Night number three of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw was held on Saturday night, January 20th at the Central Arizona Raceway near Casa Grande. A new winner would emerge in the Late Model division on Saturday as after seeing Billy Moyer Jr win on both of the first two nights of racing, Saturday it would be North Dakota's Tyler Peterson that would take home the largest paycheck of the first weekend of racing on a cloudy but comfortable night to be racing in the desert.
The other four winners are already veterans of the CAR victory lane. Both Lucas Rodin and Cam Reimers kept their streaks alive with their third straight night of racing success while both Chaz Baca Jr and Bo Partain took their second wins of the series, with Baca's coming back to back this weekend.
The car count continues to rise as the racing week rolls on with one hundred and thirty two cars signing in to race on this Saturday night. Some have wondered why the car counts haven't been even bigger, particularly in the classes that race at CAR all season. Interestingly, in the three IMCA classes that race at this track and are in action this weekend, no more that a half dozen drivers in any class that appear in the top twenty five from the 2023 point standings at CAR have been on hand so far.
In the car counts in the other two classes where the vast majority of the drivers have been asked to pull to Arizona all the way from the Midwest, the car counts have been solid with the Late Models particularly outstanding with nearly forty cars in action so far and only five of them even from the state of Arizona. IMCA travelers in the other three classes have been the majority of those racing so far while meanwhile, we wait for the local racers to find their way to the pit gate!
Nevertheless, the car count still keeps creeping upward and because of that, the race schedule was changed in that the Modifieds ran a pair of B Features instead of just one and the Sport Mods had one more heat race added to their program.
So after a program that contained nineteen qualifying events for the five classes, it was time for feature race action. The Late Model feature would be the biggest event of the weekend so far with the biggest paycheck and prestige involved so let's talk about this race first.
Twenty seven cars would take the green flag for the thirty five lap main event with Manitoba's Shane Edginton grabbing the initial lead. Terry Carter would move into second with Tyler Peterson and Dustin Strand following him. The first yellow would be a killer for Strand, who seemed a likely challenger for the win. He had a tire go down and triggered a yellow, after which he would tail the field for the green. Strand would then put on a charge of epic proportions, eventually ending up seventh at the finish.
Edginton continued to hold the lead as Peterson moved into second with Carter following. Suddenly, iin a shocking development, Edginton, who was running so good, suddenly shut down with major difficulties, forfeiting the lead and dropping out of the race.
Peterson would inherit the point then with Carter again in second but he would soon be overtaken by Billy Moyer who had started tenth. The green would stay back out until lap fifteen when Thomas Hunziker would slow with problems, slowing the race once again and by this time Ricky Weiss had moved up to third with Clayton Stuckey and Ryan Corbett running in the top five as the halfway point was reached.
The second half of the race would prove to be a three car battle with Peterson leading and both Moyer and Weiss trying to track him down. However, Peterson was very strong and neither of the two drivers would have much success cutting into his lead. Peterson's Rocket chassis was handling great and he was able to drop high or low to pass slower cars and at several key moments, he was able to make moves in traffic that didn't allow Moyer to close the gap. Everyone was waiting for the late Moyer charge but it was not to be on this night as Peterson maintained nearly a half straightaway that he didn't allow to shorten.
Moyer Jr would finish second with Weiss, the big winner here last year still waiting to visit victory lane. Stuckey would finish fourth and Michael Leach would drive from seventeenth to round out the top five.
It would appear that the motor package here is working quite well in balancing out the different engine combinations presented as Peterson would take the win in a WISSOTA spec engine, Moyer, Weiss and Stuckey would use open motors with plates while Leach ran a 525 crate engine.
An interesting story needs to be relayed here. Scott Ward from Watertown South Dakota raced the first two nights of this series. On Saturday morning however, he had to fly back to South Dakota for the funeral of his racing buddy and fellow Watertown resident Tim Waba. Waba raced Modifieds and Late Models at tracks in South Dakota for many years and was well liked by all but was recently felled by a very aggressive form of Cancer.
Ward flew back in a plane supplied by fellow racer Chad Olsen who was racing at CAR and also had a son racing there. Ward was a pallbearer at the funeral but after it , in the plane supplied for his use, he attempted to fly back to Arizona in time to race that same night! However, the flight was delayed and Ward missed both his heat and B Feature. He did get back though, and promoter Don Shaw added him to the field where he started twenty seventh and finished thirteenth. Even more remarkable, Ward had wrecked his car the night before and he would race a brand new Longhorn on Saturday that had never seen the track before.
A shocking development would see Bo Partain come from the back of the pack to win his second straight Stock Car feature, a scenario that happens almost never but did on this night. Aaron Olson would take the early from the pole with contact with another car giving Partain a flat left rear tire, which he quickly changed under yellow and then went tail back in the twenty car field.
Olson would continue to lead despite challenges from Jason Rogers and Nate Warren. Rogers was turned on lap two and the yellow flew with Jason returned to his position while the other driver left the track. Olson continues to lead but Rogers was pressing him very hard, trying lap after lap to get under him.
Finally, on lap twelve, Rogers pushed too hard in turn one and spun which elevated track promoter Brar Whitfield into the runner up slot. When racing resumed, Mike Albertsen was able to take that spot from Brad and just four laps later the final yellow flew for another spin. However, after not appearing in the top five until that point, Partain came charging up to third and following the final double file restart, he blew past Albertsen and pulled up beside the leader Olson, passing him on the outside with just three laps to go.
Olson responded by getting up on the wheel like he hadn't the whole race and he was able to pull back up beside Partain on the outside, nipping him at the line by inches as they saw the white flag. They raced side by side on that final lap but Partain was able to gain an edge in turn three and he would come home the winner by a car length over the North Dakota driver. Kevin Roberts would charge forward to nip Albertsen for third with Chris McCurdy Sr also in the top five.
Cam Reimers had been the dominator in the Sport Mods and that continued on Saturday as he won his third straight feature race. Bud Martini would be the early leader in a race that would try the patience of even a saint as the yellow flag waved seven times during the twenty lap main, almost entirely for spins by either solo drivers or in combinations. For this reason, the race was broken up badly with the six lap sprint to the finish the longest green flag period of the race.
Martini would lead through all seven yellow flags with Taylor Kuehl chasing him for most of that time. On each green, however, Martini would pull a few car lengths away from the pack and continue to smoothly run in front. Reimers would run second until the halfway point when he was finaly able to drive around Kuehl and take over the runner up slot.
Cam would then put the pressure on Martini, staying right with him after the final yellow and three laps later, on lap seventeen, he would drive past Bud and take over the lead. Martini would have no answer and Reimers would drive away from the field for the win. Martini would finish second with Kuehl third. Joe Docekal and Tyler Johnson would round out the top five.
Even outdoing Reimers' performance so far has been that of Limited Modified driver Lucas Rodin. Not only has Rodin won all three features run in the class, he is also undefeated in heat race action, meaning that six times on the track so far this week with this car, the result has been six checkered flags.
It did take him a few laps to cement the win though. Travis Saurer got the jump on pole starter Blake Adams to lead the early laps, actually controlling the point for four laps. However, Rodin has been so smooth and so fast this week that holding him back it a tough preposition. He would drive past Saurer on lap five and then gradually pull away from the field, aided by a long green flag session in the last half of the race.
At the halway point of the race, Adams would move by Saurer for second but he would have no more luck trying to catch Rodin that Saurer had. He would, however, lock down second and run there to the finish. Saurer would finish third with Jake Smith and Jess Brekke next in line. Rodin continues to amaze in a car that is several years old and has well over one hundred shows on it.
Luck was not quite so kind to Rodin when it came to the Modified feature however. He was attempting to pull off the open wheel double header win and came within six laps of doing so before this week's dominant Modified driver would wreck that dream.
Rodin would start on the pole and lead the first five laps with first Tyson Blood and then Jerry Flippo chasing him hard. Meanwhile, Chaz Baca Jr, Tim Ward, Tom Berry Jr and Kollin Hibdon were all charging toward the front.
Baca worked up to third and following a lap five yellow, Baca would get a great restart and dive past Rodin to take over the lead. However, Rodin was not done and just one lap later, he would return the favor and reconnect with the lead. This set off some great green flag racing with Baca retaking the lead a second time, only to see Rodin back in front at the halfway point with Berry Jr, Ward and Hibdon all close behind.
Restarts following yellow flag periods seemed to be a problem for both drivers and following the last yellow on lap thirteen, Baca Jr would again get a great restart, slide up beside Rodin and edge past him to take over the lead one final time.
Baca Jr would then pull away. Things didn't go well for Rodin though as he was the victim of an ill conceived slide job by another competitor that knocked him right off turn two and out of the running. Berry Jr would find a hole with cars scrambling in front of him to drive into second at the finish with Ward, Hibdon and Bone Larson completing the top five.
The crowd was even bigger than it had been for the opening two nights and it appears that this series has really started to take off with the hopes that it will get just bigger in the years to come. Unfortunately, Ernie Mincy was scheduled to be on hand Saturday to receive an award but was under the weather so his family represented him instead as he was honored for his contributions to starting this series back in the early 90's and promoting the first ten grand to win race in Arizona or the West for Late Models.
No comments:
Post a Comment