Nearly two months after what was scheduled to be the TUNDRA Super Late Model Series season opener at Wisconsin International Raceway, the 2020 season will finally get underway on July 4 at Dells Raceway Park. What was originally the third race of the six-race schedule will now open the season, with the originally-scheduled opener at WIR now the season finale.
For the first time since 2016, last season saw a driver win more than one TUNDRA race when Gabe Sommers won two of the five races. Despite being the only driver to score multiple checkered flags, he could only muster a second-place points result in the final standings. The title would go to Casey Johnson, tying Dalton Zehr for most championships in the series with three.
Last year’s TUNDRA race at Dells saw Sommers pick up his first-career TUNDRA Super Late Model Series win over Johnson. While the weekend remains the same as last year, Dells now opens the 2020 season just one week after the Trickle 99 opens the Alive for Five Series tilt.
TUNDRA then heads to Jefferson Speedway two weeks later on Saturday, July 18. Last year’s date at “Wisconsin’s Action Track” was not contested due to rain. Defending Wisconsin Challenge Series champion John Beale won the 2018 show at Jefferson.
The series returns to State Park Speedway on Saturday, August 8 for the third event of the season at the 1/3rd mile oval. TUNDRA and ARCA Midwest Tour champion Casey Johnson ended a three-year winless drought with the series by taking the checkered flag over local favorite Mark Mackesy.
Round four sees the series head to Marshfield Motor Speedway for the Bev Ashenbrenner Memorial, which was originally scheduled for June 6 but will now take place on Saturday, August 29. Former Marshfield track champion Eugene Gregorich, Jr. beat Gabe Sommers and John Beale to take the win from the touring stars.
What was scheduled to be the season finale will now the penultimate race of the 2020 TUNDRA season when the series heads to Golden Sands Speedway on Labor Day, September 7. Sommers scored the hometown win in the series’ longest race of the season in terms of lap count.
Wisconsin International Speedway will now close the season on Sunday, September 20 after its May date was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The local racers of the Fox River Racing Club has historically provided touring groups like TUNDRA and the Midwest Tour stiff competition over the years, and 2020 will prove to be the same. Dennis Prunty has won the Kaukauna stop each of the last two years.
TUNDRA has consistently averaged some of the highest car counts in all of the country in recent years. The series averaged 28 cars per event one year ago, with a season high total of 33 having entered for the season opener at WIR.
Five Star Race Car Bodies Marketing Coordinator and TUNDRA co-owner Matt Panure explained to Speed51 back in January the success behind the Wisconsin-based series. You can read how they are able to do it by clicking here.
More information regarding the TUNDRA Super Late Model Series can be found here: https://tundrasuperlates.wordpress.com/history/