By: Paul Reichert
‘Championship Saturday’ of the Oktoberfest Race Weekend at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway is always full of drama and anticipation as the Midwest Dash Series runs their final race of the season and decides their season champion. This year the drama started during practice when points leader Brandon DeLacy suffered a mechanical issue that put his car on the shelf. DeLacy would get behind the wheel of Lyle Phillip’s car to compete and try to hold onto the top spot in the points. George Seliger built a huge lead in the feature, then had to fight off both Phil Malouf and George Sparkman to claim the race win and vault ahead of DeLacy to lock up the season championship.
George Seliger and Justin Scheiltzche lead the field to the green flag in the 25-lap main event, with Seliger quickly jumping out in front. Seliger would drive away from the field, but soon he would have a challenger to his dominance. Manitowish Waters’ Phil Malouf picked his way through the field and moved into second by lap three. Over the next several laps, Malouf would track down Seliger and be within a couple car lengths of the blue 06 by lap eight. We waited for Malouf to make the pass on Seliger for several laps, but Malouf did not make that pass. Maybe he was biding his time and waiting for the right moment to make that move. With six laps to go, both leaders encountered heavy lap traffic. That allowed George Sparkman, who had motored his way up to third by lap ten, to catch both Seliger and Malouf and really make it a race. Once they all cleared the lap traffic, Sparkman drove under Malouf to take second with four laps to go. Now the fight for the lead and the win would come down to a pair of Georges. Sparkman got a run down the back straight and got under Seliger entering turn three. Seliger would get on the power first coming out of turn four and capture the win by half a car length over Sparkman. Malouf settled for third, Patrick Thicke would take fourth and Scott Ciesielski rounded out the top five. Brandon DeLacy would finish 9th in the feature, but it would not be enough to stop Seliger from leaping DeLacy and capturing the 2018 Midwest Dash Series season championship.
Greg Oliver would like to thank the drivers and fans for helping to make 2018 another successful season in the Midwest Dash Series. We look forward to seeing everyone back in 2019.
