The Story From Raceway 7- Weller Outlasts Competition; Murdick Charges To Podium Spot

Bill Galford Photo

Sometimes, it's all about survival, and on Friday night, Jim Weller survived and then some as he survived early cautions pushed his way through to the front of the field on hand from his 11th starting spot to find victory lane.  It was a wild night for the BRP Modified Tour at Raceway 7. Perhaps it was the full moon or blazing hot temperatures and the action on the track once momentum was established was perhaps just as hot as the air.

Veteran pilot and Mod Tour regular JR McGinley and St. Catharine Ontario's Tyler Willard brought mighty Big Block Modifieds to green flag, followed by several yellow ones as laps proved hard to click off in the early going. Within one lap the tone was set with several early cautions. Early leader McGinley lost the handle in turn one, handing the lead to Willard. Two more cautions followed causing the single file restart rule be become enforced.

Bill Galford Photo

Once racing got back under way Williard began setting a blistering pace at the front, turning the fastest lap of the race on lap six. Contact on lap nine between sixth starting tour regular Garrett Krummert and Weller Jr sent Krummert spinning. Krummert, who was none to happy about the circumstances retaliated under caution and was sent to the pits.

The race's hard charger for the night, 23rd starting Dave Murdock of Slippery Rock, PA was turning heads making his way into the top 5 after the lap nine caution.  Meanwhile up front the 777 of Willard held the top spot through all the restarts until lap 24 when Weller took the top spot. Weller was able to hold serve through the last restart to secure the victory. Early leader JR McGinley rebounded for a solid forth place finish from the tail.

John McConnell Photo

“I hated to have that contact with the 29 car," Weller said. I got into him but didn’t want to so I’m sorry for that”.

Willard was pleased with his 2nd place finish on the evening. "For never having been to Raceway 7, I'm pretty happy with it," Willard said. "Before I watched videos online to see what line worked. I had a good line going when I tried to protect the bottom I scrubbed off speed and the 31 got by me."

Hard charger Dave Murdick may have been even happier with his performance.   “In the heat race we had some trouble and had to start at the tail for the feature," Murdick said. "We made some adjustments and got this Troyer Race car working well and we  haven’t been out of the top nine yet this year."


Cautions: 8
Hard Charger:  Dave Murdick
Heat Winners:  Jim Weller, Rex King Sr., Travis Shingledecker
                   
BRP Modified Tour Main Event (Round 3- 35 Laps) 

1.    31      Jim Weller
2.   777    Tyler Willard
3.    61     Dave Murdick
4.    66M   J.R. McGinley
5.   165    Rex King JR
6.   13      Rick Regalski
7.   32      Jim Rasey
8.   25B    Steve Barr
9.   66F    Kyle Fink
10. 65      Rex King Sr.
11. 35H   Chris Haines
12. 73MD Travis Shingledecker
13. 69     Tom Mattocks
14. 03     Mark Frankhouser
15. 17JR  Sidney Unversagt
16. 74     Kevin Green
17. 96B    Bob Warren
18. 19W  Richard Whitney
19.  25    Chris Rudolph
20.  29    Garrett Krummert
21.  58    Lonny Riggs
22.  00    Kevin Hoffman
23. 17M  Skip Moore
24. 29*   Eric Beggs  - Did Not Start
25. 11R  Brad Rapp- Did Not Start