Paul Shafer Jr. touched the wall coming off turn two allowing Majeski to get by for the victory.
“He (Shafer) was going to win the race. My motor was vapor locking in this heat,” Majeski said in victory lane. “I just didn’t have any power off four. I was good off two where I could gain on him. It was unfortunate for him that he got into the wall. I got a run on him and was able to get around him.”
Dan Fredrickson got past Shafer in the final laps to earn a second-place finish.
But, that wasn’t the only excitement for Majeski as he was involved in an incident going into turn one on lap two where he and Jim Sauter Jr. made contact causing Sauter to spin and hit the wall.
Justin Mondeik also got caught up as he climbed up Sauter’s car and slowly rolled on his roof, went for a short ride before rolling back over on his wheels. Both drivers were taken to the infield care center and were released with no injuries.
“It seemed like we had a pretty good car after starting at the rear, and passing for some positions. We came off turn four and everyone was trying to pound to get to the inside line. It looked like Sauter got crossed up and got sideways, then backed it into the wall,” Mondeik recalled as he rolled over for the first time in his career. “I went to the inside to avoid him and he came down the hill and got into my right rear and we were on for the ride.”
Sauter shared his side of what happened after he was released from the infield care center.
“Honestly, I can’t really tell you. My spotter was calling for three-wide then four-wide,” Sauter said. “It was really unfortunate to this to happen early in the race, but the car is junk.”
Majeski came on pit road with a right rear flat tire and put a used tire with 25 laps on them. He would restart 17th.
On the restart, Travis Dassow was leading until Shafer got by him on lap four and took over the top top spot.
While Shafer paced the field, Majeski was rapidly working his way to the front and was in the top five by lap 13.
On lap 23, Majeski passed Dan Fredrickson for the second spot. He would get within five car lengths of Shafer, but couldn’t make a challenge for the lead.
A competition yellow flew with eight laps to go in the 40-lap event. It took a few restarts before we the final eight laps were contested on the 1.25-mile oval.
With four laps to go, Shafer would contact the wall allowing Majeski to make the winning move.
“I got in a little hot and washed up a little bit,” Shafer said after the race. “I got in the gas, slid up and hit the wall. I saw Majeski go by and I said oh hell maybe we can get him back. We still got a podium finish, so not a bad day.”
Majeski’s victory moved him ahead of Fredrickson on the all-time win list in the ARCA Midwest Tour earning 17 victories in 43 starts.
Fredrickson was hoping to stay ahead of Majeski on the list, but finished second.
“We didn’t run very well, but it got better during the race,” Fredrickson said. “We figured it out with about five laps to go and picked up a half a second. We will go on to the next race.”
Travis Dassow finished fourth and simply said “We needed that” after the race. Ricky Baker rounded out the top five.
The ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment will go from competing at its largest track this season to one of its smallest on Saturday, July 1st for the All-Star 100 at Rockford Speedway in Loves Park, Illinois. The stars and cars will battle on the high banked quarter-mile oval.
Visit midwesttour.racing for the full schedule and be sure to follow the ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment on Facebook (/midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).
