Round five of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw was held on Friday night, January 26th at the Central Arizona Raceway near Casa Grande. On another sunny and comfortable day, an interesting night of racing action in five classes would be held. The results would see a Canadian ex-patriot, a racing legend and two youngsters not yet old enough to hold valid drivers licenses among those to visit victory lane as winners. After a series dominated by repeat and multi repeat winners. Friday night would produce new winners in all five divisions and would also see all five feature winners their main events from start to finish.
One hundred and thirty six drivers signed in to race on Friday night which was the highest car count so far for the series in 2024 including the biggest car count in both the Sport Mods and Modifieds along with the Limited Mods that tied their high of the series to this point.
The program would be similar to that presented during the series with the Late Models and Modifieds both needing B Features to set their line ups for the main events with the Mods needing double B's on this night.
The running order would also be unchanged as they have found a running order that allows the racing surface to be at its best for all five divisions without excessive track prep. They run all the qualifying events, including the B Features and then go right into the Stock Car feature. When that race is completed, the track is redone with water and scraping and even a quick blading if needed and then the Late Models hit the track for their main, followed by the other three feature races.
Stock Cars would be first up for their main and racing legend Ken Schrader would start on the pole. Schrader just arrived at the track on Wednesday night for the second round of practice as he was appearing at a racing show on the East Coast during the opening weekend of racing. He would be driving the Stock Car owned and occasionally driven by track promoter here and at Cocopah Speedway, Brad Whitfield. Schrader took one session of practice on Wednesday night and deemed the car ready to go and he proved that on Friday, leading from start to finish in the twenty lap main event.
He would out battle Josh Cain in the early going to take the lead with Cain and Brock Beeter battling for the second spot. Kevin Roberts pulled in to challenge for that spot while Jason Rogers was also on the move as the second spot was highly contested.
Spins on laps four and seven kept the field bunched but each time Schrader would again pull away from the field. By the halfway point of the race, Schrader had built up an eight car length gap over the field with Rogers moving into the second spot although he and Roberts continued to trade that position with Jordan Zillmer also moving into contention.
Schrader looked to be in good shape for the win when one late yellow with just four laps to go would slow the action one last time. However, that didn't bother the Missouri veteran who once again pulled away from the field as he had things under control. The battle for second would take a turn as Roberts suffered a flat tire and was out of the contest.
Schrader continued on without a challenge, driving to the impressive win which he reported in victory lane was his first in many years of racing in Arizona. Rogers would cross the line in second with Zillmer third. However, that order was changed when Zillmer failed to complete tech inspection properly and was disqualified. This moved the dominant driver in this class, Bo Partain, into third at the finish.
Partain had taken a trip off the end of the track in his heat and was forced to start sixteenth in the main, thus making a great run to the front. Cain and Trent Grager would complete the top five.
The Late Model action had been dominated so far by Billy Moyer and Tyler Peterson but it was 2023 champion here Ricky Weiss that finally broke through for his first feature win of this year's series. Ricky would start on the pole and lead all thirty laps to gather the win, unchallenged for most of the contest.
Things would get off to a bad start in the Late Model main with a four turn stack up on the opening lap collecting a number of cars with the machines of Moyer, Clayton Stuckey, Michael Leach and Thomas Hunziker all heavily damaged and removed from the track by wreckers.
There would be two more first lap yellows for spins before the event could finally complete a lap as the drivers were running on the edge on Friday. Once everyone settled down, Weiss would quickly pull away from the field to take the lead with Collin Winebarger moving into second and fighting off challenges from Scott Ward for that spot.
At the halfway point of the race, one final yellow would wave for a slowing car with Tyler Peterson having worked his way up to fourth after starting tenth and Josh Zimpel in the top five two.
Weiss would pull away again for the field with Ward fighting his way into second and Dustin Strand, who started thirteenth, on the move. As Winebarger dropped back, Peterson would pass him and then Strand would pass both as he moved into third. In the closing laps, as Weiss worked through traffic, Ward would gain some ground on him and would close to within several car lengths but Ricky worked the slower cars well enough that no major challenge broke out as he drove on for the win. Spec engine cars of Ward, Strand and Peterson would finish behind him with Winebarger completing the top five. A native of Winnipeg, Weiss had the many Canadian fans on hand cheering for him even though he now lives in Tennessee.
The Modified feature would go nonstop on Friday and it would be Ricky Alverado, who has run consistently well here this week, leading from start to finish to take the win. Alverado would take the early lead from Kollin Hibdon with Jeff Taylor, who just arrived to race on Friday, moving into the third spot. Hibdon would put the pressure on Alverado, moving to his inside on several occasions but not quite able to make the pass for the lead.
At the halfway point, he remained second with Taylor , Spencer Wilson and Troy Morris following. However, just past that point, Hibdon went for the win but overshot turn one, went flying off the end of the track and was done for the event. This moved Taylor into second but he was never able to mount a charge as Alverado would drive on for the win without any severe pressure.
Taylor, Wilson, Morris and and Winebarger, pulling double duty, would complete the top five in the final running order.
The last two events of the night would find the youngsters come to the front as the Limited Mods and Sport Mods would see winners that are both in their middle teens and not yet legal to hold drivers licenses.
The Limited Mod feature would see four time and undefeated driver Lucas Rodin start on the pole with Preston Carr to his outside. The race would get off to a wild start as Carr, in his efforts to get the jump on Rodin, would go flying off turn one on the opening lap, thus necessitating a restart. This would allow fifteen year old Blake Adams to move to the outside beside Rodin.
Rodin, who saw his perfect week of racing end in a heat race where he finished second but still earned enough passing points to start on the pole, would see that streak also end as after two more tries to start the race that were aborted due to spins, Adams would get the jump on Rodin and take the lead.
Adams would pull away from Rodin by several car lengths early in the race and would be comfortably in front by the halfway point with Hector Barraza moving into third ahead of Jake Smith and Jess Brekke.
However, the rash of yellow flags would start once again with three of them just past the halfway point of the race. These would allow Rodin to close right in behind Adams once again but each time the youngster from Cameron Wisconsin would make solid laps and pull away slightly. Barraza would suffer as after one of the restarts, he would get crossed up and lose a number of spots.
Rodin would push for all he was worth in the closing laps, but Adams continued to make solid laps and Rodin could not close on him as the 2023 WISSOTA National Rookie of the Year in the Midwest Mod class would drive on for the win. Zach Johnson, driving his son's car after he had to go back to high school and play hockey this week in Minnesota, would drive forward after starting ninth to close to third with Brekke and Smith completing the top five.
And the evening would conclude with another dazzling performance by a young driver as fourteen year old Tyler Johnson would win his first ever Sport Mod feature race as he held off a series of challenges by Boddie Parker to take the win.
Johnson and Parker would start in the front row, side by side and battle for twenty laps for the win. Parker would get up beside Johnson several times coming off turn four but each time Johnson would fight him off down the chute to hold on to the lead.
Several yellows would keep this race close including a hair raising one lap sprint to the finish after a yellow forced a one lap race to the checkers. Parker would again pressure but Johnson was up to the task and would hold off Parker for the win. Point champion here Clay Erickson would finish third with Jesse Johnson fourth and James Meile completing the top five.
The sixth and final round of the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw will be run on Saturday night, January 27th and can be seen on IMCA TV.
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