With three different 410 Winged Sprint Car series running Friday and Saturday within a four hour radius, 34 Raceway picked the Thursday night leading into the busy weekend to host the Honest Abe's Roofing POWRi 410 Sprint League for the first time ever and the pits were packed with an interesting field of forty-three drivers.
Track conditions were darn near perfect for Sprint Car racing on the high banked three-eighths mile oval as evidenced by Aaron Reutzel setting the overall quick time as the forty-first driver to trip the clock. A four car invert made for some good racing action in the heats with passing points helping to set the field and the two B-Mains were each hotly contested as only the top three in each would make the thirty lap main event.
Colton Fisher and Reutzel would bring the field to green and while Fisher would lead the way down the back stretch, Reutzel would slide him exiting turn four to lead the opening lap. Jy Corbett is spending his first summer racing in the states and the Aussie soon moved to second and was able to keep pace with Reutzel until the caution waved on lap seven for Cam Martin who had spun off the top of turn two.
On the double file restart the field jumbled up on the back stretch sending Jason Martin for a spin and that would be the final stoppage of this thirty lap headliner. Once back to green Corbett could not maintain Reutzel's pace until he encountered traffic mid-race. That allowed Corbett to get back in the hunt and as Reutzel tried to drive under a lapped car that was riding the cushion, Corbett nearly pulled even with the leader in turn two.
Once he cleared the lapped car of Brandon Wimmer though, Reutzel would again build a lead as Corbett was now under pressure from Kerry Madsen. With ten laps remaining Madsen threw a slider that sent both cars up the track in turn two and when Corbett's right rear slipped over the edge momentarily that allowed Madsen to get to second while Parker Price-Miller also slipped by before Corbett could regain his momentum.
With Reutzel now more than a full straightaway ahead, the battle was for second as the eighth starting PPM drove under Madsen with five to go, but the leader was now nearly a half lap ahead as Reutzel cruised to the win. Price-Miller and Madsen completed the podium, Austin McCarl finished fourth while Corbett slipped to fifth at the checkers. Chris Martin, Emerson Axsom, Ayrton Gennetten, Kaleb Johnson and Kevin Thomas Jr. filled out the top ten while Paul Nienhiser was the hard charger driving the Midland Performance #50 from twenty-first to eleventh.
A talented field of twelve IMCA Modified drivers were on hand to provide support and race for some good money as well with a $1,000 check going to the winner. Chris Zogg would lead the opening lap before Denny Eckrich took over on lap two. The only caution of the race came on lap five of twenty when the fourth place car of Austen Becerra spun in turn four and on the restart Cayden Carter was able to clear Zogg for second and then set his sights on the leader.
Eckrich was able to hold him off until lap nine when Carter found the bite that he needed off the bottom of turn four to take the lead and he would then drive away for the win. Eckrich and Zogg were next in line with California native Trevor Fitz out dueling Spencer Diercks for fourth.
A big thanks to Brad, Jessi and the entire team at 34 for the hospitality and for the well run program that wrapped up before 10:30. I brought three of my friends who are much more familiar with a golf course over a race track and they all had a great time!
34 Raceway will be back in action this Saturday night with a $5 admission special and then on Saturday June 21st the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders will be in action here as the middle show of a big three-race weekend with races in Memphis, Missouri, on Friday night and Quincy, Illinois, on Sunday. Hope to see you there!
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