Thursday Night Thunder at Tri City

  Tri City Speedway in Pontoon Beach,Illinois offered up a rare Thursday night program featuring the Summit Racing Equipment American Modified Series cars in the first of a four night holiday weekend swing throughout Illinois. A whooping field of 43 entrants were joined by 19 UMP super late models, 16 UMP Pro Crate late models and 33 B-mods. The AMS drivers and the super lates were competing for a $2,000 winners check while the crates and B mods battled for a $1,000 payday. Unfortunately, Mother Nature played a major role in the action, as the heavy and persistent rains during the week resulted in a less than desirable racing surface, with several drivers heading to the trailer after only a handful of completed laps in their main events.
  Group qualifying for the super late models and AMS cars started the program. Gordy Gundaker paced the late models with a lap of 14.515 seconds while local hot shoe Kyle Steffens topped the mods.
  As a sign of things to come, the first heat race was a crate late eight lapper, and Dakota Ewing jumped to a big early lead before his car seemed to dig in the track going through turns three and four sending him into a series of violent flips. He eventually emerged apparently shaken but uninjured with a badly damaged race car.
  The remainder of the fourteen heat races and three B-mains ran off mostly incident free with some track prep included to try and smooth out what was a very fast surface that refused to take rubber.
  The first feature to hit the track was the fifteen lap Pro Crate event. Heat winners Kyle McMahon and Cody Maguire lined up in row one with heat three winner A J May and Trvor Gundaker in row two. Maguire charged to the lead and Gundaker had pulled alongside before the caution waved at the end of lap two for the stalled car of Devin McLean. Following the Delaware restart, May moved to second on lap five, then grabbed the lead one lap later. Just past the halfway mark, the cars of Steven Reinacher and Brady Rudd got together in turn one, with Rudd rolling his #28. As racing resumed, Jason Riggs moved to second, but May stayed in command to the checkers. Gundaker came home third, followed by Blaze Burwell, and MaGuire. Dustin Golden and Scott Geaschel rounded out the seven cars running at the checkers.
  All but two of the nineteen supers lined up for thirty laps. Jose Parga was out of action following qualifying and Rickey Frankel lost a rear end in his heat race. The straight up start from the heats had Gordy Gundaker and Brian Shirley in the front row trailed by Daryn Klein and Tony Jackson Jr. Shirley won the dash to turn one, but as the leaders crossed the stripe for lap one, Matt Santel rolled his car coming off turn four. As his #17x was being attended to, seven of the remaining cars headed to the trailer, including top contenders Klein, Jackson Jr., Billy Moyer Sr., Tim Manville, and Mason Oberkramer, presumably because of the challenging track conditions. The decision was made to go to single file restarts for the remainder of the race. Shirley held the top spot, but smoke began to trail from his car, and he dove to the infield on lap seven, turning the lead over to Gundaker. As the laps clicked off, Michael Kloos found his way around Gordy at the halfway mark. Gundaker refused to go away, and the duo ran nose to tail the rest of the way. Kloos stayed in front to pick up the win. Gundaker ran second, while Billy Laycock won a battle with Rusty Griffaw for third.  Dan Jacober, Derek Fetter, and Mike Hammerle rounded out the running cars.
  The AMS mod feature had been scheduled for thirty laps, but it was decided to cut it to twenty, with twenty three cars taking the green. Heat winner Lucas Lee took command ahead of a lap two caution. At that point, six cars headed to the trailer, including David Stremme and Allan Weisser, who had elected to give up their starting spots to tag the tail. The modifieds were able to negotiate the 3/8 mile in reasonable fashion, with Lee and Michael Harrison soon turning things into a two car battle. With the race staying green, the duo caught slower traffic about lap ten, and one circuit later Harrison was able to pick his way to the front. Lee was not going away, but on lap fourteen, the final caution of the race set up a single file restart and gave Harrison a clear track. He then cruised to the win, followed by Lee, Steffens, Kenny Wallace, and Steve Meyer Jr.
  With the B mod feature rolling to the track, we headed to the pits. Tommie Seets Jr. picked up the $1,000 check with Trey Harris in second.
  The AMS series moves to Farmer City,Il. on Friday, Fairbury,Il. on Saturday, and finishing up Sunday in Brownstown,Il. The Event at Fairbury highlights the weekend with a $10,000 check going to the winner. Trent Young, who finished eighth at Tri City holds the series points lead.
  Thanks to Kevin and Tammy Gundaker for taking a chance on a Thursday night race, and special thanks to the Summit Racing Products AMS point man Barry Barnes for his hospitality (and the goody bag!) Also a shout out to modified driver Michael Long for paying closer attention to my Facebook messages than I apparently do!
  As I make this entry, I am hoping that the gloomy conditions make way for the MLRA late model special tonight, Friday, at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. Check back tomorrow for details!