By T.J. Buffenbarger
LAKE ODESSA, Mich. (May 13, 2022) — Justin Peck took top honors during the biggest sprint car race in the state of Michigan for the 2022 season picking up the feature victory during the Mace Thomas Classic Friday at I-96 Speedway. Peck, from Monrovia, Indiana, backed up his second-place finish with the World of Outlaws Wednesday night at Lincoln Speedway by taking the lead from Scotty Thiel and holding off a challenge from Tyler Courtney during a green/white/checkered finish for the $8,500 top prize and six-foot trophy.
The victory was Peck’s second of the season and first with the All Stars during the 2022 season.
I was talking about this to my guys earlier today. The way this racetrack played out today it was just all about momentum you know, if you scrubbed a little bit of speed you lost seemed like a straightaway so it just everything had to be timed right,” said Peck about I-96 Speedway. “You were better off losing a tenth or two just keeping your foot out of it and staying behind the guy rather than breaking momentum and stuff like that so it just like I said just kind of timing worked out and was able to stick her on the bottom”
Zeb Wise took the lead during the initial start of the 30-lap feature event with Scotty Thiel in tow while Peck moved past Buddy Kofoid for the third position. Thiel immediate applied pressure to Wise for the lead, taking the lead using the top of the racetrack coming off the fourth corner.
Wise came back on the inside of Thiel until the caution appeared for Danny Sams III sliding off the racetrack in turn four with four laps complete.
Thiel pulled away during the restart while Peck pressured Wise for the second position, building up a lead of over two and a half seconds. By lap 10 Theil started to encounter slower traffic while Peck slide by Wise in turn one for the second position.
Theil eventually was held up in traffic on lap 14, nearly sliding off the track in turn four, which allowed Peck to take the lead. One lap later Peck stumbled on the cushion in turn four but maintained the top position.
On lap 17 Thiel and Chris Windom made contact, which caused Wise to run into the back of Thiel, which caused Thiel to slow to a stop between turns one and two. Thiel was unable to make the restart of the event. Wise sustained some minor damage to his car but remained under power in the second position.
After the restart Peck pulled away from Kofoid while Wide found himself under pressure from Tyler Courtney for the third spot.
On lap 24 Kofoid’s race came to an end when he had a mechanical issue and drove off the track in turn three. Kyle Reinhardt also lowed between turns one and two with a flat tire.
Peck pulled away while Wise and Courtney raced side by side for second following the restart. Courtney slid by Wise in turn two on lap 25. Courtney appeared to have too large of a deficit to overcome until a caution with two laps to go for Cale Thomas sitting backwards in turn four tightened up the field.
Courtney tried to slide past Peck during the restart through turns one and two but came up short. Courtney was able to get another shot at Peck when the caution appeared for the restart cone being hit and drug onto the racetrack. This gave Courtney one more opportunity to challenge for the lead, but Peck was up for the task holding Courtney’s challenge at bay and driving to Mace Thomas Classic victory. Courtney held on for second while Hunter Schuerenberg took third from Wise on the final lap. Wise and Parker Price-Miller rounded out the top five.
Afterwards Coutney indicated he didn’t feel his car was as fast as Pecks’ but wanted to take a shot to bring home the top prize on Friday.
“That was just as just kind of a last-ditch effort,” said Coutney of his slide job on Peck in turns one and two. “I knew he was a little bit better race card than us tonight but just I got to go try right with $8,500 bucks on the line. We come here to win so try to just do something, but I knew it was just a little bit better”
After being close to several victories this season, Peck hopes to carry the momentum from Lincoln and I-96 through the rest of the three-race weekend for the All Stars.
“It’s just a matter of putting it all together,” said Peck. “We’ve had speed it’s just that little fine tuning. Little tweaks is all that it took. I feel like I’m strong right mentally, as far as just feeling like I know what I’m doing that and feel like I have control of what’s going on around me. When you have that kind of feeling you start winning races, hopefully we just go on a streak here.”
Floracing All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1
Mace Thomas Classic
I-96 Speedway
Lake Odessa, Michigan
Saturday, May 13, 2022
Dixie Vodka Qualifying
1. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 13.377[12]
2. 13-Justin Peck, 13.389[19]
3. 101-Cale Thomas, 13.398[7]
4. 10-Zeb Wise, 13.447[27]
5. 11K-Michael Kofoid, 13.468[16]
6. 24D-Danny Sams III, 13.495[4]
7. 19-Chris Windom, 13.532[5]
8. 4-Cap Henry, 13.566[1]
9. 73-Scotty Thiel, 13.570[9]
10. 7M-Geoff Dodge, 13.609[10]
11. 26-Cory Eliason, 13.635[24]
12. 71H-Max Stambaugh, 13.668[6]
13. 17B-Bill Balog, 13.671[28]
14. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 13.676[14]
15. 85-Dustin Daggett, 13.688[26]
16. 11-Parker Price Miller, 13.727[20]
17. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 13.746[21]
18. 25M-Ryan Ruhl, 13.748[3]
19. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson, 13.760[18]
20. 9K-Kevin Thomas Jr, 13.840[8]
21. 11N-Harli White, 13.869[2]
22. 14-Tyler Street, 14.027[13]
23. 7-Scott Bogucki, 14.063[29]
24. 16C-Tylar Rankin, 14.120[15]
25. 23-Russel Borland, 14.132[23]
26. 97-Greg Wilson, 14.157[17]
27. 41-Thomas Schinderle, 14.544[11]
28. 27K-Zac Broughman, 15.242[22]
29. 28-Brandon Spithaler, 59.999[25]
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 10-Zeb Wise[1]
2. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[4]
3. 11-Parker Price Miller[6]
4. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson[7]
5. 7M-Geoff Dodge[3]
6. 17B-Bill Balog[5]
7. 23-Russel Borland[9]
8. 19-Chris Windom[2]
9. 14-Tyler Street[8]
10. 27K-Zac Broughman[10]
CSI Shocks Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 11K-Michael Kofoid[1]
2. 4-Cap Henry[2]
3. 13-Justin Peck[4]
4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[5]
5. 26-Cory Eliason[3]
6. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]
7. 9K-Kevin Thomas Jr[7]
8. 97-Greg Wilson[9]
9. 7-Scott Bogucki[8]
10. 28-Brandon Spithaler[10]
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 73-Scotty Thiel[2]
2. 101-Cale Thomas[4]
3. 24D-Danny Sams III[1]
4. 85-Dustin Daggett[5]
5. 71H-Max Stambaugh[3]
6. 25M-Ryan Ruhl[6]
7. 16C-Tylar Rankin[8]
8. 11N-Harli White[7]
9. 41-Thomas Schinderle[9]
Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash (6 Laps)
1. 73-Scotty Thiel[1]
2. 10-Zeb Wise[5]
3. 13-Justin Peck[6]
4. 11K-Michael Kofoid[2]
5. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[3]
6. 101-Cale Thomas[4]
Classic Ink USA B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 97-Greg Wilson[6]
2. 19-Chris Windom[1]
3. 7-Scott Bogucki[8]
4. 9K-Kevin Thomas Jr[2]
5. 11N-Harli White[5]
6. 23-Russel Borland[4]
7. 16C-Tylar Rankin[3]
8. 14-Tyler Street[7]
9. 27K-Zac Broughman[10]
10. 28-Brandon Spithaler[11]
11. 41-Thomas Schinderle[9]
Tezos A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 13-Justin Peck[3]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[10]
3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[5]
4. 10-Zeb Wise[2]
5. 11-Parker Price Miller[9]
6. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson[12]
7. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[17]
8. 26-Cory Eliason[14]
9. 4-Cap Henry[7]
10. 97-Greg Wilson[19]
11. 17B-Bill Balog[16]
12. 7-Scott Bogucki[21]
13. 71H-Max Stambaugh[15]
14. 101-Cale Thomas[6]
15. 11N-Harli White[23]
16. 19-Chris Windom[20]
17. 24D-Danny Sams III[8]
18. 23-Russel Borland[24]
19. 85-Dustin Daggett[11]
20. 7M-Geoff Dodge[13]
21. 11K-Michael Kofoid[4]
22. 73-Scotty Thiel[1]
23. 25M-Ryan Ruhl[18]
24. 9K-Kevin Thomas Jr[22]