Tri City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Il. was the site of championship night for the Lucas Oil MLRA Super Late Model series on Friday. Originally scheduled as a two night event, the Saturday finale was canceled by the promoters due to family issues. It has been a tough season for the Gundaker family run facility as they elected to switch from weekly racing to specials only in 2024 only to see many of their events fall victim to wet conditions. And now family illness will force their season to conclude one day early. Ironically this second week in October would offer an unseasonably warm and dry day followed by a cool evening, great for late season racing. In addition, the points race has tightened considerably during the last few events, creating an exciting atmosphere in both the grandstands and the pits. The concluding race would pay $7,000 to win, with UMP Modifieds filling out the card with a $1,000 winners' share up for grabs.
With a modest field of twenty Super Late Models and twenty five Modifieds, we hoped for a quick show, but unfortunately that would not be the case. Heavy rains, remnants of Hurricane Helene created a soggy infield and a track with as they say "character," but other than perhaps a couple extra flat tires, that only made things a bit more interesting. The real culprit, apparently also blamed on the storms, was a malfunctioning timing loop, which caused qualifying to stretch well beyond the one hour mark. Early on in Modified hot lap/qualifying several cars were checked for transponder issues. ( Note to all tracks that do time trial group qualifying :if you need to pull a car in to check the transponder, please pull the next in line out for time during the process. NO ONE wants dead time watching track personnel crawl under a car to do the check.) After Late Model driver Chris Fetter turned roughly eight qualifying laps it was decided to finish off the Late Models one at a time. Time trials finally wrapped up about 8:19, then three heat races in each division clicked off in just under thirty minutes. The announcement came that the MLRA thirty lap feature would be up first, but with their heat races just complete, we then had a thirty minute plus intermission as the headline class readied their machines.
All but one, Adam Tischauser, lined up for the main event. Heat winners Tony Jackson Jr., Chris Simpson, Chad Simpson and fast timer Kayden Clatt would fill out the top two rows. In search of a third straight and fifth overall series championship, Chad would start the night atop the points while brother Chris held a slim five point advantage over Tony for second. All three were still on the hunt for the $20,000 championship payday. Chris would grab the early lead with Tony, Kayden and Chad in pursuit. Following a lap three caution Chad would move to third. Three more yellow flags would slow the action, and after the final restart eleven laps in only a dozen cars remained on the track. The final nineteen circuits saw Jackson Jr. in hot pursuit of the leader, nearly completing the pass on a couple of occasions. But even as Chris would bounce off the turn two concrete in the later laps he was able to slightly increase his margin, taking a flag to flag win. Chad would, by his own words drive a "conservative" race, ensuring the series title. Rickey Frankel gained eight positions to come home fourth, while series Rookie of the Year Aaron Marrant came from tenth to complete the top five. Trevor Gundaker, Jeff Herzog and Steve Stultz rounded out the cars running at the checkers, with Lane Ehlert and Allen Middendorf credited with ninth and tenth.
With post race and season ending ceremonies complete, twenty three Modifieds would line up for twenty five laps. Unfortunately, the open wheelers seemed unable to negotiate the tricky surface, and after a half dozen or so yellow flags in the first half of the event we took our leave as the clock ticked past 10:30. Up to that point it had been Danny Ems holding off Kenny Wallace in a battle of #36s', but results show Wallace grabbing the win over Ems, fast qualifier Ryan Hamilton, Jacob Steinkoenig and Rick Stevenson. Ems, Wallace and Hamilton were heat race winners.
Several upcoming improvements to the facilities at Tri City were announced for the upcoming off season - they still have a B Modified Bash coming up in two weeks, and a return to weekly racing is also scheduled for 2025.
Plans for yours truly for next weekend remain up in the air, but be sure and check back to see which direction I will be Racin' Down the Road in search of some dirt track action!
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