Paul Shafer Jr. and his No. 7 on their way to victory. (Stan Kalwasinski photo)
MORRIS, Ill. — Paul Shafer Jr. beamed on the road to victory and said it was the best car he’s ever had as he won his second ASA Midwest Tour Wayne Carter Classic 100 at Grundy County Speedway.
The 2020 winner from Portage, Indiana had a dominant car as he moved from eighth on the grid to the lead in just 17 laps and led the final 83 laps without caution to claim victory over the current ASA Midwest Tour leader, Gabe to secure Sommers and Dalton Zehr.
“I can’t thank my crew chief enough, I mean, I’m sorry you fans are looking at this, but that was hands down the best car I’ve ever had,” Shafer said of the winning streak. “I can’t give Chris Purdy (Crew Chief) enough credit for giving me this car.”
Only two early warnings slowed the race, the first occurring on lap 15 when fast qualifier James Lynch and DJ Weltmeyer converged at turns one and two, catching Max Kahler. Kahler suffered serious injuries on his right side.
Two laps later Blake Brown spun at turn one trying not to hit Bryan Syer-Keske. He would return to the field.
In the restart, Shafer worked his way up to second place and was outside of Riley Stenjem at the green flag drop. Shafer would pass Stenjem on the backstretch and wasn’t fighting for top spot again for the final 83 laps.
Behind Shafer, Sommers and Zehr fought for third place from Ricky Baker. Baker would move up to second on lap 36 when he passed Stenjem and secured that spot.
On lap 72, Stenjem dropped to fifth after Sommers and Zehr passed the Kulwicki Driver Development program participant.
Nine laps later, Baker lost pace and Sommers and Zehr moved up to second and third. At this point, Shafer had a 2.5 second lead.
Sommers would close the gap to 1.380s, but it would be too late as the checkered flag was up for Shafer.
“It was a long green flag run, it was a tough race and difficult to overtake,” Sommers said. “Congratulations to Pauly, he had a good car. In the end we only needed one warning to have a chance at him.”
Sommers almost didn’t make it to the start due to electrical problems when he came to line up for the Main Event. His crew got to work and fixed the problem before the race even started.
Zehr, winner of the 2017 Wayne Carter Classic, secured the final podium finish.
“I was following Gabe and I was like, man, we’re not going to catch him (Shafer), and I didn’t know if I could get Gabe,” Zehr recalled. “I tried to pass him well and then I slipped from four points and after that we were hoping for yellow, that was the only thing that would have helped us.”
Stenjem retained his fourth place while Justin Mondeik completed the top five.
Mondeik and Harley Jankowski won the odd and even heats. Weltmeyer won the qualifying race.
Lynch set a new course record with a time of 14.651 seconds.
The event was broadcast live by SPEED SPORT affiliate MidwestTour.tv.
Comments are closed.