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SATURDAY WINNER: Spatola Captures First Mars Win

Photo: Kevin Zambory

May 28, 2022 (Fairbury, IL) The 2022 Mars Racing Series tour held its round four event at Fairbury Speedway on Saturday night paying $3,000 to win. Rain once again claimed the scheduled Friday night show at Farmer City. Many drivers were ready to get the Memorial Day weekend action underway. The pits filled up with 25 cars at the track dubbed "America's Dirt Track."

In Allstar Performance qualifying it was McKay Wenger who laid down the quickest lap at 12.625 seconds. This set the stage for 3 heat races to set the field for the 30 lap $3,000 to win event.

In Arizona Sport Shirts Heat Race #1 series point leader McKay Wenger took the win with Myles Moos, Ryan Unzicker, Nick Allen and Ricky Frankel all transferring to the main event.

Heat Race #2 presented by Dirt Track Bank went to Frankfort, IL racer Frank Heckenast Jr. Blaze Burwell, Jason Feger, Bob Gardner and Roben Hoffman were your transfer cars.

In Oriley's  Heat Race #3 Mike Spatola picked up the win with Tommy Sheppard Jr, Jake Little, Scott Schmitt and Kevin Weaver your top five.

It took a Racing Performance Media sponsored B-Main to settle the final starting spots on Saturday night. Billy Hough was able to pick up the win over Derek Chandler. Jayme Zidar, Mark Voight and Glen Thompson got the job done to transfer into the feature event. 

The 30 lap $3,000 to win feature was full great racing. McKay Wenger took the lead early on in this one. Frank Heckenast Jr and Mike Spatola challenged Wenger in the first half of the race but just couldn't seem to get the job done to take the lead. Just past the halfway point Spatola was able to capitalize on the misfortune of Heckenast Jr and Wenger getting sideways off turn two. This allowed Mike Spatola to take the lead. Jason Feger was the man on the move in the second half of the race moving up from his eight starting spot to the top three. The final stages of the race was slowed by several cautions that gave Heckenast Jr and Feger new life and a chance to see if they could put some pressure on Spatola and try to get him to make a mistake.  Feger gave it all he had on the final restart. He nearly had a run on Spatola but he hooked a rut and nearly rolled his machine as he bicycled his car. This allowed Spatola enough room to stay our front and win the event. 

Jason Feger and Frank Heckenast finished in second and third. Jaye Zidar, from Wisconsin was the Keyser Manufacturing  Hard Charger Award winner improving 8 spots for a tenth place finish. 

The Mars Racing Series moves on to Sunday for a $5,064 to win event at the Spoon River Speedway.  All the action can be seen next weekend LIVE on FloRacing.

Race Results:

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[3]; 2. 25-Jason Feger[8]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 4. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 5. 42-Mckay Wenger[1]; 6. 38J-Jake Little[9]; 7. 4G-Bob Gardner[11]; 8. 44-Blaze Burwell[5]; 9. 33-Rickey Frankel[13]; 10. 9Z-Jayme Zidar[18]; 11. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 12. 33H-Roben Huffman[14]; 13. 33 4-Billy Hough[16]; 14. (DNF) T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[6]; 15. (DNF) 21A-Nick Allen[10]; 16. (DNF) 35-Derek Chandler[17]; 17. (DNF) 4D-Doug Tye[22]; 18. (DNF) M27-Mike Provenzano[21]; 19. (DNF) 10-Scott Schmitt[12]; 20. (DNF) 84-Myles Moos[4]; 21. (DNF) B12-Kevin Weaver[15]; 22. (DNF) 14-Glen Thompson[20]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 33 4-Billy Hough[1]; 2. 35-Derek Chandler[3]; 3. 9Z-Jayme Zidar[5]; 4. 30-Mark Voigt[4]; 5. 14-Glen Thompson[7]; 6. M27-Mike Provenzano[8]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye[6]; 8. 2M-Matt Mickelson[9]; 9. B15-Robert Sidener[2]; 10. 74-Dan Deyoung[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42-Mckay Wenger[1]; 2. 84-Myles Moos[3]; 3. 24-Ryan Unzicker[4]; 4. 21A-Nick Allen[2]; 5. 33-Rickey Frankel[5]; 6. 33 4-Billy Hough[7]; 7. 30-Mark Voigt[6]; 8. 14-Glen Thompson[8]; 9. 74-Dan Deyoung[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 2. 44-Blaze Burwell[4]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 4. 4G-Bob Gardner[2]; 5. 33H-Roben Huffman[7]; 6. B15-Robert Sidener[8]; 7. 9Z-Jayme Zidar[5]; 8. M27-Mike Provenzano[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[1]; 2. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[3]; 3. 38J-Jake Little[2]; 4. 10-Scott Schmitt[5]; 5. B12-Kevin Weaver[4]; 6. 35-Derek Chandler[6]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye[7]; 8. 2M-Matt Mickelson[8]

Qualifying 1: 1. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:12.625[23]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:12.685[13]; 3. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:12.732[20]; 4. 21A-Nick Allen, 00:12.759[9]; 5. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:12.797[16]; 6. 38J-Jake Little, 00:12.813[7]; 7. 84-Myles Moos, 00:12.833[10]; 8. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.933[12]; 9. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr, 00:12.936[11]; 10. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.014[22]; 11. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:13.041[19]; 12. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.056[6]; 13. 33-Rickey Frankel, 00:13.065[1]; 14. 9Z-Jayme Zidar, 00:13.123[25]; 15. 10-Scott Schmitt, 00:13.190[4]; 16. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:13.197[5]; 17. M27-Mike Provenzano, 00:13.297[21]; 18. 35-Derek Chandler, 00:13.322[3]; 19. 33 4-Billy Hough, 00:13.401[14]; 20. 33H-Roben Huffman, 00:13.512[18]; 21. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:13.703[8]; 22. 14-Glen Thompson, 00:13.852[17]; 23. B15-Robert Sidener, 00:14.141[15]; 24. 2M-Matt Mickelson, 00:14.275[2]; 25. 74-Dan Deyoung, 00:14.557[24]

Stay informed on all the news and results of the Mars Racing Series at www.marsracingseries.com.

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