5/27/2012
Mount Pleasant Speedway
Rusty Schlenk Comes Up All Checkers
Friday, May 25 Mt. Pleasant Speedway would host some of the best regional and local drivers. With over 35 late models to make the call come green flag time it would be a challenge just to make the field for the A-main. There would be 4 heats and only top 4 drivers would advance right to the A-main. Out of heat #1 we would see the #94 of Bill Bray win the heat with 2nd going to #51 Devin Shiels, 3rd #27 Eric Spangler, 4th #85 Mark Anderson. Heat #2 transferring to the A-main and winning his heat would be in 1st 0x Zach Olger, 2nd #78 Dean Wilkerson, 3rd #1 Jeff Babcock, 4th #21 Tom Sprague Jr. 3rd heat would have 4 outstanding racers transfer too 1st #M14 Brandon Thirlby, 2nd #87 Rich Neiser, 3rd #8 Keith Gentz, 4th #49 Brian Ruhlman. Heat #4 would see are last four drivers making it to the A-main all the rest would now have to make their way through the B and C Mains. These drivers would be 1st #91 Rusty Schlenk, 2nd #23 Ryan Vanderveen, 3rd #91 Adam Thrush, 4th #15 Phil Ausra. With the first 16 drivers set in the A-main all others would have to fight their way through the B and C main. The B-main would see the #6R of Carl Reis and 6m of Dona Marcoulier making to the A-main now making the field 18 cars. Now it was what two would make it out of the C-Main 1st going to #9R Curtis Roberts and the position going to multi time track Champion #X1 of Justin Robinson. There would be 23 cars to make the field though. ALMS Sunoco gives 2 provisionals to the two highest point guy not to make the show this would allow #55 Jeep Van Wormer who got caught up in traffic in his heat and just simply pulled off in his B-main race to still make the show and also allowing the 33 of Don Gordon also in the show. With this being 22 cars to the field there would be one more to take the track a 23 car thought to have a provisional from Mt. Pleasant Speedway. After the race this would later be determined that Mt. Pleasant Speedway does not give out any provisionals and all points and placement of that car was taken away. ALMS Sunoco would make all calls on this matter being they were the lead promoter over Michigan Dirt Cup and Mt. Pleasant Speedway. None the less this set up for a field of the best talent that the Midwest and Canada has to offer. Early in the race we would see a couple of the best pull off for mechanical failure with the X1 of Justin Robinson and the 9R of Curtis Roberts make their way to the pit area. With track conditions that would see it pretty hard to pass on the 30 lap feature would find guys keeping their position the Mary go round and not too much movement. We would see the #15 Ausra, #85 of Anderson, and #87 Neiser make their way up for 8-10 place. 6th place we would see #1 of Babcock and right behing him would be the #23 of Vanderveen. The top 5 would see a mix of local and regional talent 5th place would see last week’s winner of the first ever Michigan Dirt Cup Late Model Series #M14 Brandon Thirlby, 4th place would be another local guy from St. Johns, Mi and Mt. Pleasant frequent driver #0X of Zach Olger. In third place we would see a frequent driver of the Winston Speedway in Rothbury, Mi #94 of Bill Bray. We would see two of the best in a 30 lap shootout for 1st and 2nd. Mt. Pleasant would get to see Regional driver #51 Devin Shiels get up for 2nd place leaving none other than Weston, Oh driver coming up with the checkers #91 Rusty Schlenk. Mt. Pleasant Speedway would like to thank all Drivers that came to this ALMS Sunco/ Michigan Dirt Cup/WOOF Classic.
With all this excitement there was still 4 other divisions that ran this awesome night. We would see 20 modifieds take the track for the A-main Friday night. With a long time regular at Mt. Pleasant Speedway showing up in the winner circle was none other than the #21 of Steve Hilliker. With a very strong #43 of Kevin Miller making several runs at first place, but with a few cautions at the end would have to settle for 2nd. The rest of the top 5 would shake out like this 3rd #75 of Roy Harvey, 4th would be #87 David Mielke, Rounding out the top 5 would be Andrew Terrill.
Ump street stocks would see 12 cars make it out for the A-main. #49 Tragis would see himself making his way back to Mt. Pleasant Speedway. With a trip to practice on Tuesday made for a trip to the winner circle on Friday finishing 1st. 2nd would go to #23 Allen coming up with his best finish of the year, 3rd #55 Joe Pomeroy, 4th #87 Landon Hidy in a backup car. To round out are top 5 would be the very strong running #100 of Mike Sparks.
Mod 4 class would have some news to start the day. This is the last year for the Mod 4 class at Mt. Pleasant Speedway at the end of the year this class will no longer exist. There were many fine drivers making their way up through this class. None the less the mod 4 class will be replaced by prostocks in 2013. With over ¾ of a season to go let’s see who will win Mod 4 and be the last to have their name put on the trophy. With 6 cars making it to the track Friday night it made for largest field of the year. With the top too head and shoulders above the rest #610 of Blaine Hendrick would give all he had but could not edge the victor #91 Nathan Carlon. 3rd #68 Trevor Fedewa 4th 808 of Bob Pratt. 5th would be #48 of Kevin Snyder.
Stock 4’s would be a very fast Feature with two cars getting a jump on the field the #23 of Joe Allen showed that he was much best the field to take 1st. 2nd would go to a very game #2 Steve Workman, 3rd 71 of Taco Scotty, 4th #62 of Steve Keeler Jr. 5th would be the D7 of Tasha Decker.
Thanks goes to every driver for making this an amazing race night local or regional without you we don’t get to have these big shows. We look forward to seeing everyone back next week for the Soaring Eagle Casino Mod 4 and Stock 4 Special. So Calling All Stock 4 and Mod 4 come out and grab some extra money. We thank every fan and driver for choosing to come to Mt. Pleasant Speedway The Cleanest Show on Dirt. Look for any info at www.mpspeedway.com
Chris Ryan
Article Credit: Chris Ryan
Submitted By: Anthony Boyd
