PLYMOUTH—The Cabin Fever race night held a little bit of everything for the fans that braved the cold at Plymouth Speedway. If you prefer long green flag side by side racing or the rough and tumble endurance type, the “Playground of Power” was the place to be Saturday night.With good car counts in five different series there was a premium on heat results to get a good starting spot in one of the large Cabin Fever feature fields.
22 UMP Modifieds took the green on a quality field of racers. Claypool’s Zeke McKenzie won his heat, drew a fourth starting position for the main. After several early yellows to get things sorted out McKenzie moved in to the lead on a restart and lead the rest of the way, McKenzie picked up his second feature of the weekend having won at Gas City the night before.The main was red flagged for an incident in turns one and two that put Crown Point’s Larry Witt on his lid. Witt emerged unhurt after the on-track safety crew got his car back on its wheels.
Finishing second was Frank Marshall who started from the pole and was within striking distance until the leaders started catching lapped traffic.Rounding out the podium was Jamie Lomax of Lake Village, Ind. who started fifth. Todd Sherman, Nick Allen, Randy Lines, Derek Lost, Dillon Nusbaum, Matt Mitchell and Garret Jameson rounded out the top ten.
Modifieds will be in action again next week at Plymouth Speedway as they share the bill with the USAC non-wing sprints.
23 600 mini sprints signed in and provided a lot of action on the inner track. Garrett Wagoner started sixth in the feature and once in the lead was clicking off some fast lap times to hold off Ed Cleveland and Brian Kunze.
Finishing fourth was Three Oaks’ Garett Goodwin who started 16th in the 20 car field after winning the B feature. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Chad Hartzell of Granger who started second in the feature and dropped with what was diagnosed post race as a bad wiring harness to salvage an eighth place finish.
Kunze’s podium was his first for the Plymouth native and the highest place finish for the J.J. Billisitz stable of cars.
Garrett Saunders of Lakeville picked up where he left off last season in the Pro Sprints with a heat win and a feature win. The rest of the Pro Sprint racing was anything but same old, same old.
Rounding out the podium was new Pro Sprint racer Jake Gordon of Fortville, Ind. and Eli Laken of Buchanan, Mich.
Laken has been racing in the Pro Sprint class for this his third year with big improvements. Laken looked to be taking a rare Heat race win for him when on the white lap he looped it in turn 2 on the final lap. Not letting that set him back Laken started seventh to put it on the podium.
Warsaw’s Michael Summers put his car back together after a nasty heat race accident starting on the tail of the field in the main to finish fourth and charging.
Eric Saunders started fifth and finish fifth. He was looking to restart second behind his brother when he had a right rear tire go down under yellow. Exiting to the hot pit for a replacement he restarted on the tail and fought back to finish fifth.
Michael Clark of Merillville, started on the pole of the Super Streets and checked out on a racy field to win the main. Ron Wilkes started eighth got to second place and wasn’t able to catch Clark. John Rhoads of Mentone finished third from a fifth place starting spot in a race that featured several restarts and close racing throughout.
Last feature of the evening was a long clean green flag Thunder Stock race with South Bend’s Bryan Banta picking up the emotional win after several near misses last year. Austen Hubbard, of Valparaiso, started seventh and picked off cars under the green to finish second. Hobart’s Chad McLean rounded out the podium.
The one restart came with four laps remaining bunching up the field. Banta was able to hold off Hubbard and McLean who battled on the restart and cruised to the win. Banta had 12 feature starts and six top five finishes but was shut out in the win category last year.
Thunder Stocks will be in action next week also as the AMSOIL USAC non-wing sprint series brings their star studded show to Plymouth Speedway. Gates open at 4 p.m., racing will start at 7 p.m.
$20 presale tickets are available online for adults only, adults will be $25 Saturday with children 6-12 $8 and under 6 free. Pit passes are available for $35 dollars Saturday.
This is the only appearance the stars of USAC will make at the Plymouth Speedway this season. Chris Windom is currently leading the points only 5 points ahead of Kevin Thomas, Jr.
Justin Grant won this race last year and is looking to repeat in his new ride with the Topp Motorsports racing entry.
