By: Kevin Ramsell
Tim Schendel felt there was one thing missing in his career with racing. Last season he found that and on top of that he finished third in points in his first full season with the American Speed Association Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment.

“I had a lot of fun,” the veteran driver from Sparta, WI recently stated. “Some of the other stuff I was getting into, the fun factor wasn’t as much. It wasn’t about racing and its all about racing here. It’s all about on track performance and all of the other things are set aside. Everyone you race with here is a tough competitor and everyone thrives to be the best. Every week, you get ten cars running up front and it’s very seldom that someone runs away with a race.”

Schendel finished third in the 2008 point standings behind his good friend Dan Fredrickson. He had two wins, one ECHO fast time award, four top-five’s and seven top-ten finishes. He also earned a “Touring Star” honor for the upcoming season.

His first ASAMT win came in front of nearly 15,000 fans at Iowa Speedway, a race that featured Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. It was also at this event where he was also the fast qualifier. Schendel would start 12th in the event and work his way to the front passing Jonathan Eilen for the win. Kenseth came home third that day while Busch finished 22nd after mechanical problems. He would capture his second win at Marshfield Speedway in September.

He is excited about the upcoming season and has had a busy off-season, “We have been working really hard over the winter and building one new car and re-doing another one,” Schendel stated. “Just trying to make things better and hopefully got our bad luck out of the way. Last year we had some bad luck with flat tires and such. We ran well but nobody would know it because of our problems.”

Schendel is also looking forward to hopefully renewing a championship battle with his longtime friend and 2008 ASAMT champion Dan Fredrickson. In 2006, the two battled to the last lap as it was Schendel beating his friend for the NASCAR Elite Series Midwest Division championship. “I always like racing with him. We have been friends since 1996-97 and its fun to race with him.”

You can learn more about Tim Schendel by visiting his webpage at www.timschendel21.com.