9/12/2016
Tri-City Motor Speedway
Battle By the Bay Race Results
09/10/2016 Midland Nazarene 6th Annual Battle By the Bay Champions
Krapohl’s Body Shop and Accessories Outlaw Late Models: #19 Derrick Hilliker
Euclid Automotive Supply Late Models: #6m Dona Marcoullier
K&C Transport IMCA Modified: #10 Gary Vandermark
Bay City Mall Pro Stocks: #71 Timmy Near
Auburn Hotel Street Stocks: #11 Josh Loomis
MichiganTruckSpring.com Bomber Stocks: #18d Brogan Rehklau
9/10/2016 (Auburn MI) The final weekend of racing at Tri-City Motor Speedway celebrated the end of the 2016 racing season with the 6th annual Battle By The Bay sponsored by the Midland Nazarene Church of Midland.
Friday night featured a full race schedule for the Krapohl’s Body Shop and Accessories Outlaw late models. The late models with the sideboards to assist with down force feature eight top notch drivers from Michigan and Ohio. The night kicked off with qualifying. #21 David Hilliker would break his own track record of 10.795. However, the new track record was bested two cars later when Hilliker’s son #19 Derrick Hilliker would blister the record with a 10.711 around the 3/8ths clay oval. David Hilliker would win the four-car dash and the heat race. Former BBB winner #0x Zack Olger and #75 Rod Laney would bring the field to the green flag of the 26-lap feature. Olger would jump out to a huge lead until a caution at halfway would bring the field back together. On the restart, #21 Hilliker would best Olger and looked like he was on his way to the feature victory. However, with two laps remaining, a caution would again bring the field back together for a final dash to the victory. With son Derrick in the second spot, the green flag would bring out the paternal fight to the finish. #19 Hilliker would make the pass on the bottom of turn two and complete the race as the winner for his first TCMS feature win. #21 Hilliker would finish a proud runner-up with Laney, #52 JR Gooden, and #03w JC Witherspoon rounding out the top five.
The MichiganTruckSpring.com Bomber Stocks saw visiting drivers #18b Brogan Rehklau and #32 MJ Hattois taking heats races Friday. Rehklau would also pick up the Euclid Automotive Friday Night Special. #9 Ethan Robarts and 2015 track Champion #09 Jack Freese would lead the field of ten to the green flag of the 22-lap feature event. Freese would open up a comfortable lead until the caution flew when #27 Trenton Fenner smacked the front stretch wall. As the safety crew was busy removing the damaged car, the skies opened up with a ten minute rain shower. This would delay the continuation of the event for approximately 35 minutes. Once racing resumed, Rehklau would overtake Freese and take home his first BBB victory. Deshano would finish as the runner-up followed by #77 Stacie Staszak, Freese, and Robarts
The Bay City Pro Stocks ran their heat races on Friday night. Coleman Driver, #69 Nate Murphy and Clio’s #71 Timmy Near. Near would also dominate the Euclid Automotive Friday Night Special. 2016 track champion #93 Nate Jones would lead the opening lap of the 26-lap main event before Near would move from his third place starting position to take charge of the field. In a race that went caution free, Near was never challenged as he cruised to his ninth TCMS victory of the season. #44 Jeff Haley, Murphy, #x88 Eric Lake, and #50 Chad Bennett took top five honors. #28 Jared Rizer, #18lr Joe Cunningham, #9s Marc Super, #01 Randy Radabaugh, and #21 Darren Mularz completed the remainder of the top ten.
K & C Transport sponsored the IMCA Modified Division for the weekend. #71 Brenten DeYoung would start the weekend strong by picking up wins in his heat and the Euclid Automotive Friday Night Special. 2011 Modified point runner-up, #27 Matt Szecsodi would capture the victory in his heat. The father and son duo of #776r Rusty Zeigler and #776k Ken Zeigler would lead the field of eighteen to the green flag for their final event of the night. Rusty paced the first four laps before Drasco, Arkansas driver #68 Heath Grizzle would make an inside pass for the lead in turn two. Grizzle would blister the 3/8 mile oval with DeYoung and #10 Gary Vandermark swapping the second place position just about every lap. Grizzle would be penalized for jumping the restart on lap 24, which put him to the rear of the field and handing the lead over to DeYoung. DeYoung would only lead one lap before Vandermark would make the winning pass to claim victory. He would edge out a hard charging Grizzle, DeYoung, #03 Chris Cohoon, #4s Toby Steele, #D42 Don Sautter, #22 Mike Mosier, #7s Will Small, #53 “Crazy” Nate Oswald, and #5 Tanner Pray. #511 Chaz Pray took home the B-main accolades.
With 38 Auburn Hotel Street Stocks checking in for the weekend, four qualifying heats won by #60 Jason Begeman, #M65 Rick Spencer, #77b Rob Brillhart, and #72 John Taylor picking up wins. An absolutely stellar Euclid Automotive Friday Night Special was Spencer. B-main wins were taken by #84 Eric Watz and #260 Ron Pope. 24 cars, eight rows of three, would start the 26 lap finale. 2016 point champion #96 Shane Wright, #57 TJ Gilbert, and #13d Tim Degroft led the massive field to the green flag. Gilbert looked to be on his way to another street stock victory by leading the initial eighteen laps. However, #11 Josh Loomis, from the ninth starting position, was making his way through the field to eventually challenge Gilbert for the top spot. They would swap the lead for a pair of laps before Loomis eventually cleared Gilbert to lead the final laps. Loomis, who had won the BBB in a Pro Stock in 2015, was followed by two-time track champion Spencer, Brillhart, Taylor, #50 Jake Thompson, #76 Scott Smith, Silver Bullet point champion #10 Victorya Truemner, #31 Bob Robinson, 24th place starter #15.2 Robert Cunningham, and Degroft.
The final event of the evening was the 46-lap feature for the Euclid Automotive Supply Late Models. 29 drivers checked in with hopes of making the 19-car starting field and a chance to win the $2,566 top prize. Multi-time BBB winner #6m Dona Marcoullier would continue his unbeaten streak by winning his heat as well as Laingsburg driver #11 Rachel Carpenter and Ionia’s #2 Travis Stemler. The B-main win was taken by Crystal Motor Speedway champion #13 Scott Baker. #50 Scott Phillips and TCMS point champion #4t Andrew Terrill got to start at the front of the field for the final feature of the season. Phillips led the first five laps before #14n Tyler Norton would try his hand as the race leader. Stemler would take over the lead on lap eighteen and led until a caution flag for #21a Logan Arntz on lap forty would reset the field for a six-lap shootout. The caution was a big break for Marcoullier who had moved up to second from his 11th place starting position. With Marcoullier now on Stemler’s back bumper, it only took Marcoullier three corners to make pass that would take him to victory and cap off his season without losing a race in which he entered. Stemler would have to settle for a second place finish as he held off 2014 champion #0x Zack Olger, Norton, Terrill, #6r Carl Ries, Carpenter, #21 David Hilliker, #0p Kris Patterson Jr., and Ohio driver #6* Grahm Short.
TCMS would like to thank the drivers, sponsors, and the fans for a successful 2016 season. We wish everyone a healthy and happy off-season and look forward to seeing everyone in the spring for our seventh season of Family Fun Friday’s on Friday, April 21st 2017!!
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