Round three of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw, presented by Car Quest by Advance, was held on Saturday night, January 21st at the Central Arizona Raceway near Casa Grande Arizona. No weather worries like the Florida rain outs were experienced but the unseasonably cool weather, under sunny skies however, continued here in central Arizona.
In one of the most stirring races so far during this series, young Oregon Modified ace Bricen James made a name for himself as he first passing legend Billy Moyer for the lead in the Late Model feature and then held off all advances of the series' hottest driver, Ricky Weiss, to take the thirty five lap Late Model feature.
A pair of two feature race win streaks were both stopped as along with James; win, Trent Grager won the Stock Car main to end Zack Madrid's two race winning streak while at the same time Iowa driver Joe Docekal started his own streak with his second consecutive Sport Mod feature win.
Despite an increasing car count, the decision was made to run big fields of cars in the main events with the Late Models then being the only class that required a B Feature. Qualifying would see the same format as for previous races with everyone drawing a pill and then the IMCA classes would use their draw/redraw format while the other two classes would use passing points. For the Late Models, the top twenty in passing points would make the main while the rest would go into a B Feature, taking the top four to the main. Provisional starters would be the top driver in passing points not making the main and the top driver is series points also not making the main. The top eight in passing points would redraw for their starting spots and away we would go.
The running order also remained the same with the Stock Cars starting out as the first main. Two time winner Zach Madrid would be required to do some digging in this race as he would start tenth on the grid with some early difficulties by the field with a couple of spins, one before a single lap was completed. Finally things settled down and Trent Grager would shoot up from the second row to take he early lead. Jordan Zillmer would also be on the move as he advanced from row four to pull into second.
By the halfway point of the race, Madrid had moved into third and was putting heavy pressure on Zillmer, looking underneath him on each corner as Grager maintained a several car length lead. Madrid continued to apply pressure on second place Zillmer as Madrid needed to get past to challenge for his third win.
Unfortunately, with only three laps to go, the second place cars made contact exiting turn four with Zillmer sliding into the infield with a flat rear tire. The fourth yellow of the race flew, with Zillmer done for the event and Madrid penalized to the tail of the field. This made things considerably easier for leader Grager as the North Dakota driver then motored on for the win with Kevin Roberts being handed the second place position. Ryan Satter started seventeenth on the grid but was able to finish a strong third with Madrid digging back up to fourth ahead of Andy Sole.
Twenty six Late Model drivers would take to the track for their thirty five lap main event and despite the heavy traffic, they would do an outstanding job, running green to checkered without a single yellow flag and only six of them would fail to go the distance. However, with so many cars on the track, lapped traffic was a huge issue and quite frankly, this is what helped Bricen James take the win as he was brilliant in the heavy traffic.
Hall of Famer Billy Moyer would take the early lead from the pole as he would get the jump on James. Moyer would pull out to a nice early lead as James chased him with Ricky Weiss working his way into third after starting in the third row. It didn't take long for the leaders to start to catch the back of the pack and soon they were weaving through traffic, looking both high and low.
Moyer got bogged down a bit and soon James was on his tail with Weiss racing to catch the top two. Coming off turn four on lap fifteen, James looked to the inside of Moyer and drove past to make what would turn out to be the winning pass. Soon after, it was Weiss' turn to do the same and as Moyer faded back, it became a two car battle for the lead.
The leaders made some spectacular moves as they drove through the traffic, with Weiss getting under James on several occasions but the Oregon driver refused to yield as he fought off the Canadian ace. As they started to get into the heart of the pack, the top two continued to battle it out with every move by Weiss being countered beautifully by James. With just a few laps left, Weiss moved to the low side of the track and they split a slower car with James able to use the banking in turn one to hold on for the lead.
Weiss was right there at the finish but James refused to slip up and he would drive home for a most impressive win. What was equally impressive was that James was using a 525 crate motor for power against a variety of open and spec engine type motors in the car owned by Jerry Schram. Perhaps just as impressive was the run by Cole Schill. The North Dakota driver, utilizing a spec engine, drove by Moyer in the late going to grab a strong third place finish with Moyer and Jason Strand, also very consistent this week, completing the top five. Only eight drivers were on the lead lap at the end in this wild event.
The Limited Mods would see a couple of home state drivers enter the action on this night with their Modifieds and they would do quite well, with Modified track champion Jeremy Thornton eventually ending up as the winner. It seems like there has been one feature each night that has had its issues and on Saturday, those "honors" rotated to the Limited Mod class where five yellows slowed the action and eventually led to the race being cut short due to time limits.
Chaz Baca Jr. would lead the opening lap of the feature race before he would be passed by Thornton for the lead. Those two would then battle back and forth as Shane Sabraski, last night's winner, would move into third. Things went awry on the back chute on lap nine as the leaders tried to pass a slower car with Baca Jr and the lapped car getting together and flying off the track with Baca Jr being eliminated from the race.
Thornton would take the lead on the restart but then a large tangle in turn one would involve several cars with strong contender Preston Carr being eliminated from the event. Sabraski would then chase Thornton for the lead but he couldn't catch the leader. Meanwhile there was quite the battle going on behind those two with Jake Smith, Jamie Davis, Terry Reilly and others all jockeying for position.
With only a couple of laps left, another multi car tangle slowed things down and when they tried to restart, several cars went flying off turn one which triggered the yellow and checkered from flagman LeRoy, who was actually the flagman also when the first Ernie Mincy race was held way back in the early eighties.
Thornton would get the win while Sabraski would finish second despite a front wheel sagging badly while Smith would be scored third, despite a rear wheel ready to leave the car. Davis and Lance Schill would round out the top five.
Joe Docekal now appears to be the driver to beat in the Sport Mods. After running second on the opening night with a dragging left front wheel, Joe has now won two mains in a row as he started in front on Saturday and led all laps, never being seriously challenged. There were three yellows in the first half of the race while the last eleven laps would go nonstop and Docekal put lots of distance between himself and the pack as his win would be an easy one.
There was a good battle for second with Gary Goodrich Jr. holding that spot for the first half of the race until he was overtaken by Kyler Reynolds for that position. Reynolds would then go on to hold the runner up spot the rest of the way. Clay Erickson, after blowing a motor last night while challenging for the lead after winning on opening night, would change a motor back to his crate engine but it would do well, giving him third at the finish over Andy Sole and Rex Hasley.
Cars flying off the track continues to be one of the very few rubbing points of this series so far with the rule being if all four wheels leave the track, you are immediately black flagged from the event. With no outside walls, this seems to happen fairly often and especially for drivers that exit the track to avoid other cars or incidents, this rule has not "flown" too well. I'm told that a concrete wall surrounding the track is in the works and the way things have been going, that would seem to be a good thing to eliminate some of the controversy and hard feelings that have prevailed at times. The gigantic berm, perhaps two feet or higher that surrounds the inside of the track has caused its share of issues too as slowing drivers have a tough time finding a way off the track and minor spins to the inside of the track often result in some pretty heavy contact with the berm and do see cars then kicking back out into traffic.
Track officials continue to run off a quick and smooth program in all other regards however, with the final checkered waving around 8:30 pm on Saturday. The fourth and halfway point of the series comes up on Sunday with a matinee event and we will see just how the early start with the intense Arizona sun affects the racing. All involved will step back and take a breath for a couple of days before a practice night resumes on Wednesday followed by three more nights to round out this series with the IMCA Mods moving in next week to replace the Sport Mods. However, the Sport Mods will then be able to jump over and run with the Limited Mod division so there still should be plenty of cars. I'm told that over forty Mods have already pre entered for their, thousand dollar to win events.
Ernie Mincy and his family were on hand Saturday to hand out the trophies to the winners and both Schrader and Moyer, previous winners on this event back in the eighties, were both interviewed on the stage before the show. The car count gradually keeps rising each night with over one hundred drivers signing in on this night in the four classes and the crowd significantly larger than it has been for the first two rounds of the series as the weekend arrives.
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