WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tanner Thorson had plenty to celebrate Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway, leading all 30 laps to win the Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing/POWRi 410 feature on Night 2 of the 16th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial.
Thorson, of Broken Arrow, Okla., earned $10,000 and assured himself a prime starting position in Saturday finale, which pays $25,000 to visit victory lane. But this weekend is about more than money, Thorson said, when discussing what this race is all about.
TJ Nichols, cousin of the late Jesse Hockett, is helping on the crew of the Jason and Shantel owned GST Motorsports winged sprint car. If the team is able to win on Saturday, it would be one of Thorson’s biggest moments of his career.
“It means everything,” Thorson said. “When I started racing sprint cars, I always saw Jesse Hockett, Jesse Hockett. Unfortunately I was never able to meet him. TJ is one bad-ass kid and his family is great people. I want to win here in general, and especially this race.”
The Hockett-McMillin Memorial pays tribute to the legacy of Hockett, from Warsaw, who was a national star in both the winged and non-wing sprint divisions when he lost his life in a shop accident in 2010 when Thorson was 14. Hockett’s cousin and crew chief, Daniel McMillin, was killed in an automobile accident in 2006.
Thorson might have led it all the way, but it was far from easy as he had to fend off repeated challenged from runner-up Peck. He wound up 1.5 seconds in front, which was his biggest margin of the event.
Thorson sprinted away around the top groove to the lead at the start and already had a .737-second advantage over Peck by lap five with Randall third. Peck whittled the lead to a car length by lap 10 as the top three separated from the field and entered lapped traffic.
As Peck and Randall battled for second, Thorson was able to build on his lead as the frontrunners continued to weave through slower cars. Caution for a pair of spinners on the backstretch, including the third-running Randall, brought out a caution on lap 16 and elevated Tanner Holmes to third.
Thorson led Peck by a second with five to go, continuing to use the high line. Peck made up some ground as they again entered lapped traffic, but couldn’t make up enough. Thorson took the checkers by a semi-comfortable margin.
“Hats off to my team,” said Thorson, who won an Aug. 1 “Road to the Hockett” POWRi race at Wheatland. “It’s just incredible to have good people behind you. The mojo of your team really extends itself. We’re gonna drink some beer tonight.”
Scott Bogucki rallied from ninth to finish third with Holmes fourth and Joel Myers Jr. third.
Peck finished second for the seventh time on the High Limit season.
“I thought we had a really good race car,” Peck said. “That first start I just blew the bottom and still kind of was able to hang with Tanner there, so I thought we’ll slow down and really try to come off the grip. That was substantially worse.
“It was pretty much wide open on the top the whole race. I was trying to move around and do anything I could to really make a run on him. I don’t know. It’s funny to say you’re frustrated to run second, but I’m over it. That should lock us in for tomorrow and that’s your goal.”
Peck’s pair of seconds the last two nights has locked him into the $25,000-to-win feature, along with Thorson, Giovanni Scelzi and Brent Marks.
Aaron Reutzel of Clute, Texas, broke his own track record with a lap of 12.600 to pace a qualifying session that saw 14 drivers post sub-13-second laps. Reutzel’s lap of 12.789 on Thursday broke Rico Abreu’s record that had stood for more than two years.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 88-Tanner Thorson[2]; 2. 26-Justin Peck[1]; 3. 1X-Scott Bogucki[9]; 4. 13-Tanner Holmes[6]; 5. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr[13]; 6. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[16]; 8. 24D-Danny Sams III[10]; 9. 12X-Landon Crawley[3]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[24]; 11. 22M-Rees Moran[17]; 12. 9R-Chase Randall[4]; 13. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 14. 40-Howard Moore[19]; 15. 55-Brady Bacon[14]; 16. 24-Rico Abreu[22]; 17. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[23]; 18. 9-Daison Pursley[25]; 19. 11-Roger Crockett[7]; 20. 74-Xavier Doney[15]; 21. 88C-Brogan Carder[11]; 22. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[18]; 23. 2-Gage Montgomery[12]; 24. 51B-Joe B Miller[20]; 25. 57-Cam Sorrels[21]
