MARS Late Model Goes to Feger

By Rocky Ragusa – Kankakee, Ill. (5/19/23) The MARS Championship Series made the first of two appearances to Billy Knippenberg Jr.’s, Kankakee County Speedway on Friday night. Six classes were in action on the ¼ mile dirt oval, featuring the “Big Daddy Scrap” 40 lap MARS Late Models.

27 Late Model drivers made qualifying attempts for their $5000 to win race. Australia’s Kye Blight led the way with a time of 13.723. Hall of Famer driver, Kevin Weaver, defending MARS champion, Ryan Unzicker, and Frank Heckenast Jr. won heat races. Mark Voigt was the B-main winner.

Polesitter, Feger took the lead on the start, with Unzicker, Weaver, Tommy Sheppard Jr., and Mike Mataragas in hot pursuit. The caution waved on the second lap for a six car pileup in turn one. When the field went back to the green flag, Weaver got by Unzicker for second. Feger and Weaver raced side by side, before Weaver edged ahead on the fifth lap. Weaver, running the top side of the track was able to open a five car length lead over Feger. Disaster struck for “ the Flatland Flash” on the 14th lap, as he suddenly slowed on the track and brought out the caution. When the field went back to the green flag, Feger changed his line to the top side and had a 10 car length lead over Unzicker, Sheppard Jr,Logan Nickerson, and Blight.Sheppard Jr. overtook Unzicker for second on lap 24 and had his sights set on Feger. After a lap 26 yellow, Unzicker moved back to second and cut into Feger’s lead. Rookie contender, Kyle Hammer flexed his muscle in the final stages of the race. Starting in the 20th position, Hammer moved into the fifth spot with six laps remaining. The red flag came out with five laps to go as Scott Schmitt rolled his car in turn one. Feger had a five car length lead over Unzicker when the field went back to the green. As Jim Whittington waved the checkered flag, Feger had a 1.6 second lead over Unzicker and captured his first MARS win of the year.

“ It is hard to say what would have happened if Kevin wouldn’t have broke,” commented Feger. “ I can’t believe the top came in like that. I thought it would be all around the tires and we were a little too tight to be entering up there. We made it work and it makes it up for a really bad week.”

Unzicker took second, followed by Nickerson, Mataragas, and Hammer. Mike Harrison led the second five followed by Billy Moyer, Blaze Burwell, Mike Spatola, and Heckenast Jr.

Austin Hubbard took the lead with seven laps to go and held off defending DIRTCar Stock Car champion, Zane Reitz, to take his third Stock Car feature win of the year. Cody Clubb took third, followed by Joe Spiewak, heat one winner Jerrad Krick, Tony Hemp, fast qualifier Joe Brown, Danny Komisavaik Jr., Jeff Czemske, and Ryan Arnett.

Amber Crouch survived a rash of cautions and the constant pressure from Matt Hammond to capture her first career Pro Late Model feature win. Austin McCarty , winner of the third heat, took third, with Chase Osterhoff, and Jace Owens in fifth. Former national champion and two time Kankakee track champion, Torin Mettille was sixth, Ben Kircher, Gary Schalmo, Jammie Wilson, and Chad Osterhoff completed the top ten.

Dillon Nusbaum turned back Mike McKinney in the Modified race to win his third overall race of the year. Logan Veloz finished in third, with track point leader Jamie Lomax in fourth, and Nick Allen taking fifth. Nick Seplak, Jason Hastings, Braiden Bohlman, Adam Pockrus, and Mark Rhoades finished in the top ten.

Third generation driver, Deece Schwartz picked up his fourth Pro Modified win of the year, with newcomer, Donnie Martin taking second, Ryan Kohler, Pete Argianas , Carter Caldwell, Scott McDonald, Brandon Wirtz, Wes Ricketts, Mera Tilstra, and Kevin Sonquist following.

Racing closed with David Lauritson winning his fourth Kankakee Sport Compact race. Jimmy Dutlinger, Rick DeFord, Evan Eckhoff, and Joshua Wright took the first five positions.

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 25FE-Jason Feger[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[2]; 3. 21N-Logan Nickerson[8]; 4. 1M-Mike Mataragas[4]; 5. 26H-Kyle Hammer[20]; 6. 33-Mike Harrison[14]; 7. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[9]; 8. 44-Blaze Burwell[13]; 9. 89-Mike Spatola[18]; 10. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[5]; 11. 31-Kye Blight[10]; 12. 80-Rich Dawson[21]; 13. 4G-Bob Gardner[15]; 14. 38J-Jake Little[17]; 15. 20W-Justin White[19]; 16. 4D-Doug Tye[22]; 17. (DNF) 10-Scott Schmitt[11]; 18. (DNF) T6-Tommy Sheppard[6]; 19. (DNF) 30-Mark Voigt[16]; 20. (DNF) 10S-Taylor Scheffler[12]; 21. (DNF) B12-Kevin Weaver[3]; 22. (DNF) 130-Chase Osterhoff[7]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 30-Mark Voigt[2]; 2. 38J-Jake Little[4]; 3. 89-Mike Spatola[6]; 4. 20W-Justin White[3]; 5. 26H-Kyle Hammer[9]; 6. 80-Rich Dawson[5]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan[10]; 8. 75-Toma Johnson[8]; 9. 4D-Doug Tye[1]; 10. 74-Dan DeYoung[12]; 11. 82-Darren Wireman[7]; 12. (DNS) 25-Teddy Johnson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. B12-Kevin Weaver[4]; 2. 1M-Mike Mataragas[5]; 3. 130-Chase Osterhoff[7]; 4. 31-Kye Blight[1]; 5. 44-Blaze Burwell[2]; 6. 4D-Doug Tye[9]; 7. 38J-Jake Little[6]; 8. 82-Darren Wireman[8]; 9. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Ryan Unzicker[1]; 2. 25FE-Jason Feger[5]; 3. 21N-Logan Nickerson[2]; 4. 10-Scott Schmitt[6]; 5. 33-Mike Harrison[3]; 6. 30-Mark Voigt[4]; 7. 80-Rich Dawson[7]; 8. 75-Toma Johnson[8]; 9. (DNS) 25-Teddy Johnson

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[4]; 2. T6-Tommy Sheppard[1]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 4. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[3]; 5. 4G-Bob Gardner[5]; 6. 20W-Justin White[7]; 7. 89-Mike Spatola[9]; 8. 26H-Kyle Hammer[6]; 9. 74-Dan DeYoung[8]

Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 31-Kye Blight, 00:13.723[2]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.890[11]; 3. T6-Tommy Sheppard, 00:14.039[4]; 4. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:14.044[1]; 5. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 00:14.102[10]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:14.103[9]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:14.157[3]; 8. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:14.157[13]; 9. 10S-Taylor Scheffler, 00:14.173[18]; 10. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:14.179[26]; 11. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:14.225[8]; 12. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:14.228[20]; 13. 1M-Mike Mataragas, 00:14.238[5]; 14. 25FE-Jason Feger, 00:14.263[23]; 15. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:14.324[7]; 16. 38J-Jake Little, 00:14.334[6]; 17. 10-Scott Schmitt, 00:14.358[25]; 18. 26H-Kyle Hammer, 00:14.458[14]; 19. 130-Chase Osterhoff, 00:14.498[21]; 20. 80-Rich Dawson, 00:14.617[22]; 21. 20W-Justin White, 00:14.853[24]; 22. 82-Darren Wireman, 00:15.182[15]; 23. 75-Toma Johnson, 00:16.305[16]; 24. 74-Dan DeYoung, 00:17.557[17]; 25. (DNS) 4D-Doug Tye, 00:17.557; 26. (DNS) 25-Teddy Johnson, 00:17.557; 27. (DNS) 89-Mike Spatola, 00:17.557

Hot Laps 1 (2 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:14.036[27]; 2. 25FE-Jason Feger, 00:14.438[23]; 3. 10S-Taylor Scheffler, 00:14.456[18]; 4. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:14.459[20]; 5. 80-Rich Dawson, 00:14.504[22]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:14.507[3]; 7. 130-Chase Osterhoff, 00:14.507[21]; 8. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:14.509[13]; 9. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:14.558[26]; 10. 26H-Kyle Hammer, 00:14.582[14]; 11. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 00:14.588[10]; 12. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:14.641[9]; 13. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:14.657[11]; 14. 1M-Mike Mataragas, 00:14.697[5]; 15. 10-Scott Schmitt, 00:14.766[25]; 16. T6-Tommy Sheppard, 00:14.814[4]; 17. 31-Kye Blight, 00:14.902[2]; 18. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:14.950[7]; 19. 38J-Jake Little, 00:15.179[6]; 20. 20W-Justin White, 00:15.256[24]; 21. 82-Darren Wireman, 00:15.504[15]; 22. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:15.555[1]; 23. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:15.560[8]; 24. 25-Teddy Johnson, 00:16.359[19]; 25. 75-Toma Johnson, 00:16.798[16]; 26. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:17.736[12]; 27. 74-Dan DeYoung, 00:19.490[17]