Slinger Super Speedway

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Track layout

The Slinger Super Speedway located in Slinger, Wisconsin, is a quarter mile paved oval automobile race track with a 33-degree bank. The track is billed as "The World's Fastest Quarter Mile Oval."

The current track record was set by USAC midget car driver Tracy Hines on May 17, 2008 at an elapsed time of 10.845 seconds. The lap was the fastest ever midget car lap on an asphalt quarter mile track.^[1] He eclipsing the long standing mark of 11.095 seconds set by Tony Strupp's late model on June 12, 1994.

1 Track history
2 Weekly divisions
- 2.1 Notable drivers to appear at the track
3 Slinger Nationals
- 3.1 List of Slinger Nationals winners
4 Miscellanea
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Track history

The track opened in 1948 and continued with a clay surface until 1973, when it was converted to its current high-banked asphalt state. It also has a paved "X" infield, allowing for Figure 8 racing at the end of the weekly Sunday night race events.

[edit] Weekly divisions

There are seven divisions running for points in a weekly program:

Late Model	Limited Late Model	Midwest Modified - open-wheeled cars, descendant of IMCA Modified cars	Midwest Sportsman
Slinger Bees - 4 cylinder cars	Figure 8	Spectator Eliminator - non-points race between fan's street cars

Thunder Stock - completely stock cars, amateur
Speedway Guest Cars - non-points

[edit] Notable drivers to appear at the track

Entrance

Rich Bickle, Erik Darnell , Matt Kenseth (1991 Late Model Rookie of the Year), Alan Kulwicki, Ryan Mathews (2001 Late Model Rookie of the Year), Robbie Reiser, Joe Shear, Dick Trickle, and Scott Wimmer competed at Slinger before they moved to NASCAR.

[edit] Slinger Nationals

The track's biggest race of the year is the Slinger Nationals. The 250 lap event occurs in the middle of summer. The winner wins the Larry Detjens Memorial Trophy, which was named for the 1980 winner who died in a racing incident at another Wisconsin track later in the season.

The event is usually held on a Tuesday night in order for the nationally and regionally known drivers to participate in the Nationals. NASCAR stars frequently come to the circuit for a one time drive in a local car owner's car in the signature race.^[2] Non-local NASCAR drivers frequently race in the event. The 1987 event featured Davey Allison, his father Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Alan Kulwicki, Mark Martin, Ted Musgrave, and Butch Miller.^[3] Kenseth was already a Cup regular when he won his second Nationals in 2002. Three Roush Racing drivers, one from each of the three national series, raced in 2006. The 2007 event had ten drivers with experience in at least one of the three major NASCAR series: Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Erik Darnell, Dick Trickle, Rich Bickle, Scott Wimmer, Chris Wimmer, Lowell Bennett, Kelly Bires, and Brad Mueller.^[4]^[5] Other notable drivers who have raced in the Slinger Nationals include Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Kyle Petty, Rusty Wallace, and Michael Waltrip.^[3]

[edit] List of Slinger Nationals winners

1980 Larry Detjens^[3]
1981 Alan Kulwicki
1982 Dick Trickle
1983 Dick Trickle
1984 Mark Martin
1985 Dick Trickle
1986 John Zigler
1987 Joe Shear
1988 Butch Miller
1989 Dick Trickle
1990 Joe Shear
1991 Joe Shear
1992 Rich Bickle
1993 Joe Shear
1994 Matt Kenseth
1995 Butch Miller
1996 Rich Bickle
1997 Lowell Bennett
1998 Tony Strupp
1999 Conrad Morgan
2000 Lowell Bennett
2001 David Prunty
2002 Matt Kenseth
2003 Rich Bickle
2004 Lowell Bennett
2005 Nathan Haseleu
2006 Matt Kenseth
2007 Lowell Bennett^[5]

[edit] Miscellanea

Reiser hired Kenseth to drive his NASCAR Busch Series car because Reiser was familiar with Kenseth after their competition at Wisconsin tracks like Slinger, Wisconsin International Raceway, and Madison International Speedway. The two moved together to Winston Cup, where they became the NASCAR championship driver and crew chief in 2003.
Scenes for the Alan Kulwicki feature film "Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story" were filmed in 2004.
An annual fireworks display is held every year on the Sunday prior to July 4 brings in high attendance.
The first Track Champion of the paved track as we know today was Larry Ninneman (supermodifieds) 1974