Slinger Speedway gets dirty with SODA

Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin is dubbed the “World’s Quickest Quarter Mile Oval” due to its size and 33° banking within the turns. Since its opening in 1948, the monitor has been one of many premier venues for grassroots and occasionally national stock car racing, with the Slinger Nationals being a serious tremendous late mannequin occasion whereas NASCAR Cup Sequence champions Matt Kenseth and Alan Kulwicki made their names right here earlier than transferring up.

This previous weekend, the historically paved oval was the location of… off-road racing?

6/7 Might noticed Slinger host the season opener of the Quick-course Off-road Drivers Affiliation (SODA). Based in 2021, it assumed the id of the collection that served because the hub for Midwestern quick course racing from the Nineteen Seventies to Nineties with notable drivers like longtime NASCAR faces Brendan Gaughan and Jimmie Johnson. After racing solely at Gravity Park USA within the inaugural yr, the collection branched out so as to add dates at Slinger and Outagamie Speedway & County Truthful. The Slinger spherical was initially scheduled for 29/30 April earlier than being postponed every week as a result of climate.

However why Slinger? Monitor proprietor and promoter Todd Thelen recalled the curiosity in holding an off-road race started circa 2014/15 with a stunt by his pal Garret Loehrer.

“This all began about eight years in the past when a pal introduced out his off-road race truck out at one among our SlamFest (Eve of Destruction) occasions to go over a leap,” Thelen advised The Checkered Flag. “In fact, he went method additional than anticipated and landed midway up flip two and virtually hit the wall, the place went nuts. After that occasion we began speaking about some day doing an off-road race.

“Quick ahead to November 2021 and I get a name from the pal and he says the SODA man goes to name to try to work out a deal to have an off highway race at Slinger. We lastly labored out a deal in February to placed on the occasion.”

Clearly, SODA didn’t simply go across the oval and name it a day. The occasion was promoted as “Asphalt vs. Grime”, and the course was due to this fact a mix of the paved quarter-mile oval and a short lived part within the infield. A lap started by going by way of oval turns one and two and down the backstretch earlier than swerving onto filth within the infield, the place a pointy left took automobiles onto pavement from the monitor’s figure-eight structure. After crossing the monitor diagonally, one other left led into the course’s centrepiece: an over/below leap that crosses over the aforementioned figure-eight part. Upon clearing the ramp and a collection of kicker jumps, the automotive rejoined the oval in flip 4 and accomplished the lap with a closing ramp throughout the beginning/end line.

To supervise development, SODA and Slinger approached City & Nation Garden Service, a neighborhood landscaping enterprise, and proprietor Ryan Kuhn, who competes in snowmobile racing and operates Hartford Snocross Racing, was intrigued. The corporate provided heavy equipment and was chargeable for constructing the over/below leap.

“One of many vital objects was getting a neighborhood firm to construct the cross over leap, Ryan Kuhn from City and Nation Garden Care got here on board to sponsor the occasion and construct the cross over and monitor,” stated Thelen.

13 courses took half within the weekend: Class 170 (received by Bennett Nerison), Class 1600 (Dannon Tessmer), Class 6100 (Dustin Rogaczewski and Cody Shebuski), Class 11 (Joe Jorgensen), Class 2 (Robert Degreet and Wealthy Devroy), Class 4 (Kaitlyn Anderson), Class 6 (Tanner DeGroot and Trevor Sova), Class 14 (Milan Mazanec), Class 450 (Riley Bartline), Class 7 (Matt Oreskovish), Class 1900 (Kyle Sharkley), Class 9 (Kevin Galdman), and Class 8 (Joey Maciosek). Off-road champion C.J. Greaves introduced his Polaris RZR Professional R 4 UTV and turned laps throughout a twenty-minute intermission, with followers who received a Fb contest using as passengers.

“I assumed the racing was entertaining,” Thelen continued. “The courses like buggies that usually get strung out even placed on a very good present due to the monitor structure. They used the asphalt monitor from flip 4 to the center of the backstretch; that was one thing completely different for the rivals, including a very good place to cross clear.

“I don’t know lots of the off highway rivals however I had heard of C.J. Greaves, it was actually cool to see him race. Total, for a primary time occasion, I might say it was successful.”

TCF has additionally reached out to SODA president Willie Freshour for additional remark and a possible interview.

Whereas uncommon, there have been instances of asphalt ovals internet hosting mixed-surface off-road and rallycross races. From 2012 to 2014, Pink Bull World Rallycross raced at NASCAR circuits owned by Speedway Motorsports comparable to Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, and Texas; non-SMI tracks like Daytona International Speedway, Irwindale Speedway, Evergreen Speedway, and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park had GRC dates as effectively. All however Bristol, Evergreen, and Thompson are longer than a mile however the collection solely used the frontstretch and infields quite than a lot of the ovals for them. The 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway additionally hosted the Stadium Super Trucks from 2017 to 2019.

The subsequent SODA spherical is scheduled for 21 Might at Gravity Park USA.