MASON, Mich. — In what was marked as the biggest question mark on the calendar for the 2024 season for many of the drivers with the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance, one driver had the event circled on his calendar – Brandon Varney. The 2017 Corrigan Oil Speedway Late Model Sportsman Track Champion knew that the Spartan 100 was his shot to get the elusive first career JEGS Tour win.
A total of 18 cars took the green flag for the Spartan 100 at Corrigan Oil Speedway. Steve Dorer set the fast time earlier in the afternoon turning a lap of 13.130 seconds. After the redraw, Dylan Stovall and Brett Robinson led the field to green for the first-ever event at Corrigan Oil for the JEGS Tour.
Stovall led the opening 12 laps before Varney made his move around the outside to edge across the line as the leader on lap 13. He put his No. 61 at the point for a large majority of the race, surviving multiple restarts. Many drivers were involved in incidents throughout the event, however, thanks to the bullring speeds, most everyone continued. Evan Varney and Dan Leeck were the only two drivers who ended their night after a crash. Other drivers involved in incidents included Katie Hettinger, Jimmy Tucker, Keegan Sobilo, Will Sahutske and Carson Lucas. That list got longer toward the end of the event.
The end of the race was also when Varney found his stiffest competition. Chase Burda used Varney’s move and edged the No.18 to the front of the field on lap 82. Varney was quick with a move back to the lead at the exit of turn two to retake the lead for seven more laps. On lap 91, Burda again got to the front, but was overtaken just as quickly on lap 92, when the next caution came out — for Burda.
As Burda was swapped out of the lead spot, he fell back to fourth after getting hung on the outside. Burda turned back to the inside coming off turn four and got around Blake Rowe. Rowe clipped the curb on the bottom of the race track in turn one and jumped into the side of Burda spinning him off turn two. Both drivers were sent to the tail for the incident.
Varney survived that last restart and held off a charge from Steve Dorer and Chase Pinsonneault to collect his first career JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour win. The $5,000 payday also serves as Varney’s richest win of his career.Â
