Late Race Drama Highlights Oktoberfest ‘Championship Saturday’ At LaCrosse

2025-10-04

By: Paul Reichert

The final 48 laps of the 2025 Big 8 Late Model Series season would be a showstopping performance by the 27 drivers that took the final green flag start to the year. Michael Guderski (Markesan, WI) battled hard with Ryan Kamish, Sr. (Farmington, MN) for the opening lap before getting a big run in turn one to assert himself into first on lap two.

The outside was working well for Chris Weinkauf (Merrill, WI) as he drove past Kamish, Sr. for second on lap four. Yellow flew on lap eight for the stalled race vehicle of Jimmy O’Meara (Randolph, MN). Guderski pulled away from Weinkauf on the restart, but soon Weinkauf began to reel back in the leader and started to peek to Guderski’s inside. Point leader Randy Sargent shot past Chris Marek (Lakeville, MN) to settle into the top five on lap 12, but wanted more as dove low on Kamish, Sr. to wrestle away third on lap 15. Weinkauf began to have looks again to get around Guderski for the lead with Sargent closing up on the lead pair. Weinkauf got a great run out of turn four to stake his claim to the lead on lap 20.

Sargent dove to the inside of Guderski to claim second on lap 21, then Jacob Goede (Carver, MN) shot past Guderski for third a lap later. Both former Big 8 winners Sargent and Goede were trying whatever they could to inch a bit closer to veteran racer Weinkauf as we reached the halfway point of the race. Steve Bachman (Bangor, WI) began to inch closer to both Sargent and Goede and make a real race of it for second, while Weinkauf continued to show the way with a healthy advantage. Sargent left Goede to fend off Bachman for third as he tried to catch Weinkauf, but lapped traffic was not helping him out.

Goede caught back up to Sargent as both Bachman and him kicked Sargent out of the top three with ten laps left in the season. Lapped traffic was Weinkauf’s saving grace as he maintained his lead. Then everything was reset when former Big 8 champion Jeremy Miller (Rockford, IL) slowed and stopped in turn four with just seven laps left to run. Goede cleared Bachman down the back straight on the restart, then quickly caught and passed Weinkauf entering turn one with six laps to go to assume command of the race.

Bachman moved into second with four laps to go, but was not making a large enough of a dent in Goede’s lead. Goede held a two car length lead over Bachman to capture his fifth Oktoberfest victory. A strong third place run ends Sargent’s impressive season with his first Big 8 Late Model Series championship.