9/17/2018
Wisconsin wingLESS Sprints
Dennis Spitz Takes the Win at the Final Wilmot Race of 2018
Dennis Spitz of Lewisburg, KY scored his first ever 20-lap AutoMeter Wisconsin wingLESS Sprints feature presented by MLS Automotive. Tim Cox of Park City, Illinois, despite not winning a feature the entire season at Wilmot, won the season Wilmot track championship.
"It's been a long time," said Spitz, receiving assistance from his wife, Tina, and crew as he gingerly climbed from his car due to a sore back. "I didn't know if I could get Chris (Dodd) or not. He was awfully strong. I knew if I was going to go for it I had to do it then and it worked."
Dodd took the initial lead weathering a series of four cautions which kept erasing his advantage. The final, with three laps to go, set up Spitz to try and run on the high line as Dodd stuck with his consistent low groove run. It worked for Spitz, a veteran of 46 years of racing including two old-style Modified Racing Association (MRA) titles at Wilmot, is technically a rookie in the wingLESS sprint cars. Ryan Zielski of Oconomowoc had a career best second catching Dodd on the final circuit. Jimmy Kouba of Byron, Minnesota was fourth. Fifth place finish by 2018 Wilmot Champion Tim Cox of Park City, Illinois closed out a title run without a feature win.
"This shows consistency which is helped by having a great crew, sponsors and family behind me allows a championship without a feature win," said Cox, who said he never finished out of the top six at Wilmot. "It's been a hard year because my dad (Roger Cox, past flagman at Wilmot and Waukegan), has been suffering from alzheimers. That makes this a little bitter sweet. "
"It is kind of amazing that when I won my first championship at Wilmot in 1989 in the MRA style modifieds, a lot of the guys and gals I am racing against this season weren't even born," Cox noted. "I'm not quite ready to hang it up yet. It's still fun so we'll be back next spring."
Article Credit: Mike Babicz
Submitted By: Kim Tennyson