Lake City, MI (Saturday, August 10, 2019) - A full field of 23 DIRTcar UMP Modifieds rolled into Merritt Speedway Saturday night for a $3,000 to win affair with the American Ethanol Modified Tour Presented by Allstar Performance (AEmods). A competitive class of drivers did their best to find YellowHose.com Victory Lane, but none could compete with Watervliet, Michigan’s Curt Spalding.
Spalding and Colin Thirlby led the field to the American Ethanol Green Flag, and it would be Thirlby who jumped out to the early race lead. That was short lived though, as just four laps later, Spalding used the inside of the race track to muscle his way around a struggling Thirlby; Jeffery Erickson, Jr. also used the bottom of the raceway to slip by Thirlby on his march to the podium.
A caution flew 10 laps in, setting up the first restart of the evening. Spalding jumped back out to the uncontested lead, but the battle was strong within the podium, as Erickson, Thirlby and AEmods points leader Will Krup. Krup worked his way to the inside of Thirlby on the restart, but the bottom line was clogged with Erickson, keeping all three under a tight blanket for a number of laps. Erickson and Krup managed to run away with the battle for second, as Spalding continued to put lapped traffic between he and the pair. Inside of ten laps to go, heavy lapped traffic bottled up the battle for the second, and Erickson spun in the center of turns one and two.
Spalding survived another restart with just a handful of laps to go, as Krup settled into the second spot ahead of Thirlby. The final three laps of the event though, needed three attempts; as Thirlby spun in turns three and four during the white flag lap. On the first overtime restart, Spalding again jumped out into the lead, and looked to again have the win in his sights, but as he again crossed under the white flag, a two car spin in turn three drew the caution once more. Once again, the American Ethanol Green Flag flew, and Spalding, as the story goes, quickly gapped Krup and David Mielke. Joe Rokos and Jacob Poel rounded out the top five.
The next event for the AEmods is Thursday, August 29th from I-96 Speedway, paired up with the Morton Buildings World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Learn more about the AEmods by logging on to aemods.com. Find and follow the Tour on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Unofficial Results:
GetBioFuel.com 30:
5 Curt Spalding
K19 Will Krup
87 David Mielke
77 Joe Rokos
82 Jacob Poel
12 John McClure
15 Dave Baker
19 Chad Bauer
9 Garrett Rons
23 Luke Hubbell
17 Larry Cade
60 Nate Wilber
92 Caleb Kill
1* Wyatt Baker
22 Jim Patterson
07 Allen Oyer
18 Dan Wierman
07W Ben Wager
47 Collin Thirlby
1E Jeffery Erickson Jr.
99 Brent Banning
4J Paul Johnson
15H Austin Harnick
Allstar Performance Heat Race 1:
47 Collin Thirlby
87 David Mielke
5 Curt Spalding
19 Chad Bauer
77 Joe Rokos
4J Paul Johnson
60 Nate Wilber
YellowHose.com Heat Race 2:
82 Jacob Poel
99 Brent Banning
1E Jeffery Erickson Jr.
15 Dave Baker
15H Austin Harnick
18 Dan Wierman
1* Wyatt Baker
17 Allen Oyer
COMP Cams Heat Race 3:
12 John McClure
K19 Will Krup
92 Caleb Kill
23 Luke Hubbell
9 Garrett Rons
17 Larry Cade
07W Ben Wager
22 Jim Patterson
Motul Motor Oil Fast Qualifier:
K19 Will Krup 15.291
--
Zach Hiser
