The box scores will show Mike Harrison led every lap en route to DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified victory Saturday night at Fairbury Speedway, but his journey to get there was anything but a cakewalk.
Harrison, the six-time Summit Modified champion from Highland, IL, led comfortably from the drop of the green in the 30-lap main event and was leading the field by a considerable margin heading into the final five laps. Behind him, 18-year-old Michael Ledford had just won the battle for second between he and Mike McKinney and was approaching him quickly.
Harrison’s pace had notably dropped-off, and he feared something was amiss on his racecar.
“I thought my right-rear tire was going down – something just didn’t feel right,” Harrison said. “I just slowed down and tried to just ride around up there. I actually tried to spin my tires some on the straightaways just to keep air in the tire.”
Ledford had shrunk Harrison’s gap to almost nothing as they crossed the stripe with the white flag in the air. Ledford got a good run off of Turn 2 and carried the speed into Turns 3-4, throwing it way down low in a big slide job attempt for the lead, but was unsuccessful.
Harrison powered around the outside lane with just enough momentum to deny Ledford of his first career Summit Modified victory and the $2,000 prize.
“I knew what [Ledford] did the previous lap,” Harrison said. “I knew that I just needed to do what I had been doing, and if he did try to slide me, I’d be able to counter him and drive underneath of him.”
UP NEXT
The Summit Modifieds will take Sunday off before returning to action for the start of Week #2 on Tuesday, June 20 at Moberly Motorsports Park in Moberly, MO. Tickets will be on sale at the gate on race day; streaming is available on DIRTVision.
DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIEDS
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 37L-Michael Ledford[3]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens[7]; 4. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[8]; 5. 25W-Allen Weisser[11]; 6. 96M-Mike McKinney[2]; 7. 5CS-Curt Spalding[6]; 8. 5-Steven Brooks[5]; 9. 10Y-Trent Young[19]; 10. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[15]; 11. 45-Don Hammer[17]; 12. 89-Austin Friedman[12]; 13. 757-Bradley Jameson[18]; 14. 8K-Levi Kissinger[14]; 15. 13-Charlie Mefford[16]; 16. 35-Ethan Weber[20]; 17. 14-Caden McWhorter[13]; 18. 94-Tom Pasek[24]; 19. 36-Eric Vaughan[23]; 20. 24T-Trevor Ringle[10]; 21. 88S-Alan Stipp[9]; 22. 25-Tyler Nicely[21]; 23. 18L-Michael Long[4]; 24. 1S-Brian Shaw[22]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps): 1. 45-Don Hammer[6]; 2. 10Y-Trent Young[3]; 3. 94-Tom Pasek[4]; 4. 36-Eric Vaughan[7]; 5. 71R-Troy Ricketts[8]; 6. 2C-Ronnie Chance[5]; 7. 54-Zachary Hawk[1]; 8. 23LG-Luke Gebhardt[10]; 9. (DNS) 1-Nash Hilmes; 10. (DNS) 43-Jared Thomas
Last Chance Showdown 2 (10 Laps): 1. 757-Bradley Jameson[1]; 2. 35-Ethan Weber[2]; 3. 25-Tyler Nicely[4]; 4. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[6]; 5. 1S-Brian Shaw[9]; 6. 9D-Daniel Flessner[8]; 7. 81P-Austin Phelps[7]; 8. 82-Dalton Lane[3]; 9. 32-Mason Duncan[5]; 10. 36V-Macy Vaughan[10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 2. 5-Steven Brooks[2]; 3. 88S-Alan Stipp[3]; 4. 14-Caden McWhorter[4]; 5. 54-Zachary Hawk[7]; 6. 10Y-Trent Young[8]; 7. 2C-Ronnie Chance[9]; 8. 36-Eric Vaughan[6]; 9. (DNS) 43-Jared Thomas
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 37L-Michael Ledford[1]; 2. 8-Kyle Steffens[2]; 3. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 4. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[4]; 5. 1-Nash Hilmes[5]; 6. 94-Tom Pasek[7]; 7. 45-Don Hammer[6]; 8. 71R-Troy Ricketts[8]; 9. 23LG-Luke Gebhardt[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 5CS-Curt Spalding[2]; 3. 24T-Trevor Ringle[3]; 4. 8K-Levi Kissinger[4]; 5. 757-Bradley Jameson[7]; 6. 82-Dalton Lane[8]; 7. 32-Mason Duncan[6]; 8. 81P-Austin Phelps[9]; 9. 1S-Brian Shaw[5]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 18L-Michael Long[1]; 2. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[2]; 3. 89-Austin Friedman[3]; 4. 13-Charlie Mefford[5]; 5. 35-Ethan Weber[7]; 6. 25-Tyler Nicely[6]; 7. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[4]; 8. 9D-Daniel Flessner[8]; 9. 36V-Macy Vaughan[9]
Qualifying A (3 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:14.228[5]; 2. 37L-Michael Ledford, 00:14.296[14]; 3. 5-Steven Brooks, 00:14.309[2]; 4. 8-Kyle Steffens, 00:14.329[9]; 5. 88S-Alan Stipp, 00:14.458[13]; 6. 25W-Allen Weisser, 00:14.496[12]; 7. 14-Caden McWhorter, 00:14.507[11]; 8. 0F-Matt Fabrizius, 00:14.508[4]; 9. 43-Jared Thomas, 00:14.562[15]; 10. 1-Nash Hilmes, 00:14.647[7]; 11. 36-Eric Vaughan, 00:14.655[1]; 12. 45-Don Hammer, 00:14.678[6]; 13. 54-Zachary Hawk, 00:14.764[18]; 14. 94-Tom Pasek, 00:14.782[3]; 15. 10Y-Trent Young, 00:14.819[10]; 16. 71R-Troy Ricketts, 00:15.000[8]; 17. 2C-Ronnie Chance, 00:15.059[17]; 18. 23LG-Luke Gebhardt, 00:15.594[16]
Qualifying B (3 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison, 00:14.008[18]; 2. 18L-Michael Long, 00:14.010[11]; 3. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:14.074[3]; 4. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie, 00:14.126[14]; 5. 24T-Trevor Ringle, 00:14.202[10]; 6. 89-Austin Friedman, 00:14.251[1]; 7. 8K-Levi Kissinger, 00:14.258[7]; 8. 21-Lyndon Whitfill, 00:14.411[9]; 9. 1S-Brian Shaw, 00:14.423[15]; 10. 13-Charlie Mefford, 00:14.434[17]; 11. 32-Mason Duncan, 00:14.438[5]; 12. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:14.463[12]; 13. 757-Bradley Jameson, 00:14.470[6]; 14. 35-Ethan Weber, 00:14.535[13]; 15. 82-Dalton Lane, 00:14.697[16]; 16. 9D-Daniel Flessner, 00:15.100[8]; 17. 81P-Austin Phelps, 00:15.129[2]; 18. 36V-Macy Vaughan, 00:15.244[4]
15 entries
DIRTCAR STREET STOCKS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. K67JR-Braiden Keller[1]; 2. 16-Nick Macklin[2]; 3. 93-Tim Loomis[3]; 4. F5-AJ Meiferdt[5]; 5. 23-Cody Clubb[15]; 6. 63-Andy Thompson[6]; 7. 63T-Brandon Tracy[10]; 8. 2Z-Andy Zahnd[4]; 9. 10H-Don Hilleary[12]; 10. 32-Brice Slavens[14]; 11. 27-Eric Legner[9]; 12. 9-Ryan Arnett[11]; 13. 02-Matthew Balthazor[8]; 14. 37S-Randy Schoener[7]; 15. 19K-Bailey Downey[13]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. K67JR-Braiden Keller[1]; 2. 93-Tim Loomis[3]; 3. F5-AJ Meiferdt[6]; 4. 37S-Randy Schoener[5]; 5. 27-Eric Legner[7]; 6. 9-Ryan Arnett[4]; 7. 19K-Bailey Downey[8]; 8. 23-Cody Clubb[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Nick Macklin[1]; 2. 2Z-Andy Zahnd[3]; 3. 63-Andy Thompson[4]; 4. 02-Matthew Balthazor[5]; 5. 63T-Brandon Tracy[2]; 6. 10H-Don Hilleary[6]; 7. 32-Brice Slavens[7]
Qualifying 1: 1. K67JR-Braiden Keller, 00:15.538[13]; 2. 16-Nick Macklin, 00:15.553[6]; 3. 23-Cody Clubb, 00:15.828[11]; 4. 63T-Brandon Tracy, 00:15.844[7]; 5. 93-Tim Loomis, 00:15.886[10]; 6. 2Z-Andy Zahnd, 00:15.979[8]; 7. 9-Ryan Arnett, 00:16.030[2]; 8. 63-Andy Thompson, 00:16.099[9]; 9. 37S-Randy Schoener, 00:16.125[14]; 10. 02-Matthew Balthazor, 00:16.188[12]; 11. F5-AJ Meiferdt, 00:16.235[15]; 12. 10H-Don Hilleary, 00:16.456[1]; 13. 27-Eric Legner, 00:16.719[5]; 14. 32-Brice Slavens, 00:17.021[3]; 15. 19K-Bailey Downey, 00:17.406[4]