CONNEAUT, Ohio — Tim McCreadie has won everything there is to win in dirt late model racing.
He’s a former champion of the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision. He’s won at Eldora, Fairbury, Knoxville, and every other showplace of dirt-track racing under the sun.
But Thursday night’s victory in the Great Lake Showdown at Raceway 7 will forever be one of the most memorable of his illustrious career.
At the start of the 2025 season, McCreadie unveiled a throwback to his father, “Barefoot” Bob McCreadie’s No. 9 with one mission in mind – bringing it back to Victory Lane. One year to the day after Bob’s passing, “T-Mac” led every lap on his way to the checkered flag.
That win coming at Raceway 7 didn’t come as a surprise – in four late model starts at the track, McCreadie has now won twice and has never finished worse than fourth.
“I don’t know, I’ve never really run here that much,” McCreadie said. “Maybe the way the style is, keeping the car straight and not spinning so much kind of lends itself to what I like to do. When I was younger I liked to spin the tires a lot, now that I’ve gotten older, I like to keep the car underneath me.”
Not only is Conneaut one of McCreadie’s favorite places to race, it’s also one of Briggs’ home tracks and a place he’s been turning laps around for decades. That combination proved to be unbeatable as the No. 9m spent the 35-lap caution-free Feature driving away to a 2.6-second margin over the field.
“He told me where to be in qualifying, he ran over and told me where he thought I needed to be and it was good,” McCreadie said. “He’s just positive. Since driving with him, the whole deal, it’s been amazing. He keeps me focused, and with everything going on today, he was just there for me.”
Behind McCreadie, Ashton Winger collected his second runner-up finish of the season in his Raceway 7 debut. The Georgian’s season got off to a nightmarish start with five missed Features at Volusia Speedway Park, but the Jeff Mathews Motorsports team have found their stride as of late with two top fives in their last three World of Outlaws starts.
“I knew from the heat race, you probably wanted to start on the top, I got a better launch than I thought I’d get here leaving four,” Winger said. “About halfway down the back straightaway, I could kind of hear him. Two choices, you kind of block and take a chance on crashing or just blow off down into three and try to get crossed over. I knew I slid getting into one, I think we all knew it was going to be important to get out front. It’s cool, we needed good runs. Didn’t do anything too stupid tonight.”
Much like McCreadie and Shirley, third-place runner Brian Shirley has also been finding his footing after a slow start to the season.
“I feel like we’ve got to be just a little bit more tight,” Shirley said. “I feel like we’re just really, really loose. Just can’t get in the corner. But all in all, it was a good night.”
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 9M-Tim McCreadie[2]; 2. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 22*-Drake Troutman[6]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 6. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 7. 2-Cody Overton[13]; 8. 19-Dustin Sorensen[8]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[10]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 11. 111-Max Blair[19]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[12]; 13. 96-Tanner English[14]; 14. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 15. 11-Austin Smith[15]; 16. 9Y-Levi Yetter[11]; 17. 49-Jake Timm[21]; 18. 57-Matt Tifft[20]; 19. B1-Brent Larson[23]; 20. 9S-Breyton Santee[22]; 21. 99B-Boom Briggs[16]; 22. 22B-Darrell Bossard[9]; 23. 555-Brock Pinkerous[24]; 24. 44-Dave Hess Jr[18]
