Two of the hottest drivers in UMP racing, and perhaps the entire Midwest, went to victory lane Thursday night as the Tri-City Speedway just across the river from St. Louis kicked off three straight nights of "Modified Mania". Mike Harrison has likely wrapped up the 2017 UMP Modified National points title and his victory was likely just icing on the cake while Ryan Unzicker may need to win again on Friday, Saturday or both in order to reel in current point leader Rusty Schlenk as he chases the UMP Late Model championship.
Fifty-six Modifieds signed in for the evening with Group qualifying setting the lineups straight up for eight heat races where only the winner advanced. One C-Main helped fill out the field for two B-Mains where eight drivers from each filled out the 24-car field for the 30-lap main event. Mike Harrison was one of a couple drivers who were able to win from somewhere other than the pole position and when fast qualifier and first heat race winner Nick Hoffman spun the wheel the #3 landed Harrison on the pole for the feature.
Michael Long started on the outside of row one and he did his best to stay even over the first two laps until Harrison eased ahead and started to build a lead. Long would keep the leader in sight and traffic soon came into play during the non-stop event. The driver to watch was Late Model star Bobby Pierce who had his own #32 Modified on the move after starting eighth, but by the time he moved to third both Harrison and Long had more than a straightaway lead on him plus there were two or three lapped cars separating them as well.
Pierce made up that ground during the final ten laps with Nick Hoffman following and while those two were able to track down Long they could not catch Harrison as he collected the $3,000 opening night victory. Pierce would finish in second, Hoffman passed Long on the final lap for third while Kenny Wallace was fifth. Sixth went to David Wietholder, Shannon Babb started his Modified in fourth but dropped to seventh at the checkers, Danny Schwartz was eighth, Brent Mullins was ninth and Rick Stevenson finished tenth after starting eighteenth.
Joining Babb and Pierce, Iowan Chris Simpson also did double duty on the night as he drove Kelly Kovski's car #10K, but Simpson dropped out of his B-Main while racing outside of a transfer spot.
Babb and Tim Manville made up the front row for the 30-lap Late Model headliner and the two waged quite a battle through the opening laps with Babb racing down low and Manville primarily banging off of the cushion. Manville was ahead by a nose on lap one, Babb was scored the leader on lap two and Manville came back to secure the lead on lap three. The caution would then wave for debris and on the restart Ryan Unzicker would take the second spot away from Babb and pick up the challenge for the lead.
Manville did his best trying to pinch off Unzicker, but he could not keep his car glued to the bottom and on lap twelve Unzicker would takeover the lead. As the laps clicked away Manville would stay within striking distance should a mistake ever come, but Unzicker has been on a winning streak lately and mistakes are far and few between from the #24 as Ryan cruised to the win and the $2,000 winner's check. Manville defended his home turf nicely as the runner-up with Chris Simpson in third. Babb faded to fourth as Bobby Pierce finished fifth, sixth went to Frank Heckenast Jr. while Tony Jackson Jr. drove Raymond Merrill's #12M to a seventh-place finish after starting twelfth. Jason Feger was eighth, Rusty Schlenk was ninth and Daryn Klein completed the top ten.
In his Late Model Pierce had to battle back all night after an unfortunate turn of events during qualifying. He was the first of three cars in his group to come to the track to take two laps on the clock and just as he was completing his first lap the caution waved for the second car on the track that had coasted to a stop on the back stretch. As Pierce and the third car circled the track under caution, the disabled Late Model was pushed to the pits, but just before the green flag was about to wave again Pierce pulled to the infield with a flat right front tire. With no official qualifying time Bobby started seventh in the second heat and raced his way up to second at the checkers to earn a big round of applause from the fans who, let's face it, never get to see a run like this under the UMP race format.
There is a stellar field of cars here at Tri-City and the car count might even grow tonight and Saturday, but that format is a big reason why I will head back north tonight to the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, for night one of two for the Jerry Barrickman Memorial. Perhaps I will see you there!
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