By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
MONTPELIER, Indiana– It was a crisp, but gorgeous afternoon/evening to kick off the 2025 season at Montpelier Speedway with the Ultimate Heart of America Super Late Models on Saturday. Twenty super late models would duke it out for a nice $5,000 payday with the likes of Rusty Schlenk, Todd Brennan, Chad Finley, Steve Peeden and more in the field.
Schlenk would set quicktime in qualifying with a 14.603 second lap, dominate his heat race by 7.500 seconds, and redraw the pole for the 40 lap feature. It was looking like it was going to be a beatdown on the field by Schlenk, but that was hardly the case come feature time.
As mentioned, Schlenk was on pole with Steve Peeden’s P3 machine to his outside, Todd Brennan and Kenneth Howell made up row two with Chad Finley and Blake Creech in row three. The green flag waved and the field charged off into turn one on a lightning fast track. Peeden, using the outside to his advantage, took the lead from Schlenk and would lead lap one. It didn’t take long for Schlenk to be ready to make a move on Peeden, but the idea went awry when Schlenk blew it off the top of turns three and four, falling back to fourth in the process.
“My plan was to jump out to the and cruise off into the sunset and not have to beat on the car,” said Schlenk. “But I didn’t get a good start, and it was slimy on the bottom. Peeden took off– he had a really good car- and I fell in line. I was trying to be patient behind him and wait for my turn to pass him. I hit the hole in turn three and pushed off the top of the race track.”
Schlenk had to try and collect himself quick, without compounding the issue by making another mistake.
“I didn’t collect nothing; I was cussing at myself,” Schlenk said about sliding off the top of turns three and four. “I knew we had a long race and we were only six or seven laps into it and had another 30-something laps to go. We had a really good car, this car has been awesome all year. I knew as long as I was patient and we got into lapped traffic, we’d be able to contend for the win.”
This gave Peeden a little bit of breathing room–about a second– over Brennan in second, but lapped traffic loomed. Meanwhile, Schlenk went to work, driving like a madman to catch back up to the leaders, even turning the only lap in the 13 second bracket during the feature. Peeden caught said lapped traffic on lap eight, and by lap ten, the lead was down to .352 seconds. Brennan was there.
As Peeden and Brennan navigated through heavy lapped traffic while simultaneously battling for the lead, it went wrong. In turns three and four, Peeden and Brennan were side by side, but the lapped car of John Miller was right there as well. Miller found himself spinning in front of the leaders, and Peeden had nowhere to go. Peeden got up under Miller and rolled Miller over, necessitating a red flag. Miller was OK, but Peeden’s car wouldn’t be the same. This also put Schlenk right back with the top two for the ensuing restart.
On the Delaware-double restart, Peeden, Brennan, and Schlenk would find themselves three-wide for the lead, but the yellow flag came out. Try again. On the next restart, it was a battle between Peeden and Schlenk. The gap was a car length, then they were nose to tail. Peeden held strong in first until lap 13. Schlenk was able to get a run down the backstretch and dive under Peeden going into turn three, sliding up and taking the lead. Peeden kept Schlenk honest, though.
Peeden was able to show Schlenk a nose a few times, but had to wait until Schlenk was in lapped traffic on lap 16 to be able to reel the leader in. Peeden even held the lead again momentarily, but it was short lived and Schlenk reassumed the position. Peeden would throw another slider at Schlenk in turns one and two on lap 19, but it was to no avail. Schlenk would start inching away as he pounded the top of the track. Back-to-back cautions would get Schlenk out of traffic, but would give Peeden and Brennan a shot at the lead.
“I knew I had to hit my marks and not mess up again. I knew that if I hit my marks, he [Peeden] wouldn’t be able to pass me because this place is so fast,” said Schlenk.
The first of the restarts wasn’t the best for Schlenk, and Brennan was able to keep close tabs on him, but the yellow immediately came out for a spinning Jerry Bowersock. The next restart was better for Schlenk and he went to work, clicking off laps and growing his lead over Brennan and Peeden. The last half of the race would be rather uneventful for Schlenk. He picked off lapped cars and moved to the bottom of the racetrack, which ended up being faster for Schlenk.
“I noticed these guys were making speed on the bottom, and it was kind of treacherous [on top]. I like carrying momentum on the top, it’s where I feel comfortable. It’s hard to run wide open at one end and slow down to run the bottom at the other end. It was easier for me to run the top, but it was treacherous in the middle of three and four, and I didn’t want to hit that hole again and give it away. I found a line down at the bottom of three and four that was pretty smooth and I felt like I could carry some speed,” Schlenk said about his lane choice in the second half of the race.
When the checkered flag flew, Schlenk crossed the line over three seconds ahead of Todd Brennan and Chad Finley, who came on strong late and was challenging for second. Peeden fell to fourth after the damage suffered to his car in John Miller’s tip over. For Schlenk, it was his third win of the year in three starts. Not a bad way to kick off the season after recovering from some broken ribs suffered at the Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis.
“I feel really good, I’m excited. It’s a long season, so anything could happen, but I’m looking forward to this year,” Schlenk concluded.