FRANKLIN, Pa. – Tri-City Raceway Park hosted the BRP Modified Touring Series for the inaugural Rick Hall Memorial Race Sunday, with Jim Rasey claiming the special event win.
It was his fourth career victory at the Franklin, Pa., oval.
After Rasey, Chad Brachmann, Rick Regalski and Phil Vigneri III won preliminary heat races, 33 cars started the first Rick Hall Memorial Race.
The race was run in honor of Hall, a champion race car driver, businessman, and long-time Board of Directors member of the BRP Tour, who passed away in November of 2019.
The event was the 351st race for big-block modifieds in Tri-City history, and the first of 2020.
The richest modified event in the region this year began with Rasey taking the lead from the pole position. In turn four, during lap one, three-time tour champion Brian Swartzlander spun, collecting Erick Rudolph and Regalski, who flipped his car over in the incident.
Rudolph – the tour’s leading winner in 2020 – and Swartzlander were finished for the night. Regalski, after his dramatic heat race win, restarted his battered machine and returned to action after a lengthy pit stop to repair the damage from landing upside down.
When racing resumed, Rasey defended his lead from the challenges of New York’s Brachmann. Brachmann won the most recent event on the tour three weeks prior, and was the 2013 champion of the series.
Rasey worked lapped traffic brilliantly to maintain the lead, but Brachmann was aided by multiple restarts, allowing him to challenge for the top spot.
Seventh-starting Rex King Jr. passed recent tour winner Garrett Krummert for third place after a lengthy battle. King entered the event as the point leader of the BRP Tour.
On restarts for minor spins and mechanical failures, Brachmann, King, and Rasey would be close, and occasionally side by side in turn one. But, at the scoring line, Rasey was officially the leader each lap, often by a narrow margin.
King Jr. grabbed second place from Brachmann, and pulled away from him. But King was unable to snag the lead from Rasey, whether in lapped traffic or clear race track.
Rex King Sr. and Brad Rapp swapped top five positions repeatedly in the closing stages of the race. Former Tour Champion King Sr. started in 14th position and Rapp started in the 18th spot, proving that the Tri-City surface was conducive to passing.
Enduring single-file restarts that repeatedly erased his margin of lead over the field, Rasey eventually claimed the high-paying victory, leading all 35 laps to earn the seventh BRP Tour win of his career.
Rasey, of Southington, Ohio, earned his first career modified win at Tri-City several years ago, and the Rick Hall Memorial became his fourth win at the half-mile oval.
Rasey was overcome with emotion after the race, as his long time sponsor and friend George Poschner Jr. recently passed away.
The determination was evident in Rasey’s winning drive.
“Nothing was going to keep me from right here, tonight,” he said as he pointed to the victory lane stage.
King Jr. placed second, making an Ohio sweep of the top two spots. Brachmann finished third, with Krummert crossing fourth as the highest finishing Pennsylvanian.
King Sr., the tour’s all time leading winner, was the fifth place finisher.
Also celebrating in victory lane on Aug. 30 were Rob Kristayk (RUSH Sportsman Modifieds), Les Myers (Vintage Modifieds), and cousins Colten and Mason McAndrew, who each won in the Young Guns Junior Sprints.