LINCOLN, Ill. — The Midget Auto Racing Association kicked off their season at the iconic quarter-mile Lincoln Speedway on Friday night. Fourteen cars signed into the first race of the brand-new series. Twelve drivers from Illinois and two from Wisconsin would all be vying for the coveted first win of the season.
Tim Siner would be the pole sitter for the very first MARA feature with Greg Ross outside of him. The 25-lap feature would start with Siner leading the field in and out of the first corner with Dalton England and Chuck Walker right behind him.
England and Walker would fight for a few laps before Patrick Bruns and Mark McMahill caught the back of the fight for second. Bruns would be the first to get past Walker but got stuck behind England running the bottom.
McMahill would work past Walker while Bruns would make his way past England on lap 10. With Siner catching lap traffic out front, Bruns started to close and by the end of lap 15, Bruns worked past Siner on the top.
The only caution of the race would come out on lap 16 as Walker came to a stop with a flat tire in turn one. The yellow would put Bruns in the lead with Siner second and England third. The field would restart the race with nine laps to go and McMahill would make the most of it, pulling a two for one out of his pocket and jumping from fourth to secoond.
Sinner and McMahill would battle it out for secound for the remaining laps going back and forth past each other. During all that fighting Bruns would run away with the lead and wouldn’t look back as he took the win in the first-ever MARA feature, with McMahill finishing second and Siner third.
Both Bruns and McMahill would be up eight positions from where they started.
“Man that was a ton of fun coming from the back like that,” Bruns said.
He would also go on to thank his car owner Matt Durbin for all he has done to get the car prepped and ready to race.
The Finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 12D-Patrick Bruns[9]; 2. 10C-Mark McMahill[10]; 3. 77-Tim Siner[1]; 4. 19E-Daltyn England[3]; 5. 42-Kevin Battefeld[5]; 6. 40-Jace Sparks[7]; 7. 10A-Tommy Colburn[4]; 8. 29-Harrison Kleven[11]; 9. 17-James Boyd[13]; 10. 55-Chuck Walker[6]; 11. 7X-Corey Weyandt[8]; 12. 6B-Andy Baugh[12]; 13. 51R-Greg Ross[2]; 14. 43-John Heitzman[14]