Round two of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw presented by Car Quest by Advance was held on Friday night, January 20th at the Central Arizona Raceway near Casa Grande at Eleven Mile Corner.
Round two would see two repeat winners from opening night as Ricky Weiss would score a thrilling Late Model win while Zach Madrid would dominate the Stock Car main event. The two new winners would be Shane Sabraski in the Limited Mods and Joe Docekal in the Sport Mods.
Round two would see an increase in both the individual class counts as well as the overall car count in the pits with just under one hundred cars signing in for the four classes program with the first B Feature of the week needed when thirty Late Models signed in to race. In fact, they were the largest field of the four classes.
A good addition to the program was the famed "The Hook" team out of Tucson. This group travels around the Southwest and were first seen working at Wild West Shoot out races when that event was held at that facility. They specialize in race track recovery operations and are about the quickest team around and while you hope they never have to be used, the reality is that they will and the best always help to speed up a race program.
The program would be identical to Thursday night's opening round with the exception of the lone B Feature. Other wise, the program would be the same and run in the same order with the two IMCA classes running draw/redraw programs while the other two classes would use passing points.
For the second straight night, the program would start right at the scheduled time with the first Stock Car heat to hit the track and despite a rather caution plagued Sport Mod finale, all racing would be completed before 8:30 pm. And of the cars that raced on Thursday night, only one single car failed to return for Friday night's round as any difficulties incurred on opening night, and there were at least two motor changes executed between shows, were completed and all raced.
For the second straight night, the pole starting car in one of the main events failed to show when the event was called to the line as Jim Horejsi, who was scheduled to start on the pole for the Stock Car main and would have been one of the strong favorites, failed to appear on the track for the start of the race. This would bump Jacob Madrid up to the pole but on the opening lap, a wild scramble that saw outside pole starter Jeff Nowak spin and cars going every direction on the track, the waters opened up and Zach Madrid, who started fourth, found himself in the lead after a single lap.
Well, the pretty much determined the outcome as Madrid, also a strong contender for the win in prerace factoring, would not be dislodged from that spot in twenty laps. Trent Grager would chase him for several laps before being passed for second by Scott Sluka and that would be the finishing order. Sluka and Grager managed to stay within several car lengths of Madrid but would get no closer. Aaron Hetrick and Jordan Zillmer would complete the top five.
Twenty six Late Models would take the green for their thirty five lap main event with five extra laps for more money on Friday night. The legend from Batesville Arkansas, Billy Moyer, would take the early lead from the outside pole. He would quickly build up a several car length lead as Jason Strand and Ricky Weiss would battle for second. Weiss tried several times to get past Strand but the North Dakota driver proved to be no slouch to get by.
The field got stretched out on this big track and Moyer was soon trying to fight his way through traffic, which proved to be quite the challenge. Billy was hung up behind a slower car that he couldn't get by and both Strand and Weiss caught him quickly and suddenly it was a three car battle for the lead.
On lap fourteen Weiss made a brilliant move down the front chute as he moved to the extreme high side of the track and was able to pass both Strand, Moyer and the slower car all in one grand sweep to take over the lead. Just one lap later, Spencer Wilson spun to trigger the first yellow of the race.
Back under green, it was Weiss' turn to pull away from the field as Strand and Moyer would now battle it out for second. Moyer would move back into second and then set sail after Weiss. With it now being Ricky's turn to fight through traffic, Moyer would catch up to him and another good battle for the win would take place.
Several times Moyer would get a nose under Weiss but each time Ricky would be able to fight off the racing legend. Finally, Weiss was forced to make a bold move down the front chute as he dove under a slower car, was able to clear that vehicle and then pulled away by several car lengths, a lead he would then maintain to the finish as he took his second straight win here. Moyer would finish a close second with Strand getting another top three finish. Josh Zimpel would prove that the 525 crate motor was indeed competitive as he would get his second straight top five with Bricen James making a good run up from twelfth to complete the top five.
Shane Sabraski, with rev box issues on the opening night cured, would draw the pole for the Limited Mod feature and that would be bad news for the competition as he would take the immediate lead and go on for an uncontested win in the twenty five lap feature. Sabraski would pull away from Terry Reilly in the early going with a trio of Preston Carr, Lance Schill and Lucas Rodin all moving in as a group to fight for that second spot.
Only one early yellow would slow the action and after that the field would do a fine job of racing without spinning. Sabraski would build up nearly a full straightaway over the pack as he would carefully pick his way through traffic. Carr would move to the second spot but Schill would be pressuring as he would finally take second near the halfway point of the race while Rodin was digging up through the field after starting eleventh.
Sabraski would go on for the early win with five lapped cars between himself and runner up Schill while Rodin would continue to charge, getting up to third at the finish. Carr and Devin Fouquette would complete the top five with Fouguette making a late pass on Don Earven to get that spot. Sabraski's win would be the eight hundred and twenty fifth of his illustrious career with likely still many more to be accomplished.
The Sport Mods would be the only class to struggle through their main event with the big twenty six car field matching the late Model race from Thursday night as the yellow would wave a numbing eight times in their twenty lap main event. Andy Clower would take the early lead from the outside pole, a lead he would manage to hold through the first nine laps of the race, during which half the yellows for the event would wave.
A good battle for second would see Brandyn Johnson, Crystal Hemphill and Dylan Jones battling hard for second. On the move to the front would be both Clay Erickson and Joe Docekal, both coming from the fifth row. Erickson would get up to third and seem to be the man to beat when he would suddenly explode a motor on the back chute and dive to the infield, done for the night.
Clower would maintain the lead but Docekal was charging, getting up to third behind Hemphill as the race neared the halfway point On a lap ten restart, Docekal would make his move, diving to the low side of the track and was able to pass both Hemphill and Clower to take the lead.
After that, Joe had to withstand three more yellow flags but each time he would pull away from Clower and with all four wheels pointing the right direction, unlike Thursday night when he limped home for second with a steering and suspension issue, the Iowa driver would race home for the win. Clower would cross the line second but an issue at tech inspection would see him disqualified for the event.
Camron Spangler would then earn the second spot over Tate Johnson, Hemphill and Rex Hasley as just half the starters would be around at the finish of he prolonged main event.
Round three of the Mincy series will continue on Saturday night with the same four classes running at the same time. The event will again be shown on Speed Sport TV for those interested.
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