Mid-American Prepares for Early Season La Crosse Showdown

By Matt Panure
Photo By Doug Hornickel

(Fort Atkinson , WI ) May 12, 2008 – Normally when Mid-American drivers are preparing for a trip to the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem , WI they are preparing for the final showdown of the season. This Friday drivers will be preparing to get a jump in the 2008 point standings when the Mid-American Stock Car Series will join the USAC Midgets at the home of Oktoberfest Race Weekend.

Defending Mid-American champion James Swan has carried significant point leads into the La Crosse event the past two years with the strategy of holding on to capture the crown. The mindset of the Genoa City driver and his team will be different this time around. “The past two years I had to be conservative,” said Swan. “This year we’re going intent on winning.”

Although they were conservative in his past two efforts at La Crosse , Swan and Berge racing tried a few set up changes on their machine. “Unfortunately we didn’t learn anything,” said Swan of the experimental runs. “We took the car to test at the Dells [ Raceway Park ] this past Wednesday and got the set up right. Since we take the same set up everywhere we go, we should be on track this Friday,” he added.

One of the competitors that Swan will be attempting to fend off will be long time Mid-American ace Bobby Gutknecht. Although Gutknecht was in a slump to end 2007, he found his groove at La Crosse by capturing the “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” award for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, come feature time, the gremlins that plagued Gutknecht late in the year returned as he was involved in a vicious wreck heading into turn one.

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