By: Paul Reichert

July 22, 2023

 

There is so much fun and excitement awaiting all ages of children and adults during a county fair.  Judging of livestock, competitions to prove who is the best farmer in the area, live entertainment to enjoy at the end of the evening and midway rides of all speeds for everyone to enjoy.  All that and much more could be found at the 132nd LaCrosse Interstate Fair, plus another thrilling competition of speed that has been run for years at fairs.  For the first time since 2009 at the LaCrosse Speedway, the NASCAR Late Models ran a 50-lap feature during the fair with a ton of excitement from the green flag to the checkered flag.  Despite a couple storms that shortened the program, they would not stop Dan Fredrickson from taking the lead just past halfway and running away with a dominant victory reminiscent of his past Oktoberfest efforts. 

 

Tom Carlson (West Salem, WI) started on the pole of the Wisconsin Kenworth Fair Time 50 lap feature NASCAR Late Models, and powered under Jeff Partington (Farmington, MN) to assume command of the race.  Skylar Holzhausen (Bangor, WI) and Steve Bachman (Rockland, WI), the top two in the NASCAR Late Model points, were struggling to make their way through traffic to get to the head of the class.  The same could not be said for Dan Fredrickson (Lakeville, MN) as he came from his 21st starting spot to begin his march through the field.  Fredrickson was marching like an army through the field as he broke into the top ten by the 15th circuit, then powered around Jerimy Wagner (Onalaska, WI) to crack the top five by lap 20.  Leading up to halfway of the feature, Fredrickson settled solidly into second at the expense of Tony Bagatad (Westby, WI), Adam Bendzick (New Prague, MN), Adam Degenhardt (Coon Valley, WI) and Tom Luethe (West Salem, WI).  It only took Fredrickson three more laps to power around Carlson on the outside for the lead position as the competition caution flew with 20 laps remaining to allow the teams to refuel.  Fredricksonk wasted little time on the restart to quickly pull away from the field.  Contact between Carlson and Wagner allowed Bendzick to dive low to take over the runner-up spot with 16 laps to go.  Degenhardt was on a mission in the second half of the race as he powered around Carlson to claim the last podium spot with ten laps left.  Bendzick was trying everything he could to shrink the deficit on Fredrickson, but it was a tall task.  Fredrickson ran away with a dominant performance for a regular season win at LaCrosse for a second straight year.  After the race Fredrickson said “The car raced great tonight, even if I had not raced this car since Oktoberfest last year.”