Simpson Battles Through Late to Defend King of the Bullring Title

Chad Simpson made his return to victory lane in grand fashion in Saturday’s Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing East Series’ return to Decorah, Iowa’s Winneshiek Raceway.

The latest stop on the East Series portion of the schedule took the tour up to northeastern Iowa for the second annual King Pin Entertainment King of the Bullring at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds. The race was the third and final stop of an Iowa tripleheader weekend for the SLMR Series after the tour visited Hamilton County on Thursday and then Marshalltown on Friday. Drivers from Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin all made their way to Decorah for a chance at a $3,000 payday.

The Keyser Manufacturing Top Qualifier award found its way back to Jason Hahne as he was fastest in group 2 with a lap of 14.188 seconds. Before that, reigning King of the Bullring Winner Chad Simpson topped group 1 with his 14.252 second lap time.

A pair of West Series regulars, Jacob Hobscheidt and Bill Leighton Jr., took the wins in both of the heat races on the night. After the points were tallied, Dylan Thornton was the top driver, and the Reigning East Series Champion accepted the Skyline Materials Lucky 6th Place Starter challenge. Thornton added the opportunity to add $2,250 if he could win the Malvern Bank Main Event.

It was Fred Remley doing the honors of bringing the field to the green flag from pole position for the 30-lap feature event. His time up front was short-lived as Jason Hahne hustled the outside to grab the race lead early. The Webster City, Iowa was trying to back up his win on Thursday at his home track and then a tough run at Marshalltown the night before.

Hahne led the first ten laps before a slip on the outside line allowed Tad Pospisil to take command of the top spot. The West Series Point Leader made the lead official right before the first caution of the event came out as Darrel DeFrance was slow in turns 1 and 2.

When racing resumed, Pospisil led while Hahne tried to chase him down. The two would eventually catch lapped traffic. The two drivers swapped the lead back and forth for a quick moment. All the while, Chad Simpson made his way to third after battling with Jesse Glenz and Blair Nothdurft.

Simpson managed to make the go-ahead move for the race lead as Pospisil jumped the cushion in turns 3 and 4 allowing the #25 of Simpson to hurry underneath for top spot. As he led, Pospisil and Hahne went to war for second while Glenz and Nothdurft joined in on the battle in the top five spots.

A spin in turn 1 set up a 3-lap dash to the checkered flag. Simpson brought the field up to speed while Glenz split Nothdurft and Pospisil to take third. Hahne charged as hard as he could, but he was unable to catch Simpson. The Mt. Vernon, Iowa native took home his second win of the 2026 season and officially repeated as winner of the King of the Bullring. That win was Simpson’s 10th career SLMR Series win which put him 7th on the all-time win list.

Jason Hahne finished out his weekend with a runner-up finish at Winneshiek while Jesse Glenz charged to third. Blair Nothdurft and Tad Pospisil rounded out the top five.

With the King of the Bullring officially complete, another Dual race is next up on the SLMR calendar as both tours lock horns again on the half-mile Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa for the Gail and Karen Hampel Memorial on August 1st. After that, a pair of Dual races in Nebraska on August 7th and 8th with trips to the Thayer County Speedway in Deshler and then Off-Road Speedway in Norfolk.

 

Credit: Anthony Ainslie

Photo Credit: Mike Rufer