Mother Nature looked on the track preparation crew with a favorable light for racing on Saturday May 31st providing the right conditions for fast times during qualifying. As fans looked on, 27 super late models took to the grid setting times some 0.700 seconds faster than earlier in “Season 2008”. Dona Marcoullier of Houghton Lake again set fast time for the week and was joined in the dash by David Hilliker of Midland, Donnie Marcoullier of Houghton Lake and dash winner Jeremy Tulick of Cadillac. With the car count up, three heat races were needed to set the lineup for the evenings A & B mains. Heat 1 ended with Adam Thrush of Mt. Pleasant in the All Performance Victory Lane, Rail Rokos of Traverse City won Heat 2 and Frank Seder of Alger took honors in Heat 3. The B Main lineup would give 4 competitors a slot in the Feature and after the scheduled 15 laps Adam Erickson of Traverse City led the field to the checks.
With the A Main getting the green, Dona Marcoullier followed by Seder started up through the pack from their 6th and 8th starting positions. By lap 5 Dona Marcoullier was challenging Andy Chester of Traverse City for the lead, with Seder, Hilliker, Tulick and Donnie Marcoullier all jockeying for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. On lap 8 Dona captured the lead and by lap 19 started lapping the field, Seder was 2nd and working both grooves attempting to gain on the leader. With the field regrouped from a lap 26 caution, Seder mounted his final run on the lead during the restart only to fall short giving Dona Marcoullier the win by six car lengths. Seder was 2nd followed by Donnie Marcoullier, Hilliker, Chester, Matt Saxton of Houghton Lake, Allen Markel and Chris Brindley, both of West Branch, Dave Springer of Muskegon and Bob Hammer of Cadillac rounding out the top 10. Merritt Speedway “Season 2008” has now had its 3rd different Late Model Feature Winner in 3 nights of racing!
In Michigan Modified action, 33 open wheel gladiators’ suited up for battle with Chad Bauer of Farwell setting fast time and winning the dash. Irvin Thume of Alger took the win in Heat 1, Steve Hilliker of Midland won Heat 2, Heat 3 was owned by Lawrence Sprague of Mt. Pleasant and Dave Baker of Grand Rapids was victorious in Heat 4. In the B Main, a 20 lap shoot out, 4 moved up to the “A Main” as Roger Steig of Big Rapids won the caution laden event. The Modified Feature starts with Baker and Kevin Miller of Mt. Pleasant hauling the field into turn one, after a couple laps, Baker finds himself challenged by Rich Robinson Jr., but falls out do to a flat tire. Robinson Jr. held the lead for the balance of the race, followed by the top ten of Sprague, Miller, John Taylor of Mt. Pleasant, Jeff Cade of Buckley, Greg Wangler Sr. of West Branch, Steve Hilliker of Midland, Brent Banning of West Branch, Bauer and Dave Mairose of West Branch.
Fast time for the Pro Trucks was earned by Dick Stout of Houghton Lake with the dash win going to Mike Kresnek of Elwell. In the heat race competition Craig Foster of Cadillac took Heat 1 and Heat 2 was won Bob Green of Traverse City. With several cautions the Pro Truck feature had a slow start that sidelined 6 of the 20 truck field. This didn’t affect the excitement of competition, as Green, Kresnak and J.T. Anderson of Cadillac worked each other over to the end of the 20 lap event. Kresnak won followed closely by Green, Anderson, Adam Brinks and Bob Hammer, both of Cadillac, Richie Sutherland of Merritt, Mike Nelson Jr. of Cadillac, Karl Mead of Grayling, Foster and Blake Meyering of Cadillac finished out the top ten.
The Stock 4 Cylinder class entertained the crowd with more new talent. Andrew Galgoci of Mt. Pleasant won the heat race and David Mielke of Gladwin won his third straight feature.
The Theme Bee’s also had additional members enter their ranks as Darrin Bowers of Marion won both the Heat and Feature races. Brittney Morris of Cadillac returned to defend her championship with a 2nd place finish in both races followed by Tyler Hacker of Houghton Lake and Jessie Miller of Lake City.
June 7, 2008 will be the warm up for “The Who 55”, a chance to meet a “Short Track Hero” and enjoy some awesome racing! SEE YA AT THE RACES!Submitted by: Bob Steele
Merritt Speedway
