MDM RacePix Photoby Matt Panure
A total of four championships couldn’t cause Tyler Bauknecht to flinch. The Mid-American Stock Car Series rookie picked up his first series win at Dells Raceway Park Saturday night by holding off Bill Prietzel and Mark Pluer on a late restart.

Before Bauknecht had the opportunity to fend off Prietzel and Pluer, he was locked in an early side-by-side battle with the defending DRP winner. The second-generation MASCS driver gave Pluer the dreaded outside line, where the 1996 champ was unable to capitalize.

“I saw him in my rearview mirror. He was going to the outside, and I just told myself that I wasn’t going to let him get around me on the outside,” Bauknecht said. “I just kept running as hard as I could. I left nothing out there.”

The duel began after Bauknecht took advantage of the pole position to dispose of Chris Ratajczyk. With the door open, Pluer immediately slid into the runner-up spot. Pluer took only four circuits before he jumped to the high line.

In search of his second consecutive win at the Dells, and third in four starts, Pluer slowly pulled even with Bauknecht. On lap six Pluer put his nose ahead and was scored as the leader. Bauknecht had a rebuttal in store and stormed back on the inside line. After creeping back on the low line for three circuits, Bauknecht forced Pluer to tuck back in line behind him.

“I had to get him early if I could get him,” Pluer said. “I actually had the position once, but I couldn’t take it away. He charged back and took it back. I had nothing for him after that.”

by Matt Panure
Let the love affair begin. The fans at Norway Speedway gave a boisterous salute to Lyle Nowak as he exited his racer in victory lane for the second straight year in the Mid-American Stock Car Series Eh Main on Friday.

Paige Decker and her MASCS Car (Decker Racing PR Photo)by Matt Panure
The Decker name is well known to fans who watch sleds skid across the white stuff in Eagle River, Wis. Fans of the pavement will soon take notice as Paige Decker becomes more comfortable with her Mid-American Stock Car Series racer.

The Eagle River, Wis., native is in her second season of stock car action and is scheduled to compete in the majority of MASCS events in 2010.

Her career began at the age of three racing in a snowmobile division known as Kitty Kats. No surprise considering her family’s reputation on the powder. Her father Allen and uncle Chuck made the Decker name famous by racing sleds. The Decker family also owns the Eagle River Derby Track, home of the World Championship Snowmobile Derby.

After nearly a dozen years of racing snowmobiles Decker enrolled in summer sessions, racing go-karts at Shawano Speedway. At the age of 15 Decker set several fast times, was named rookie of the year and won the championship. Her love of the karts hasn’t stopped as she still races on regional and national levels.

However, Decker’s career took a turn while sitting in the stands in Plover, Wis.. “I was at Golden Sands as a spectator and decided to compete in the amateur powder puff race,” she said. “I started dead last and ended up first; my love for stock cars began then.”

That dominance in her powder puff race lit a spark in her family. She said one day her uncle surprised her with a stock car, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Decker made her first ever appearance in the season opening event of 2009 at Golden Sands Speedway. Her night came to a premature end as two racers spun in front of her and she was unable to avoid the pileup.

by Matt Panure
After two exhibition-type races, Mid-American racers will once again compete for championship points. The battle atop the standings is one of the tightest in MASCS history as the series reaches the midway point of its 18th season.

Mid-American Stock Car Series PhotoMASCS Regulars Clash with Grand National Drivers in Series’ First Appearance on Dirt

by Matt Panure
Bill Prietzel and Don Sorce Jr. turned many circuits side-by-side at Hales Corner Speedway before going their separate ways. Friday night the two rekindled their rivalry presenting a stunning side-by-side display at Dodge County Fairgrounds Speedway with Prietzel winning his second consecutive Mid-American Stock Car Series event.

Just 12 days after winning at the four-mile course of Road America in the same Monte Carlo, Prietzel was happy to get back to his roots, and the roots of Mid-American, which spawned from the dirt grand nationals in 1992. The series has raced strictly on asphalt since 1993.

“It’s always fun to race on the dirt. I’ve enjoyed it, and to win tonight, is just unbelievable,” an exuberant Prietzel said in victory circle. “It was never in my dreams of happening. I was just hoping to be competitive.”

Prietzel and Sorce traded the lead in the final six circuits of the $1,500 to win Big Clay Clash for Cash, with Prietzel grabbing the top spot for the final time on lap 18. Sorce closed a three-car-length gap on the backstretch of the final circuit, but was edged out by less than a foot at the start/finish line.

At the drop of the flag, dirt grand national driver Kevin Rank seized the lead and crept away from the pack to a car-length lead over his teammate Steve Seitz. Seitz caught Rank on the second circuit and slid to the outside to garner credit for leading lap two.

A lap-three restart occured after Ryan Gutknecht looped his borrowed racer in turn four. The restart placed MASCS-regular Travis Rodewald in second and Prietzel in third. The two tar
cars sized up Seitz on the restart and wasted no time disposing of the dirt-track regular.