After a four day break, the second round of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw restarted on Thursday night, January 25th at the Central Arizona Raceway located near Casa Grande Arizona. Under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, the same five classes that raced in the opening three nights of racing action last week would again gather for three more nights to conclude the Early Thaw Series and determine series champions.
In what was likely the most intense and highly competitive feature race of the series seen so far, North Dakota's Tyler Peterson would edge out Louisiana's Clayton Stuckey for the Late Model honors in a race that saw those two drivers swap the lead three times during their twenty five lap main event. Several other drivers would continue to maintain their upper hand over the competition with Chaz Baca Jr, Bo Partain and Lucas Roding once again visiting victory lane while the lone first time winner was Minnesota's Kaden Woodie who would top the Sport Mod main.
One hundred twenty three cars would sign in to race for night number four of the series, up just slightly over the Thursday night opener of a week ago with twenty nine drivers making their first appearance of the series including at least a half dozen drivers that towed in from Montana to race.
The program would be similar to that held last week with passing points used to determine the feature race starting lineups and B Features required for the Late Models and Modifieds while the other three classes would run everyone that started a heat race in the mains.
Some record breaking rains fell in the Valley of the Sun over the break but promoter Don Shaw and his crew or workers, primarily from his track, I-94 emr Speedway in Fergus Falls Minnesota would have the track in fine racing shape with multiple grooves available to the drivers and just a few "character" bumps in the more troublesome corner one and two. The combination of a good track and some good driving by the racers would allow for a speedy program that would be completed at an early hour, ideal for weeknight racing.
The Stock Cars would come to the line first for their main event. This race would be highlighted not so much for the battle for the lead but for positions right behind the leader. Bo Partain would start on the pole and would lead every lap as he has done for much of this series in the Stock Cars, but there would be a great battle for position behind him.
Partain would step away from the field right from the start and maintain quite a comfortable lead from start to finish in the race, even in the face of two yellow flags that would bunch that field behind him. In the early going, it would be Trent Grager, the lone winner other than Partain, that would move into second and try to track down the leader. Tommy Fain was having his best run in second with Jordan Zillmer close behind him.
At the halfway point, a car would fly off turn one, triggering the first yellow of the race and resulting in quite a shuffle of positions once the race restarted as Kevin Roberts, not even in the top five to this point, would suddenly take off like a rocket and move all the way up to third, passing cars in rapid fashion. One more yellow for a spinning Zillmer would slow the action and result in a six lap race to the finish. While Partain would again pull away, Roberts continued his charge, moving up to second as he got by Grager for that spot. But no one had anything for Partain, who would drive to his third feature win in the four contested so far. Roberts would have his best finish at second with Grager behind him.
Ken Schrader, driving promoter Brad Whitfield's Stock Car, would move up at the end to finish fourth after starting seventh and Fain would complete the top five.
The Late Models would highlight the evening with an intense twenty five lap main that would have the fans on the edge of their seats as Tyler Peterson and Clayton Stuckey would put on an entertaining show, swapping the lead back and forth as they weaved in and out amongst lapped traffic.
Peterson would start on the pole and take the early lead with Bricen James following closely. Dustin Strand, Stuckey and Billy Moyer would quickly close in and make it a group of five battling early. The yellow would wave with three laps complete with a couple of cars off turn one. By this point, Strand had moved into second with Moyer quickly up to third after starting eighth.
However, from this point on, it would be twenty two laps on nonstop, green flag racing and while Peterson would again take the lead, Stuckey, who had dropped back to fifth, suddenly became a force as he drove by James, Moyer and Strand to move into second and began to pressure Peterson for the lead. The front cars were already catching the tail end of the pack, making it even more interesting and on lap eleven, Peterson gave Stuckey room on the inside of turn four and Clayton drove under him to take over the lead.
However, Peterson got up on the wheel and closed back in on Stuckey and they went three wide with a lapped car into turn three on lap thirteen and during one of those "hold your breath" moments, Peterson was able to squeeze under Stuckey and the shower car, with all three coming out the other end of the corner in good.
Peterson would lead the rest of the way but Stuckey was right there, nosing under Tyler several times but not quite able to edge past again. To complicate matters, Strand had picked up the pace and he would attempt several inside moves on Stuckey for second as the top three leaders ran in very close formation. They would finish in that order in a very hard fought and intense race with Ricky Weiss driving past Moyer in the late going for third.
Peterson and Moyer have now split the four feature races run so far in the Late Models with plenty of fast cars still trying to crack victory lane.
Chaz Baca Jr would take his third IMCA Modified feature win of the series on Thursday but along with a fast race car, he had a couple of big breaks go his way that certainly helped him on a night when he looked beatable.
Baca Jr would start on the pole but would be edged out in the early going by Mike Wedelstadt for the initial lead. Mike would be driving his son Tony's Lethal chassis on this night in his first appearance during the series and would pull to three car length lead upon the green waving.
However, things were short lived for Wedelstadt as the leader as pushing into turn four, the car would come around on the Wisconsin driver and he would spun into the infield and out of the lead. However, before that lap could be completed, Jerry Flippo would drive past Baca Jr and be scored the new leader once racing would start again.
Flippo looked fast and he would pull to a slight lead on the next four laps. However, good luck was to turn to Baca Jr once again as just as the yellow flag waved for a spin, Flippo would lay a streak of oil all the way down the front chute and he would retire to the pits, giving the lead to Baca Jr.
With the lead, Chaz now had to deal with Ricky Alverado Jr who had started tenth and had moved into second in front of Michael Leach. Alverado pushed hard for the lead but Baca Jr seemed to then gather himself and he began to pull away as Alverado couldn't keep up with him. Leach would move into second and Kollin Hibdon would then also be a part of the action.
One late yellow set up a four lap race to the finish and once again, Baca Jr would pull away as he would visit victory lane for the third time, with Tom Berry Jr being the only other winner so far in the series. Hibdon would make a late rush and get past Leach for second with Berry Jr. and Alverado completing the top five.
Speaking of domination, Lucas Rodin would win his fourth straight Limited Modified feature to remain the only undefeated driver of the series after Cam Reimers couldn't match his efforts in the Sport Mod main. Not only that, but Rodin is also four for four in heat race action as he has not had to taste defeat yet in this series.
Rodin would start on the pole but get beat to the first turn by Jake Smith as the former national champion in this division in WISSOTA would lead the opening three laps. However, Rodin seemed to let things settle in and then he took off, quickly reeling in Smith and then just driving under him and pulling away from the pack.
This race would go green to checkers for twenty laps and Rodin would build his lead to a full straightaway as even lapped traffic would not slow his charge. Rodin has had an amazing run with his SSR chassis with this being the same car that he won a national title in two years ago. Jess Brekke would move into third early and would maintain that spot for the entirety of the race.
Hector Barraza would move into fourth and challenge Brekke for third until he faded in the late going, allowing both Blake Adams and Travis Saurer to pass him for top five positions.
The question was, could Cam Reimers maintain the pace set by Rodin and win his fourth straight IMCA Sport Mod feature but the ultimate answer was no. And the reason was that Kaden Woodie would start on the pole and pull away from everyone as in his first race here of the series, he would lead from flag to flat for the win.
Woodie set a blistering pace with Boddie Parker moving into second early and holding that spot for most of the race. Reimers would move into third early but spend most of the race just trying to catch Parker for second.
A late yellow with just three laps to go would give him that opportunity and he would get past Parker for second. However, Woodie was long gone and there would be no catching him as he drove on for the win. Parker would also get passed by Clay Erickson in the late going for third with Tyler Johnson completing the top five.
Thursday night's program was run in front of a decent sized crowd and provided some good racing action on a track that once again was dust free. The icing on the cake was that the final checkered flag waved at 8:50 pm, perfect for those that needed to get home and get to work on Friday. I'm not sure how many of those there actually were though as it seems like this crowd is dominated by "Snow Birds" and folks here for the races primarily.
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