No longer the kid, Ty Majeski is as good a teacher as a young short-track racer could want
SLINGER – “Old” is relative.
In some ways, it does seem as though Ty Majeski has been around the Wisconsin, Midwest and national super late model scene for quite a while. He just started his 12th season with the same group from the La Crosse area.
The kid from Seymour will turn 30 this August.
“I don’t feel like I’m the old guy, but I am,” Majeski said. “Probably the veteran. When you’re racing guys half your age, I think that classifies you.”
The veteran put a hurting on competition young and old Sunday, winning the 100-lap ASA Midwest Tour season-opening Jerry “Bear” Priesgen Memorial at Slinger Speedway by more than six seconds.
Ty Fredrickson, the impressive 15-year-old Midwest Tour rookie to whom Majeski alluded, didn’t challenge a week after scoring an impressive victory at Dells Raceway Park, getting into several tangles and falling out early in 21st.
Still, youth was well represented with Max Kahler, 21, finishing second and Luke Fenhaus, 20, in third. Both have talked about watching Majeski race while they were growing up.
“I used to be those 15-year-olds,” said Kahler, a finalist in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, nine years after Majeski won the first.
“I’m not an old guy, but I’m one of the older young guys for sure. It’s kind of hard to believe Ty is that old. … But hopefully we’ll be winning as many races when I’m 30.”
Majeski’s super late model victory total includes three Slinger Nationals, 35 on the Midwest Tour plus five championships, and all the major races of that type around the country. The biggest, the Snowball Derby, he’s won twice. Majeski also has three NASCAR truck victories.
“You always learn from people, even if they’re not (directly) helping you, just racing against other guys, the veterans – I’ve been able to travel all across the country, race different people, experience different racetracks and be in a lot of different scenarios,” Majeski said. “And you learn from those different scenarios you’re in.
“In every race I run, I learn something, good or bad. All the years of racing really good racers, whether it be in the South or in the Midwest, you always take something and remember it and be better next time.”
Which brings us back to Sunday.
Kahler started on the pole after the 12 fastest qualifiers were inverted and led the first 21 laps. Majeski got past on a restart, and from there Kahler just tried to glean what he could on the tricky quarter-mile track.
“After that final restart in that race, he got clear of me, I got down and followed him for 10-15 laps and then he just set sail,” Kahler said. “Then toward the end, everyone was the same pace, and he just seemed to have something left. I’d like to think he saved something. But he just figured something out and was able to drive a lot better than the rest of us.
“Whether that be my driving or the car, either one, both combined will have to be better than (Majeski) hopefully at the end of the day.”
Majeski, who started fourth, is known for being strong on restarts, so Kahler had a good teacher, just like the veterans from whom the winner learned.
If wisdom comes with age, then Majeski is wise enough to know that his learning on the racetrack will continue for as long he straps in a car. Like Kahler, Majeski and crew chief Toby Nuttleman added to their base of knowledge Sunday, too.
“Anytime you win a race like this, everybody else is going to be getting better next week,” Majeski said. “It’s always evolving, and it’s hard to continually win races. It just is. Just thinking of how far our cars and me and Toby have come and our entire team in the last 11 years is just crazy how far we’ve all come on all facets of our program. You have to keep evolving with the sport.
“Racing evolves very, very quickly and it’s very humbling very quickly at times. Always got to keep your nose down, try to get better. I feel like we could get maybe a little better today. I know it maybe doesn’t look like that, but you have to keep getting better, right? When you get content, that’s when you’re going to get beat.”
ASA Midwest Tour Jerry “Bear” Priesgen Memorial at Slinger Speedway
Feature results
1. Ty Majeski
2. Max Kahler
3. Luke Fenhaus
4. Alex Prunty
5. Derek Kraus
6. John DeAngelis
7. Steve Apel
8. Brad Keith
9. Gabe Sommers
10. Levon VanDerGeest
11. Jonathan Shafer
12. Justin Mondeik
13. Dennis Prunty
14. Jesse Bernhagen
15. Riley Stenjem
16. Joe Valento
17. RJ Braun
18. Braden Berge
19. Grant Griesbach
20. Brad Mueller
21. Ty Fredrickson
22. Nick Egan
23. Ryan DeStefano
24. Rich Loch
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ty Majeski wins Slinger Speedway, ASA Midwest Tour racing opener
