The "Back In Time 1989.....Tribute to Ken Essary and Randy Mooneyham" Late Model special continued Saturday night at the Springfield Raceway with another full show for the unsanctioned Late Models paying $10,036 to the winner while the four support classes would complete their weekend with feature races as well. You may remember that when this event was first scheduled last fall, it was to be the 2025 season opener for the series that Essary and Mooneyham started, the MLRA, but just a couple of weeks later it was announced that the series would no longer continue by the Lucas Oil organization that has operated the series for the past several years.
Two drivers that were not in attendance on Friday night, Glenn Powell and John Briggs joined the Late Model field and qualified 25th and 26th respectively, better only than Friday's runner-up Dillon McCowan who jumped the berm in turns one and two after taking the green flag and with hard contact to the universal barrier, McCowan's night was over early.
The Late Models would be the fourth feature to be contested on the night, but we will start our story there with Tony Jackson Jr. and Clayton Stuckey bringing the field to green for the thirty-six lap event. It would be the third-starting Gordy Gundaker that would take the lead on lap one though as he edged under Jackson at the stripe and the caution would wave after lap two went into the books when Mason Oberkramer slowed on the track and did not take the exit off the back stretch.
Following the restart Gundaker established a quick pace out front while Friday's winner Brian Shirley clawed his way up from fourth to second. As most of the field settled in on the bottom, it started to look like the track might rubber down and as Gundaker closed in on the back of the field he did not immediately leave the bottom to try to get around Carl Murphy. Behind him though Shirley had gone back to the top looking for a run to surprise the hesitant leader, but just when it looked like he was ready to pounce, Shirley jumped the berm at the top of turn four and spun to bring out the caution on lap thirteen.
Once back to green, Gundaker had clear track ahead as he stayed on the bottom, while Stuckey who won a Comp Cams series race here in 2024 tried a line that was one car width higher than the leader's and it worked allowing the youngster from Louisiana to take the lead on lap fifteen. The caution would wave again when Dustin Tiger spun in turn three and on the restart Arkansas driver Jon Kirby would take over the second position with Stuckey in his sights.
Five laps later Tony Jackson Jr. who was running fourth at the time, slammed his right rear into the berm that rims the outside of the track and as he slowed the caution would wave again. And then two laps later Justin Wells would clip the inside berm in turn four sending him for a spin with the rest of the field scrambling to avoid contact.
The final twelve laps would be run under green and as Stuckey pulled away to take the win it would be Gundaker climbing back to second ahead of Kirby. Billy Moyer had another impressive drive as the Hall of Famer came from twelfth to fourth while Shirley battled his way back to complete the top five after restarting at the rear of the field.
Five cautions would interrupt a good battle up front during the Midwest Modified B Class main event as Gavin Buckley slipped under Cody Arnett to take the lead on lap twelve and the front row starters would finish one-two with Buckley the winner. Jordon Cater, Braxton Rupp and Darren Burt would complete the top five.
The Legend Cars have put on some good feature races whenever we have visited Springfield in the past, but tonight was not one of those as seven caution flags would tarnish the first fifteen laps of the scheduled twenty lapper and at that point the field was given the green white and checkers to bring this one to a conclusion. The first caution of the race was for Trenton Simon who spun in turn four on the opening lap as he challenged Tanner Foster for the lead sending Simon to the back of the nineteen car field for the restart. With the assist of several restarts Simon would battle back to take the lead from Jay Reynolds on lap eleven and he would stay out front to take the checkers in the shortened event. Reynolds was second, Foster finished third with J.P Harris and Chance Gilbert next in line.
With a salute to the MLRA it was only fitting that the car with the Rex McCroskey paint scheme and #64 would win the Midwest Mod A Class feature. Pete Richardson is the driver and he would lead all twenty laps through three caution periods to take the win over Sundance Keepper and Jerad McIntire. Ben Newell finished in the fourth spot while Carter Harrison was fifth.
The twenty lap B-Modified main event would close out the evening with Matt Brookshire pacing the first two laps before Waylon Dimmitt took the lead on lap three. The caution would wave on lap three when Jerry Lankton spun in turn two and following the restart veteran driver Ken Schrader would apply the pressure on Dimmitt before taking the lead on lap six. Three more cautions would wave before the race would come to a close with Schrader driving away from the field each time to take the victory. Dimmitt would be the runner-up, Cole Campbell started seventh and finished third, Kris Jackson came from eleventh to fourth and Anthony Ferrara finished in fifth.
After a pretty comfortable February Friday night, the winds of March blew colder air and some of the speedway into our faces on Saturday making for a challenging evening, but we truly appreciated all of the efforts put forth by track owner Jerry Hoffman just to present this show only ten days after a six inch snowfall. We look forward to our return to Springfield in November for the Turkey Bowl!
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