Thrush started on the pole with Brad Harden of Ovid on the outside and was able to grab the lead early. On lap 5, Series Champ times 2, Brian Ruhlman of Clark Lake moved into 2nd and mounted several charges on the young leader only to be denied on every attempt ending his night in 2nd. Rich Neiser of Fruitport earned 3rd, Curtis Roberts of Coleman 4th, 14 time Merritt Speedway Champion Frank Seder of Alger moved from 16th to 5th, Rusty Seavers of Sheridan 6th, Curt Spalding of Hartford 7th, Jon Henry series point leader of Ada, OH 8th, Justin McNeill of Houghton Lake 9th and Bruce Vance of Midland rounded out the top ten. Heat 1 was won by Henry, Heat 2 went to Neiser, Chad Foster of Cadillac took honors in Heat 3 and Heat 4 was won by Roberts.
During UMP Modified competition Joe Rokos of Traverse City won Heat 1 and Reed City’s Roger Steig took the checkers on Heat 2. In the Feature, Dave Mairose of West Branch and Mark Kurth of Gaylord led the field into turn 1, with Kurth using the high side to gain the advantage. Behind the Leader, Rokos got by Mairose for 2nd, now Mairose battled with Jeff Cade of Buckley, Brent Banning of West Branch and Steig for several laps and on lap 7 Banning went high to get out from under the blanket that could cover the 4 car battle. On lap 9 Banning was on the move as he overhauled Rokos and picked up the “sent” of Leader Kurth and on lap 12 the two were shadowing each other’s moves running bumper to bumper. On lap 15, Cade had separated from the pack for 3rd with Rich Robin Jr. of Mt Pleasant coming to 4th from 9th and at the end of the scheduled 25 lap the top 4 had not changed. Finishing 5th was Mairose, Brian Brindley of West Branch 6th, Rokos 7th, Steig 8th, and Dave Baker of Grand Rapids 9th and Cody Bauer 10th. The win increased Kurth point lead to 30 over Mairose.
In Pro Truck events Heat 1 went to J.T. Anderson of Cadillac and Mike Nelson Jr. also of Cadillac took Heat 2. The Feature entered the speedway with Nelson Jr. and Adam Brinks another Cadillac native on the front row. Brinks was able to get the lead at the start but on lap 6 Nelson Jr. was shot from a canon down the back stretch, however on lap 12 lost a drive shaft putting Brink back on the point to move on for the win of the 15 lapper. Anderson got 2nd, Ian Knoertzer of Gladwin 3rd, Bob Green of Traverse City 4th, Richie Sutherland of Merritt 5th, Brent Neverth of McBain 6th, 7th was Bob Hammar of Boon, Jerry Mynarcik of St. Helen 8th, Dick Stout was 9th and Marvin Frey rounded out the top ten.
In the Jimmy’s Collision Repair Center Factory Stock Division Richard Cebula Jr. of Grawn won the Heat, with Mark Howie of Whittemore won the Feature with John Matthews of Houghton Lake 2nd, Cebula Jr. 3rd, Brian Steele 4th and Dave Park of Kalkaska completing the top five.
August 29th at Merritt Speedway will be the Championship runs for the Late Model and Modified Division, so SEE YA AT THE TRACK!
