The roster for the MARS Championship Series sanctioned Hawkeyeland 40 at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton Thursday night was an amazing combination of the two national Late Model tours, who both have the weekend off, along with top notch regional talent sprinkled in as forty-three drivers were on hand. The $5,000-to-win event would kick off an Easter weekend triple header for MARS and a good crowd filed in despite the threat of some weather coming in from the west later in the evening.
Qualifying with straight up starts through four heat races and two B-Mains whittled the field to twenty-two for the forty-lap main event with Illinois stars Brandon Sheppard and Brian Shirley bringing the field to green, but it would be the third starting Carson Ferguson that would dig around the bottom of the racy quarter-mile to take the lead as the opening lap was scored. The North Carolina native had set quick time earlier in the evening and it was an impressive move to start, but Sheppard would come roaring back riding a precarious cushion that had pushed all the way to the rim in turns one and two as early as qualifying.
Sheppard, behind the wheel of his family owned Valvoline #B5 for this weekend, would take the point on lap three and then settle into a routine of running low in one and two while still riding the cushion in turns three and four. The first caution of the race would wave on lap ten when Ryan Unzicker slowed to a halt and once back to racing the fifth starting Bobby Pierce would now keep pace with the leader hoping to make a run at him once Sheppard encountered traffic. Behind them a tight battle for third between Ferguson, Tanner English and Brian Shirley kept my attention, especially as Sheppard kept one or two lappers between himself and Pierce.
The second and final caution of the race would fly with twelve laps remaining when Justin Duty and Tony Jackson Jr. tangled in turn two and on this restart English would slip by Pierce for second for a couple of laps before Bobby battled back to regain the position. As they raced it out though, Sheppard had put some distance them and even though Pierce would cut it down to just a couple of car lengths coming to the checkers he was unable to make a challenge as the checkers waved over "B-Shepp". English would finish third with Ferguson warding off Shirley for fourth. Ryan Gustin would come from twelfth to finish sixth, young Daniel Adam was solid all night in seventh, Dennis Erb Jr. who needed some late race heroics in his B-Main to get the final transfer spot then came from the tenth row of the feature to finish eighth. Jason Feger was also a big mover coming from seventeenth to ninth and Chad Simpson rounded out the top ten after starting from fifteenth. Young Drake Troutman had been racing in the top five for most of the event until he slipped off the top of turn three with five laps remaining losing twelve positions on the costly mistake.
Late Model fans can expect to see this star studded field again tonight and Saturday as the series moves to 34 Raceway west of Burlington, Iowa, for the annual Brent Slocum Memorial with Saturday's Slocum 50 paying $10,555 to the winner!
There was plenty of star power in each of the three support classes as well although the car count was surprisingly small in the Sport Mods. For the past several years this division would often boast the highest car count at either a special or a weekly show in this region, but the start of the 2025 season has seen that trend reversed as only nine good ones were on hand tonight and their twenty lap feature would precede the Late Model headliner.
Cole Stichter would race out to a nice lead until the fourth starting Brayton Carter could make his way to second and then lap by lap that advantage would disappear. As the leaders approached two cars racing for position at the back of the field Carter would make his move driving under Stichter to take the advantage on lap thirteen. Just one lap later the red flag would fly as Brady Hilmer's car tipped over onto it's top in turn four and following the cleanup Carter would pull away over the final six laps to score already his fifth win on the young season. Stichter would be the runner-up followed by Justin Becker, Levi Heath and Trey Rock.
The opening lap of the first Stock Car heat race earlier in the evening may have been worth the price of admission alone as they went four-wide for the lead and three-wide just behind into turn three with little if any contact being made. Unfortunately though the track had been mostly used up during the Late Model feature and while there were a few drivers making a higher line work for a position here or there, for the most part it was a huggy pole battle that pole-sitter Tony Olson was more than happy to set the pace for.
After losing a couple of positions early from his outside of row one start, Kaden Reynolds battled back to second and kept the pressure on Olson waiting for one small mistake to make his move. On the final lap Reynolds was able to poke his nose under Olson going down the back stretch and while he could have rooted the leader out for the sake of a victory, Kaden showed true sportsmanship as Olson closed the door in turn three backing out of it to finish in second. Wisconsin's Kenny Richards and Brayton Carter aboard his cousin's #7V each finished where they started in third and fourth while John Oliver Jr. was fifth.
The IMCA Modifieds closed out the evening with the field of fifteen going for twenty-five laps with Tom Berry Jr. snagging the lead from the outside of row one and then going the distance for a dominating win. Ethan Braaksma brought the Rage house car #12J in for second, Jeff Larson started sixth and finished third with Spencer Diercks in fourth and California transplant Troy Morris III was fifth after starting from the inside of row five.
It was another well presented show by the Darkside crew headed up by Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme with an on-time start and a final checkered flag waving around 9:45, perfect for a Thursday night special packed full of action.
Next up for me will be a first ever appearance by the SLMR Late Model series at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, next Friday April 25th. Hope to see you there!
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