MichiganCircleTrack.com is the online home of the MARC Times Racing News & Michigan Racing Scene and MARCTimesTV.

The M40 Speedway experienced another perfect day for racing. Fans packed the stands to see some great racing action and the cars roared out on the track.  The Pro-Stocks running a 100 lap feature race were the main event of the night.  The action was fast and extremely fierce as a lot of cars had their night end early. The Late Models had the night off.

The Mini-Stock division had Ken Taylor No. 27 winning his first A feature win of the season away from home turf.  Taylor, a regular at the Galesburg Speedway, took an early lead in the feature and never looked back, only Matt Gross No. 7 would put up a fight as the laps wound down.  Gross would eventually run out of laps, and have to settle for second.  Howard Fissette held off Rob Taylor for the fourth place finish.
“Feels pretty good, the car was turning a lot easier, I just hung the car in the third gear and went full out.  If we had different gears, it would have been a different story ", said a very excited Ken Taylor, after the race.
Heat race winner was Derek Davis, who held off Ken Taylor from getting the heat and feature sweep on the night.

The Pure Stock division saw a lot of action packed racing.  The heat A win went to Tyler Hufford who just one week ago had a big feature win. He held off Josh Highbaugh for the victory.  The B heat went to Burney Arnett, who drove his way to the front of he pack to get his third straight heat win, and his fifth win overall of the season.
The feature brought some bad luck to Hufford, as he was involved in an early race crash that sent him into the third turn wall hard, ending his night.  The No. 7 of Tim Thurston seemed to be the car to beat as he drove through the field, making his way to the front.  Thurston held off several challenges from the No. 88 car of Matt Bainbridge and the No. 53 of Cindy Stremme on his way to his third feature win of the season, and his seventh win overall.
"We had our hands full tonight with the 88 and the 53.  We have had a run of bad luck, and it continued tonight.  We had an intake leak after our heat race, we had changed gaskets this week ", said Thurston.  "We ran a good race the car handled real good, couple more nights like this will help us in the points (Thurston is second in points behind Tony Stewart).  Tony's consistence in qualifying, and two DNF's make it hard to catch him ", added Thurston.
Thurston  dedicated this win to his wife Laura, as it was her birthday.  He also expressed thanks to Brett Scott, Chris Stamm (help with water issues) and his sponsors Scott A. Wilson Heating and A/C contractor, J.W. Owen Horse Shoeing, Cavanaugh Construction, Bruno's Pizza of Niles, Advance Auto Speed and Customs of Niles, Pro Muffler and Brakes of Niles, and Saylor's Pizza for their support.

The Pro-Stocks had a first time winner in the A heat, as the No. 61V Vochaska owned ride once again had a new pilot aboard.  Steve Smith Jr. in his first appearance of the season pulled out the victory.  John Long beat out Rodney Spencer for the win in the B heat, giving him two heat wins on the season.  Alex Pratt got his first victory of the season, winning heat C over Rodney Smith.
The agony of defeat was felt hard Friday night; some of the top Pro-Stock drivers were involved in some on-track accidents that destroyed their rides, taking them out of contention for the 100 lap feature.
In the feature, Nick Pressler made his way to the front of the pack to lead for about twenty laps.  After an on track incident, Rodney Smith would take on the lead, but was unable to hold off a Hard charging John Ferrier.  Ferrier would hold off John Long to get what he thought was to be his First Pro-Stock feature win of the season.  It wasn't until the post-race inspection that Ferrier would end up handing the win to John Long, as Ferrier was disqualified for a rules violation.  Rodney smith finished second behind Long, holding off James Brown.  Derrick Griffin finished fourth, with Gary Chapman rounding out the top five.
“The battery went dead, and we lost power.  The car was really strong coming out of turn two ", said Long.  “We had a few close calls that we were able to avoid, this trophy will be a piece we will always talk about ", Long added.
Long went on to thank Bob, Kimi and his sponsors Pay and Pack it, Bruno's Pizza of South Bend and Cheers Lounge of South Bend.
Racing concluded with the 100 lap race, and fans made their way to the pit to see the aftermath of the big race.  With Gary Wyrick Jr. and Mickey Cornwell among the casualties in the night’s events, lets all hope they can get their rides fixed for the upcoming schedule.

July 10th will have the regular racing program of Late Models, Pro-Stocks, Pure Stocks, and Mini's.

On July 11th the newly added Late Model Spectacular will be on tap.

The Late Model Challenge Series returns to the M40 Speedway July 17th and a regular racing program of Late Models, Pro-Stocks, Pure Stocks and Mini's on July 24th. It will be an action explosion throughout the month of July.

Make sure you don't miss any of the action at the M40 Speedway every Friday Night.