With qualifying in the books Heat races began to determine the “Wood Tic” field, in Late Models Heat 1 went to Brandon Thirlby of Traverse City, Cadillac’s Chad Foster won Heat 2, Heat 3 was won by Justin Robinson of Shepherd, Zidar took the honors in Heat 4, Sam Epling of Perry was first to the checkers in Heat 5 and Heat 6 went to Dona Marcoullier of Houghton Lake. In the Modified division, Larry Cade of Buckley won Heat 1, Brent Banning of West Branch took Heat 2, Heat 3 winner was Donnie Roberts of Gladwin, Dave Baker of Grand Rapids grabbed the honors in Heat 4, Heat 5 went to Jeff Cade of Buckley and Mark Kurth of Gaylord won Heat 6.

                When weather stole the show on Saturday July 18^th, promoters Rod and Rick Ancel set their sights on Sunday for running the second day of this two day show. With sunshine and warmer temperatures, Late Model competition started, Josh Knoll of Barryton capitalized in the 1^st B Main and Adam Thrush of Mt Pleasant won the 2^nd B Main. With the running order established Marcoullier and Epling led the field to the green, with Marcoullier leading the first 19 lap before Epling got under him in turns 3 & 4. For 10 laps Epling lead the way while back in the pack Frank Seder of Alger and Joe Pomeroy of Cass City had moved up 10 positions from their 17^th and 18^th starting positions. A lap 29 caution for a drive train failure on the machine driven by Scott Baker of Ionia brought the field together and on the restart, Marcoullier motored around Epling and on to victory in the 40 lap event. During a post race interview Dona stated, “I hated to let the lead go, but tire management was more important.” This win put the younger Marcoullier into a very select group being the third driver to win back to back “Wood Tic” titles in 21 years. Rich Neiser of Fruitport finished 2^nd, 3^rd was Epling, Seder 4^th, Pomeroy 5^th, Andy Chester of Kingsley 6^th, Blanchard’s Mark Andersen 7^th, Justin McNeill of Houghton Lake 8^th, Zidar was 9^th and Knoll rounded out the top ten.

                As the Modifieds started their bout for positions on the starting grid for the “big race”, Roger Steig of Reed City captured the win in the 1^st B Main and Midland’s Craig Vance took the checkers in the 2^nd B Main. In the feature computation Kurth and Jeff Cade started on the front row with Cade getting the nod for leading the 1^st lap, however Kurth was not to be denied taking point the following lap. For 26 laps these two run as if chained together before a flat right rear tire slowed Cade giving Robinson Jr. a window to take 2^nd spot. With Kurth and Robinson Jr. finishing 1^st and 2^nd, Dave Baker of Grand Rapids was 3^rd, Steve Hilliker of Midland 4^th, Cade held on for 5^th, Kevin Miller of Mt. Pleasant marched forward 12 spots to 6^th,Banning 7^th, Chad Bauer of Farwell 8^th, Rich Robinson Sr. 9^th and Rick Gokee Sr. finished tenth.

                In Pro Truck completion Bob Green of Traverse City and Richie Sutherland of Merritt set on the point leading the field into turn 1 with Green grabbing the lead down the backstretch. On lap 4, Green spun causing a caution giving Sutherland the lead until lap 10 when he was sent to the pits for excessive smoking. At this point Adam Brinks of Cadillac moved into the lead after starting 11^th and was able to hold off the advances of Ian Knoertzer for the win. Knoertzer held 2^nd, Dick Stout of Prudenville 3^rd, Shane Branscombe 4^th, Jerry Mynarcik of St. Helen 5^th, Mike Nelson Jr. of Cadillac 6^th, Bob Hammar of Boon 7^th, J.T. Anderson of Cadillac 8^th, Ken Pollaski of Reed City 9^th and Marvin Frey 10^th. In earlier completion Anderson won Heat 1, Heat 2 went to Green and the “whip” was won by Knoertzer.

                During Sportsman events Jeff Loomis won Heat 1 and Greg Grahek of Cadillac was victorious in Heat 2. In the Sportsman feature Loomis started on the pole and was able to maintain the lead until a tire problem sidelined him. Grahek was able to capitalize and win the event with Josh Loomis 2^nd, Jim Miller Jr. 3^rd, Tom Zundel of Fife Lake 4^th, Jim Miller Sr. of Flint Twp 5^th, Dan Hersey of Traverse City 6^th, Ted Myer 7^th, Will Stanley 8^th, Joe Fisher 9^th and David Mielke of Gladwin 10^th.

                In the Jimmy’s Collision Repair Center Factory Stocks, Mark Howie of National City dominated winning both the Heat and Feature.

Bob Steele

Merritt Speedway