After a family vacation last weekend, it was time to get back to the track! While rain leading to wet grounds played havoc throughout eastern Iowa, we decided to make the opening salvo of what we hope will be a three race weekend our first 2025 visit to Tri City Speedway near Granite City, Il. MARS Late Models topped the bill, racing for $5,000 to win, backed up by UMP Modifieds, B Mods, Factory Stocks and 4 Cylinders. St. Louis traffic is always a treat, especially on Friday afternoons. Add in the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, never ending road construction, and well when you wanna race, you wanna race!
It has been a nightmare spring for the folks at Tri City, as rain and wet conditions have wiped out several attempts to kick off their racing season, and even on what would be opening night, there was excess moisture resulting in a track with a lot of "character."
I imagine there are race fans who enjoy time trial qualifying paired up with "start the fast cars up front" events, I just don't know any who will admit to it. So we were pleased when it was announced they had a transponder issue, and would instead use a draw redraw format for the thirty one Late Models and twenty two Modifieds. However even with the revised format, all four Late Model heat winners came from the front row, as Jason Feger, Justin Duty, series points leader Tony Jackson Jr. and fast improving Guy Taylor recorded victories. The MARS format still qualified the top sixteen in passing points for feature starting spots, and this resulted in an oddity I do not recall ever witnessing. In the first eight lapper, only four cars finished the event, however seventh starting Reid Millard was credited with a fifth place finish, giving him enough points to line up sixteenth on the feature grid.
With Adam Tischauser and Tony Wolf scratched after hot laps and front row starter Ryan Unzicker and Bob Gardner electing to hold out for feature provisionals, the two scheduled B Mains were combined in to one ten lap eleven car last chance race transferring the top four to the thirty lap finale. Veteran Mark Voigt shook off his early season bad luck to lead this one flag to flag. One of the better runs of the night was by up and coming Austin Howes, who lined up ninth on the grid, and after having a pair of daring high side passes negated by caution flags, he managed to climb to the fourth and final qualifying position.
With all preliminary action complete, there was about a fifteen minute intermission before the Late Models came to the track for the first feature. Series regular Feger and Georgia invader Ashton Winger filled out row one, with Winger jumping out front trailed by Feger, Jake Little and Jackson Jr. Winger quickly shot to the top of the rough and fast three eighths mile track, catching the tail of the field by lap six. Feger appeared to have set up to run a lower line, but the high side was the place to be, and Little blew past the #25 for second on lap eleven followed one lap later by Jackson Jr. Winger had built a comfortable lead by the time the first caution came with thirteen laps down as Mike McKinney slowed in turn one. Feger continued to fall back in the field as racing resumed, and Winger again pulled away from the pack. On lap seventeen however, the leader missed his mark a bit, contacting the concrete wall in turn two, slowing his momentum and allowing Little to close in. But he quickly recovered and was cruising out front when the second and final yellow flag waved with nine to go for a slowing Howes. Little did all he could to stay close as the final laps clicked off, but this race belonged to Winger, who led flag to flag. Jackson Jr. was steady in third, while Duty and Taylor completed the top five. Trevor Gundaker was the hard charger, gaining six spots to claim sixth followed by Feger, Rusty Griffaw, Mike Harrison and McKay Wenger. Thirteen of the twenty two starters were running at the checkers.
The MARS Late Models have a full weekend, with Saturday racing at Fairbury, Il., then winding up Sunday at Spoon River Speedway
With post race activities over, all but one of the Modifieds, David Cannon, lined up for twenty laps of action. First heat winner Treb Jacoby charged to the lead from inside row one, leading heat two winner Ryan Hamilton and Kenny Wallace, who raced side by side behind the leader. Timmy Hill had his #51 hooked up, coming from row five to third on lap five. At this point Jacoby had checked out on the field, but a wave of the yellow flag brought him back to the pack. Hill powered to second on the restart, but again Jacoby drove away. Around the half way point it was heat three winner Chase Holland on the move. The Mississippi driver had fallen back several spots after lining up inside row two, but he was now back to third. Jacoby was smooth in traffic, while Hill was giving his all to try to run down the leader, including sending sparks flying as he continually banked off the turn four concrete. Although Hill closed the gap considerably in the final laps, Jacoby worked the heavy traffic of the final couple laps to perfection, picking up a flag to flag win. Following third finishing Holland was Wallace, then Dean Hoffman, who made a late race pass of Hamilton to move into the top five. Rick Conoyer, Owen Steinkoenig, Clint Young, and Dylan Sharp rounded out the top ten.
Although it was still just minutes ahead of 10:00P.M. we were pleased with what we had witnessed and decided to call it a night. Congratulations to Matthew Edler (B Mods), Trevor Isaak ( Factory Stocks), and Chris Rakers ( 4 Cylinders) for their victories.
Tonight (Saturday) we are heading to Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa for the second installment of their UMP Pro Crate Late Model Drive for Five series. There is lots of quality racing throughout the mid west tonight, so get off the couch and get to the track!
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