Jason Parish takes home gold in ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour

[NickHolt]

Jason Parish Takes Home Auto City Speed Gold In Genuine Broaster Chicken 50 Presented by Broaster Sales & Service - Three races in eight days set complete for ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Northern Division

 

Clio, Michigan (Saturday, June 20, 2015): It was the final race of the pivotal three races in eight days stretch for the Broaster Chicken ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Northern division as the teams continued their cross state trek throughout the state of Michigan. Auto City Speedway, located north of Flint in Clio, Michigan served as hosts of the Genuine Broaster Chicken 50 Presented by Broaster Sales & Service on Saturday, June 20th. This event was also the second of three appearances for ICAR North at the tricky 0.393 mile semi-banked paved oval.

 

In the previous event back on May 16th, Travis Eddy, the 2011 Track Champion at the uniquely laid out oval in Eastern Michigan went to victory lane. This time around, in the second of three total appearances at the historic track, Overall and Rookie of the Year point's leader, Jason Parish continued his knack for winning every other race so far during the season. The 41-year-old driver of the #31 Painless Dentistry / Heeney's Garage open-wheeled machine started on the pole and never gave the rest of the field a chance the entire race en route to his third victory of the 2015 racing season.

 

"We absolutely destroyed a car here last year and then in the first race here in May, we were good, but we didn't have anything for Travis (Eddy). Tonight, the car was unbelievable. I actually adjusted the brake bias on the last caution and just about put myself out of the park," He laughed as he celebrated in victory lane surrounded by his crew and family. "I owe this season we've had to this Burkett-Nester Racecar. This thing is so much fun to drive and that long green flag run really helped us out. We got a good restart there at the end and we won one away from home." Parish smiled.

 

After Economy Auto Parts Fast Qualifier, Travis Eddy pulled a 10 for an inversion/redraw, Parish and another freshman contender, Bobby Heyink led the 22-car field to Chief Starter, Weo Schweyer's green flag and it would be Parish darting out to the early lead while Heyink and the rest of the pack settled in behind him. The first of only two cautions flew on lap six when Mark Bott looped his mount in turns one and two setting up the first 'Madhouse-Style' restart. Parish went to the bottom lane and at the drop of the green, Parish again shot out to the lead leaving the rest of the field to battle amongst themselves.

 

A long stretch of green flag racing propelled Parish to a sizable lead as he would continually put plenty of real estate and lapped traffic between himself and the rest of the field. Eddy, who started sixth, would climb up to second by lap 20 and began his quest to chase down Parish who was setting a torrid pace around the tricky speed plant. The second and final caution flew with just four laps to go setting up a shootout between Parish and Eddy and would also bring the rest of the field to the back bumper of the top two machines.

 

However on that final restart, Parish would be able to get away from Eddy and the rest of the pack and pull out to a comfortable lead en route to his third victory of the season and extend his point's leads in both the overall and the M.P.H. Promotions Rookie of the Year title chase. Parish also scored his fifth straight M.P.H. Promotions Rookie of the Race award in five ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Northern Division events conducted in 2015.

 

Eddy's #78 Howe Racing Enterprises machine came home second after trying in vain to chase down Parish in an attempt to score his second straight victory at Auto City. The 25-year-old standout from Beaverton, Michigan has made the most of limited appearances this season with a win and a second place showing to go with a 10th in the season opener. Rookie, Bobby Heyink overcame a broken transmission in the Preliminary Heat Race and some bad luck to start the season to post a season high third place showing in his #5 D-K Trucking modified. The 30-year-old from Eaton Rapids, Michigan originally from Clio, Michigan broke into the top 10 in points for the first time this season with his finish.

 

Nick Clemens, who came into the weekend second in the season long points chase, finished fourth at his home track in his #34 O'Guinn Family Funeral Homes entry. The 31-year-old Clio, Michigan resident started in the middle of the pack in ninth and made a late race pass on Joe Morisette Jr., to secure his fifth top six finish in five starts to keep pace with Parish in the title chase. Morisette Jr., completed the top 10 in his #4 Don's Towing ride. The Port Huron, Michigan driver battled with Heyink for third for the majority of the event before dropping behind Clemens on the last lap.

Onaway, Michigan invader, Brian Baumgarten tied his career high finish of a sixth in just his third career appearance in the ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour while Bott recovered from his early race spin to earn the Allstar Performance Hard-Charger award with his 16th to the rear after the spin to a seventh place run.

 

17-year-old Tristan Van Wieringen continued his string of impressive runs and moves to third in the points with his eighth place finish as Dave Christensen and rookie Steven Pelky tied a career high finish by wrapping up the top 10. Veteran Dan Loughan dropped out of the race with four laps to go while running fifth and picked up the Genuine Broaster Chicken Hard-Luck award.

 

Earlier in the afternoon in Economy Auto Parts Qualifying, Eddy out-timed the stellar 28-car field with a 16.270. His mark measures out to 86.958mph. The ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Track Record was a 15.810 which is still held by Eddy as he set that mark back on May 17th, 2014. In the 15-lap Last Chance Race, Buddy Gray took home the win ahead of Donny Matteson Jr., as Josh Ware, Rick Wiecorek, Ryan Radziejewski and Brett Hahne also transferred into the show. In addition, special Preliminary Heat Races were run as Clemens and Parish picked up those wins.

 

It's the Broaster Chicken ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Southern Division's turn to get back into action after taking some time off. They will race on back to back nights starting on Friday, June 26th. The Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness 50 Presented by Lakeshore Utility Trailer is at the famed 1/2 (0.500) mile high-banked paved oval of Toledo Speedway in Toledo, Ohio. This event will be in support of the King of the Wings series for Winged Sprint Cars. Travis Eddy went to victory lane in the only appearance for the tour in 2014. He was trailed by Derrick Griffin, 2013 Tour Champion, Tim Burkett, Tyler Shullick and eventual 2014 Tour Champion, Chad Poole.

 

The next night will be at another historic 1/2 mile, this time the legendary 1/2 (0.500) mile high-banked paved oval of Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana. The Run for the B.B. Gun 50 Presented by Broaster Sales & Service is on Saturday, June 27th as part of the ARCA Racing Series / King of the Wings / Old-Timers Weekend. In three races conducted at the legendary high-banks in 2014, Burkett won this event one year ago over Greg Fullarton, Damon Breedlove, Josh Nester and Don Skaggs who were the top five. In the other two races, Brian Nester went to victory lane in the World Stock Car Festival and Kyle Purvis won the prestigious Run for the Gun 50 during Winchester 400 weekend.

 

Both Entry Forms for the Toledo and Winchester events are due at the ICAR Home Offices in Angola, Indiana by Wednesday, June 24th. For more information about the 2015 racing season within both divisions of the Broaster Chicken ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour, please go to the series website located at: www.topspeedmods.com You can also follow along on the Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/TopSpeedModifieds and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ICARModifieds Finally for more information about Toledo Speedway and Winchester Speedway, the host tracks for the third and fourth races of the 2015 racing season for the ICAR Top Speed Modified Tour Southern Division, go to: www.toledospeedway.com and www.winchesterspeedway.com