By Bill Blumer Jr.
Wisconsin’s Zach Boden opened the Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA) season on Friday, April 24, at Lincoln Speedway (Lincoln, IL) with a convincing win.
2025 MARA champion Jace Sparks appeared to pick up where he left off rounding the quarter mile dirt track in 14.002 seconds in Rod End Supply qualifying. He was .3 ticks faster than Boden, the next fastest. Unfortunately, the #40 of Sparks went up in smoke shortly after crossing the finish line. Sparks later indicated his engine was indeed injured and he was done for the night.
Auto Meter Heat-One saw Boden bolt to the lead from the pole. He was never challenged and finished half a lap ahead of runner-up Mario Clouser.
A promising evening ended abruptly for Johnson Ginder. After a solid qualifying run of fifth, Ginder flipped his #7X while leading the open circuit of CASM Safety Products Heat-Two. The Illinois pilot caught a rut in the third turn and tumbled toward the wall. He came to a rest on all fours in the middle of the track. The oncoming field managed to avoid contact with him. A social media post later indicated that Ginder had bruised lungs and a concussion, but the “safety gear did its job,” and he expects to be back racing soon.
On the restart Dominic Bruns was pestered early by Mark McMahill but Bruns held on for the win.
The Fusion Engineering Feature saw Boden, Clouser and Chet Gehrke going three-wide coming out of turn-two as they started the second lap. Things began to shake out as they went into turn-three with Boden ahead of Clouser, when Gehrke spun while running third. The rest of the field managed to zig and zag their way around the Kentucky driver.
On the restart it was Boden leading Clouser, McMahill and Carl Peterson IV to the green. Boden got a good jump but Clouser closed the gap in short order. Then Boden began to pull away again. At about the half-way point Clouser nearly ended his night as he bicycled in turn-two. The veteran gathered his Phantom Chassis house car and motored on as if nothing happened.
With five laps left Boden was seemingly motoring unchallenged. Meanwhile, Gehrke, Peterson IV, Bruns and Tyler Roth were going nose to nose for spots three through six.
After enjoying a straightaway lead Boden caught some lapped traffic with two laps to go. This allowed Clouser to cut the lead in half. The laps ran out though and Boden took the win by about four lengths.
In his Victory Lane interview Boden said he did not know Clouser was reeling him in. He said his breaks were getting soft and he was just trying to pace himself in the closing laps. He concluded his comments by thanking his crew at the track and his family back home who were watching on Badger TV.
NOTES
The Horizon Develop Build Manage Invert Draw went to Bruns.
Roth finished fourth and was the High Performance Lubricants Hard Charger.
After his spin Gehrke made an impressive run to take the last podium spot.
SPECIAL THANKS
Along with the noted supporters, MARA would like to thank Schoenfeld Headers and Hoosier Tire for their sponsorship of the series.
NEXT UP
MARA is back in action next Friday, May 1, at Coles County Speedway in Mattoon, IL. Coles has put a lot of work into the facility during the off-season and teams are looking forward to their first of two visits to the one-eighth of a mile track.
FULL RESULTS
Fusion Engineering A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 51B-Zach Boden[2]; 2. 75-Mario Clouser[4]; 3. 21-Chet Gehrke[1]; 4. 18-Tyler Roth[8]; 5. 49P-Carl Peterson IV[6]; 6. 12C-Dominic Bruns[5]; 7. 51-Chris Young[10]; 8. (DNF) 11K-Mark McMahill[3]; 9. (DNS) 19E-Daltyn England; 10. (DNS) 00-John Heitzman; 11. (DNS) 5-Jacob Sollenberger; 12. (DNS) 40-Jace Sparks; 13. (DNS) 7X-Johnson Ginder
Auto Meter Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 51B-Zach Boden[1]; 2. 75-Mario Clouser[5]; 3. 21-Chet Gehrke[4]; 4. 19E-Daltyn England[3]; 5. 18-Tyler Roth[2]; 6. 51-Chris Young[6]
CASM Safety Products Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12C-Dominic Bruns[4]; 2. 11K-Mark McMahill[5]; 3. 49P-Carl Peterson IV[3]; 4. 7X-Johnson Ginder[1]; 5. 5-Jacob Sollenberger[2]
Rod End Supply Fast Time Qualifying (25 Laps): 1. 40-Jace Sparks, 14.002[5]; 2. 51B-Zach Boden, 14.300[1]; 3. 75-Mario Clouser, 14.361[12]; 4. 21-Chet Gehrke, 14.718[11]; 5. 7X-Johnson Ginder, 14.745[2]; 6. 12C-Dominic Bruns, 14.758[10]; 7. 19E-Daltyn England, 15.115[9]; 8. 18-Tyler Roth, 16.609[7]; 9. 51-Chris Young, 18.028[6]; 10. 00-John Heitzman, 18.028[3]; 11. 11K-Mark McMahill, 18.028[13]; 12. 49P-Carl Peterson IV, 18.028[8]; 13. 5-Jacob Sollenberger, 18.028[4]