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Kevin Thomas Jr Takes the Sprint Tic Title at Merritt Speedway

By Trevor Hollis
The two night Sprint Tic spectacular is in the books and it was Kevin Thomas Jr. taking the checkered flag both nights. 19 Lane Automotive non wing sprint cars made the trek to the Merritt Speedway Friday night as part of the second annual Sprint Tic weekend in Merritt, MI and right from qualifying it was the Alabama native who showed that he was going to dominate the weekend by setting fast time with a blistering lap of 13.54 seconds around dirt oval.
With qualifying in the books for the Friday night portion of the show it was on the heat races for that nights feature event. The Full Circle Energy heat race number one started the night off much like it would end with the 9k of Thomas in victory lane. In the Hoosier tire heat race number two it was the 31 of Chuck Wilson taking the top honors. And in the final heat race of the night sponsored by Allstar Performance went to the 91 of Joe Bares. With heat races in the books it was on to the 25 lap feature event and with all 19 cars taking the green flag action was bound to be fast paced and exciting and the men and their machines did not disappoint. A couple of early cautions forced the field to take the green flag single file but once spread out a little bit that’s when business really started to pick up for Thomas as he worked his way to the front and eventually took over the lead. Thomas, making his Michigan debut was the class of the field pulling away from Nick Landon and Joe Irwin and opening up a huge lead and looked to be on his way to an easy win before hitting lap traffic. As Thomas was making his way under one of the lap cars, he clipped his front left tire on the inside tire barrier and spun his car allowing the 82 of Landon by and it looked like losing his opportunity at his first ever feature win. Thomas spun in turn 4 but was able to keep the car running and continued on. As this was all happening in turn 4 the 12b of Mike Baker was spinning in turn one and was not able to continue bring out the caution and reverting the field back to the last completed lap, handing the lead back over to Thomas. Kyle was able to hold on for the final few laps and pick up his first ever feature win over Nick Landon and Joe Irwin.
Night number two both the car count rise and the stakes as the second night of racing featured a number of lap sponsors putting up a little bit of additional money for the field to race for. Despite the new night and the new cars the results of qualifying were the same. Kyle Thomas once again set quick time on the evening, while not as quick as Friday night, Thomas’ lap of 13.63 was good enough to pace the field. Starting on the outside of heat race one it was once again the 9k of Thomas that found victory lane, Joe Bares took heat race number two, while heat three went to Chuck Wilson. With the feature set all eyes were on the Alabama native to see if he was going to be able to make it two for two on the weekend and Thomas did not disappoint. Starting 6th on the field Thomas wasted no time making his way to front making a bold move on the opening lap to put himself in the top three before the field completed lap number one. For the first half of the show it was Greg Dallmann showing the way as he battled with Joe Bares and a number of lap cars, until lap 11 when Thomas was able to get around the 49t. Thomas didn’t look back. Picking up the feature win on Saturday night Kyle Thomas Jr. made it a clean sweep for the weekend. Second place went to the 91 of Joe Bares and bringing home third place honors was the 49t of Greg Dalman.

With the second annual sprint tic in the books the Lane Automotive Michigan Traditional Sprint have a couple of weeks off. The next event on the schedule puts the series down in Waynesfield, OH for their co-sanctioned event as part of the Ohio vs MIch. For any other questions about the schedule please check out the series website www.mtsprints.com.

Full results:
night 1 -

1. Kevin Thomas jr, 2. Nick Landon, 3. Joe Irwin, 4. Chuck Wilson, 5.John Watson, 6.Keith Love, 7.Joe Bares, 8.Mark Strpko, 9.Chad Wilson, 10.Jim Payne, 11.Mark Irwin, 12. Mike Baker, 13. Dave Okerman, 14. Don Bostrom, 15. Kevin Hawk, 16. Tim Evilsizer, 17. Jay Steinebach, 18. Jerry Evilsiser, 19. Tim Champlin

night 2-

1. Kevin Thimas jr, 2. Joe Bares, 3.Gregg Dalman, 4.Jay Steinebach, 5. Keith Love, 6.Chad Wilson, 7. Mark Irwin, 8. Mike Astrauskas, 9.Chuck Wilson, 10. Mark Strpko, 11. Joe Irwin, 12. Mike Baker, 13. Randy Kreple, 14. Tim Champlin, 15. Tim Evilsizer, 16. Don Bostrom, 17. John Watson, 18. Kevin Hawk, 19.Chris Pobanz, 20. Jerry Evilsizer.

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