PREISLER IN GRUNDY VICTORY LANE

Any win is enjoyable. But some have a special quality.

Cameron Preisler's second career Mid-Am feature victory Friday night at Grundy County Speedway had that feeling.

It had to do with beating one of the best in the business to achieve it.

"Scotty Gardner is a good dude," Preisler said of the second-place finisher. "Man, I mean he and (third place) Matt Clemens are two of the best out there every night.

"Scotty races at all the tracks. And the Gardners have a really good camp there. They're always willing to help out someone else. I have a lot of respect for them."

Preisler started sixth in the field. He worked his way up to third by lap 3. He made what would be the winning pass in a wild turn of events in turn four on lap 4.

Preisler was on the high side and Gardner alongside, when Dean Patterson made it a three-wide situation on the bottom groove. Preisler completed the pass, while behind them cars scattered and the race was stopped.

"I honestly didn't even know Dean was down there," Preisler said. "I thought it was just me and Scotty. I knew I had to pinch him tight and hold him down.

"I just ran my race and raced him hard. Luckily we were ahead of him at the line."

No harm, no foul?

"During the red flag Scotty pulled up to me and gave me a thumbs up, good racing," Preisler said. ."A couple of laps there we were running really hard.

"Eventually, I think I would have gotten around him, but we would have had a nice clean battle side by side. Scotty's a class act."

Preisler beat Gardner across the line by 1.457 seconds. Third went to Clemens, ahead of James Dean, Rickey Mathis Jr., and Patterson.
Preisler's No. 49, owned by John Latham, has had an interesting history.

"This car was a street stock last year," Preisler said. "We converted it from a street stock to a Mid-Am. It was pretty tricky and definitely a lot of work. But with the help of Oval Engineering, we got it done."

In the 25-lap street stock special, Shaun Quinn Jr., was the first across the line, but a rules violation resulted in a post-race DQ.

Chalk up another win for current points leader Chad Bayuk, his fourth of the season.
It's been awhile since Bayuk, a former track champion, has dominated so early.

"At the soonest, I'd say it was 2008, 9 or 10," Bayuk said. "During one of those seasons we set fast time almost every night and we won the majority of the features.

"I took some time to race Mid-Am, and then I took a little bit of time off. This season started off really, really good. But the last two weeks we've been struggling. We've worked hard on the car to get the best we can out of it."

Brandon Reed was credited with second place. Kristi Preisler, who led several laps earlier in the race, finished third ahead of Zak Chanda, Renee Farren and Randy Weese.

The 20-lap Midwest Pavement Midgets Series feature went in wire-to-wire fashion to defending champion Jim Anderson.

Anderson faced his toughest battle late in the race from fast qualifier Jacob Senerchia. Yellow flags and restarts were an additional challenge.

"That certainly didn't make things easy," Anderson said. "We had a couple of oil downs and a couple of issues. But the track crew did a phenomenal job getting the race track back as quick as they could.

"I felt Jacob's bumper a couple of times and I could look up at the scoreboard and see he was there. Jacob's a tough runner and he's going to be really, really good when he gets older and gets seat time under him."

Anderson beat Senerchia by 0.175 seconds. Scott Dunning was third, followed by Billy Hulbert, Basil Hicks and Jeremy Bieda.
In the Super Cups, Evander Peterson took the lead on lap 7 and stayed on top the rest of the way. Joshua Fritz finished second, ahead of Makayla Hall, Lucas Hulbert, Gavin Salinas and Konner Hollenbeck.

SUMMARY
Mid-Am
Fast time: Cameron Preisler (16.122)
1st heat: 1. Landon Hocking, 2. Scotty Gardner Jr., 3. James Dean.
2nd heat: 1. Matt Clemens, 2. Matt Chester, 3. Cameron Preisler.
25-lap feature: 1. Cameron Preisler, 2. Scotty Gardner Jr., 3. Matt Clemens, 4. James Dean, 5. Rickey Mathis Jr., 6. Dean Patterson, 7. Landon Hocking, 8. Matt Chester, 9. Phil Speciale, 10. Peyton Craig, 11. Gavin Slusarczyk, 12. Mike Gerike.

Street Stock
Fast time: Shaun Quinn Jr. (16.946)
1st heat: 1. Renee Farren, 2. Zak Chanda, 3. Joshua Grenlund.
2nd heat: 1. Randy Weese, 2. Shaun Quinn Jr., 3. Brandon Reed.
25-lap feature: 1. Chad Bayuk, 2. Brandon Reed, 3. Kristi Preisler, 4. Zak Chanda, 5. Renee Farren, 6. Randy Weese, 7. Joshua Grenlund, 8. Darrell Gay. (DQ) Shaun Quinn Jr.

Midwest Pavement Midgets Series
Fast time: Jacob Senerchia (14.881)
1st heat: 1. Scott Dunning, 2. Michael Lewis, 3. Jacob Senerchia.
2nd heat: 1. David Ward, 2. Basil Hicks, 3. Jeremy Bieda.
20-lap feature: 1. Jim Anderson, 2. Jacob Senerchia, 3. Scott Dunning, 4. Billy Hulbert, 5. Basil Hicks, 6. Jeremy Bieda, 7. Kris VanCleave, 8. Lorelai Atkinson, 9. Greg Booker, 10. Nick Grommes, 11. David Ward, 12. Michael Lewis, 13. Scott Koerner.

Super Cups
Fast time: Lucas Hulbert (19.092)
1st heat: 1. Evander Peterson, 2. Lucas Hulbert, 3. Joshua Fritz.
2nd heat: 1. Oliver Griffin, 2. Gavin Salinas, 3. Konner Hollenbeck.
15-lap feature: 1. Evander Peterson, 2. Joshua Fritz, 3. Makayla Hall, 4. Lucas Hulbert, 5. Gavin Salinas, 6. Konner Hollenbeck, 7. Oliver Griffin.