Photos Courtesy Jess Riedner / Website
Casey Johnson is Overall Winner
Skylar Holzhausen and Jonathan Eilen each picked up wins tonight at Madison in the Twin 50s for the Alive for Five Super Late Model Capital Classic. But it was local favorite Casey Johnson who took home the big prize for the best combined finish in the two races for the second round of the series.
In the first feature Rich Bickle Jr. and Holzhausen paced the twenty-four car field to the green flag. Holzhausen jumped out to the early lead with Casey Johnson moving by Bickle Jr. for second with Paul Shafer Jr. getting by Bickle Jr. for second on lap 2.
After five laps the top three were putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the field. Behind the top three, the cars of Bickle Jr., John DeAngelis, Andrew Morrissey, Austin Nason, and Dalton Zehr were battling it out for spots in the top five.
Holzhausen and Johnson continued to run out front with Shafer Jr. a distant third after twenty laps. The car on the move behind the leaders was Morrissey who moved into the fourth spot at the half-way mark and was the fastest car on the track but with a lot of ground to cover in order to catch the top three.
Johnson was doing his best to close the gap but time was running out. That all changed on lap 42 when the car of Corey Jankowski spun on the backstretch bringing out the caution flag for the first time and taking away Holzhausen’s advantage.
For the restart Holzhausen elected to line up on the outside with Johnson going to the inside followed by Morrissey and Shafer Jr. in the second row.
Holzhausen jumped back out to the lead followed by Johnson with Morrissey, Shafer Jr., and Bickle Jr. racing for the third spot. With five laps to go Holzhausen had a two car length lead over Johnson just before the second caution flag came out when Bickle Jr. spun coming out of turn one.
Once again Holzhausen would choose the outside and Johnson the inside for the restart. Holzhausen was able to keep his car out front following the waving of the green flag and with two laps to go had a two car length lead over Johnson who had his hands full with Morrissey. But this race belonged to Holzhausen who picked his first ever feature win at Madison followed by Johnson, Morrissey, Nason, and Zehr.
“I’ve been close in a couple of big races here before so this one feels good,” said Holzhausen from victory lane.
There was no shortage of drama in the second feature.
Jeff Storm and Gabe Sommers brought the field to the green flag. Storm took the early lead with Jonathan Eilen moving past Sommers for second with DeAngelis and Zehr completing the top five. On lap 8 Eilen worked his way to the inside of Storm as the two raced side by side before Eilen got the advantage on lap 11.
Eilen opened up a five car length lead as Storm, Sommers, Zehr, and Morrissey were fighting it out for second. On lap 15 Zehr took second and started to cut into Eilen’s lead. Three laps later Zehr powered his way to the inside of Eilen and the two raced side by side with Zehr gaining a slight advantage until the caution flag came out on lap 21 for a spin on the backstretch.
Zehr elected to start on the outside with Eilen on the inside followed by Storm and Morrissey in the second row. Zehr jumped back out to the lead with Morrissey getting by Eilen for second followed by Sommers and Storm.
Wasting no time, Zehr quickly built his lead up to nearly ten car lengths over Morrissey at the half-way point. On lap 28 the caution flag came out for an incident in turn two behind the leaders thus negating Zehr’s solid advantage over the field.
The restart was disastrous for Zehr whose car slowed and eventually rolled to a stop in turn two bringing out the caution flag and sending him temporarily to the pits.
Morrissey would keep his place on the inside with Eilen moving up to the outside for the restart. Morrissey was able to take the lead from Eilen followed by Sommers, Johnson, and Storm. On lap 34 Johnson worked his way to third but still had a lot of real estate between his car and the top two.
With ten laps to go Morrissey’s lead over Eilen was just a single car length. One lap later the cars of Nason and Bickle Jr. made contact bringing out another caution flag.
This time Morrissey would line up on the outside with Eilen on the inside followed by hard charging John Beale and Johnson in the second row. Morrissey continued to lead when the green flag waved followed by Eilen, Johnson, Beale and Sommers. Just as Eilen was making his move to the inside of Morrissey, the caution flag came out for a spin.
Now with six laps to go EIlen would line up on the outside with Morrissey on the inside for the restart. The second row would be Beale and Johnson. But trouble happened shortly after the race went green when several cars got together in turn two including Morrissey, Zehr, Beale and others.
Another restart would find Eilen and Johnson in the front row followed by Sommers and Storm in row two with Holzhausen and Hill in the third row. Johnson was able to gain a slight advantage over Eilen before the caution flag came out on lap 4 for a turn two incident.
This time Johnson chose the inside giving Eilen the outside for the restart. Eilen was able to clear Johnson on the restart to take back the lead and maintain the advantage all the way to victory lane. Johnson finished second followed by Storm, Sommers, and Brandon Hill.
Based on his two runner-up finishes in the races, Casey Johnson was the overall winner of the Alive for Five Capital Classic picking up $3500.
Austin Nason was fast qualifier with a lap of 17.667 (101.885 mph) and picked up the $250 bonus money thanks to DeAngelis Construction.
Alive for Five Super Late Models
A Feature 1 50 laps
1. 78H-Skylar Holzhausen, [2]; 2. 47J-Casey Johnson, [4]; 3. 39M-Andrew Morrissey, [8]; 4. 14N-Austin Nason, [10]; 5. 119Z-Dalton Zehr, [7]; 6. 7S-Paul Shafer Jr, [6]; 7. 7D-John DeAngelis, [3]; 8. 5B-John Beale, [5]; 9. 77E-Jonathan Eilen, [15]; 10. 33K-Kevin Knuese, [13]; 11. 15S-Gabe Sommers, [9]; 12. 25S-Jeff Storm, [21]; 13. 4F-Luke Fenhaus, [12]; 14. 45B-Rich Bickle Jr., [1]; 15. 42P-Dennis Prunty, [20]; 16. 11K-Bobby Kendall, [11]; 17. 34H-Brandon Hill, [18]; 18. 38D-Jordan DeVoy, [16]; 19. 22G-MG Gajewski, [19]; 20. 88C-Rick Corso, [22]; 21. 31J-Corey Jankowski, [24]; 22. 80F-Ryan Farrell, [17]; 23. 9L-Tim Lampman, [14]; 24. 40T-Curt Tillman, [23]
A Feature 2 50 laps
1. 77E-Jonathan Eilen, [4]; 2. 47J-Casey Johnson, [11]; 3. 25S-Jeff Storm, [1]; 4. 15S-Gabe Sommers, [2]; 5. 34H-Brandon Hill, [17]; 6. 45B-Rich Bickle Jr., [14]; 7. 78H-Skylar Holzhausen, [12]; 8. 39M-Andrew Morrissey, [10]; 9. 14N-Austin Nason, [7]; 10. 5B-John Beale, [5]; 11. 22G-MG Gajewski, [19]; 12. 7D-John DeAngelis, [6]; 13. 33K-Kevin Knuese, [3]; 14. 9L-Tim Lampman, [22]; 15. 88C-Rick Corso, [20]; 16. 42P-Dennis Prunty, [15]; 17. 119Z-Dalton Zehr, [8]; 18. 11K-Bobby Kendall, [16]; 19. 80F-Ryan Farrell, [21]; 20. 38D-Jordan DeVoy, [18]; 21. 7S-Paul Shafer Jr, [9]; 22. 31J-Corey Jankowski, [23]; 23. 4F-Luke Fenhaus, [13]
Overall Finish
1. 5J-Casey Johnson, 2. 78H-Skylar Holzhausen, 3. 77E-Jonathan Eilen, 4. 39M-Andrew Morrissey, ; 5. 14N-Austin Nason, ; 6. 25S-Jeff Storm, ; 7. 15S-Gabe Sommers, 8. 5B-John Beale, 9. 7D-John DeAngelis, ; 10. 45B-Rich Bickle Jr., 11. 119Z-Dalton Zehr, ; 12. 34H-Brandon Hill, ; 13. 33K-Kevin Knuese, 14. 7S-Paul Shafer Jr, 15. 22G-MG Gajewski, ; 16. 42P-Dennis Prunty, ; 17. 11K-Bobby Kendall,; 18. 88C-Rick Corso, 19. 4F-Luke Fenhaus, 20. 9L-Tim Lampman, ; 21. 38D-Jordan DeVoy, 22. 80F-Ryan Farrell, 23. 31J-Corey Jankowski, 24. 40T-Curt Tillman,
Qualifying
1. 14N-Austin Nason, [18]; 2. 15S-Gabe Sommers, [21]; 3. 39M-Andrew Morrissey, [17]; 4. 119Z-Dalton Zehr, [24]; 5. 7S-Paul Shafer Jr, [20]; 6. 5B-John Beale, [1]; 7. 47J-Casey Johnson, [13]; 8. 7D-John DeAngelis, [4]; 9. 78H-Skylar Holzhausen, [11]; 10. 45B-Rich Bickle Jr., [2]; 11. 11K-Bobby Kendall, [14]; 12. 4F-Luke Fenhaus, [8]; 13. 33K-Kevin Knuese, [15]; 14. 9L-Tim Lampman, [16]; 15. 77E-Jonathan Eilen, [6]; 16. 38D-Jordan DeVoy, [5]; 17. 80F-Ryan Farrell, [7]; 18. 34H-Brandon Hill, [10]; 19. 22G-MG Gajewski, [9]; 20. 42P-Dennis Prunty, [19]; 21. 25S-Jeff Storm, [22]; 22. 88C-Rick Corso, [3]; 23. 40T-Curt Tillman, [23]; 24. 31J-Corey Jankowski, [12]