The second half of the Thaw Brawl took place on Saturday night, March 26th at the LaSalle Speedway. All three classes that raced on Friday night were back in action with the Late Models again the main attraction supported by strong fields of both Modifieds and Street Stocks.
The Late Model field was increased by one car to forty four with only Roger Markham not returning from Friday night's field while new to the pits was Michigan driver Nick Kurtz along with local driver Mike Mataragas. The Modifieds had quite a bit of turnover with several not returning from Friday while a half dozen different drivers pulled into the pits and thirty three open wheel cars signed in. The Street Stocks had their best field of the weekend with two dozen on hand.
With all the talent on display, it turned out to be quite shocking when in both the Late Model and Modified classes, the winners turned out to be the same drivers who won on Friday. Namely, Brian Shirley and Mike Harrison while Quad Cities driver Rob Henry surprised the Street Stock field.
Shirley is making quite an early season statement for himself as it appears that a couple of years where he has struggled will be things of the past as with good equipment and a well funded operation, Brian seems to be on the way to a big season.
Jason Feger led the first forty nine laps of the race with Chris Simpson, Bobby Pierce, Frank Heckenast Jr and Shannon Babb along with Shirley close behind and jockeying furiously for position. Shirley eventually worked his way into second after starting seventh and then worked on Feger for a number of laps before he finally passed him for the lead. Feger then started to fade back into the field until he was forced to pit for a flat tire which pretty much spoiled what was a strong run for him to that point.
Pierce, who was quick qualifier for the second straight night, was again spectacular as he hammered his car off the big berm and pretty much tore the body off of it. Eventually he would have to pit too as he had a rear wheel fill with mud that put the car out of balance. Pierce then put on a show of his own as he tore his way back up through the field to the front. Calling him the "Smooth Operator" seems like a slight misnomer as he is spectacular and relentless but to call his moves through the pack smooth seems not a proper description.
The Illinois drivers as a group must be one of the toughest local delegations anywhere in the country and coming in and beating them at one of their local tracks is a big stretch. Jared Landers was making an impressive move as he started fourteenth and at the two thirds mark of the race seemed to be as fast as anyone. Then he got in a big battle with Pierce as they swapped tin and Landers ended up backwards in turn one. Opinion seemed divided whether Pierce may have given him an assist, but Landers pulled off after the lap sixty six spin.
Pierce made a frenzied charge after the last caution on lap sixty seven and he made things interesting as he nearly snuck by Shirley on the last corner of the event. Heckenast and Babb hung around to finish third and fourth and Rusty Schlenk made a strong drive to round out the top five. Cudos to local driver Rich Bell who finished a strong sixth. Only six drivers failed to finish the seventy five lap distance.
I also have to give a pat on the back to northern Minnesota driver Jeff Massingill. Driving in his first weekend ever of open motor racing, having rented a motor from J.R. Haley, he made the main event against what was a strong field of drivers on the first time he had seen the LaSalle track.
The Modifieds ran their main event after the Late Models had abused the track for seventy five laps and while Harrison was stalked by Jeff Leka for thirty laps, the track had gone one groove for the Modifieds on the bottom and as long as Harrison protected the bottom, Leka was not going to be able to drive around him. The Modifieds did a good job of negotiating the slick oval as they had only one yellow flag in their thirty laps finale.
Henry, who runs at Davenport and East Moline, did a nice job of working the outside line as he came from the fourth row to take the Street Stock feature event.
Saturday night the weather was much warmer than on Friday, and while you still had to dress for the conditions, it was much more tolerable. This no doubt helped the crowd which was huge, by the way. Tony Jr, interviewed after the Late Model main, stated that it was the biggest crowd he had hosted since he took over the track from the folks and certainly reinforced the fact that if a promoter is willing to go out on the limb and push the weather in the northern regions, the spectators will indeed turn out.
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