RPW Exclusive: It Was The Smith & Smith Show At Thunder Mountain; Rusty & Darren Highlight Winners

Column By: JOSEPH PHILLIPS / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – Finally, after what has seemed like forever, Thunder Mountain Speedway was able to get its season opener completed.

All heat races ran off pretty much caution free. The features, however, were another story.

With a large amount of Sportsman drivers starting the feature, it took several tries to get the first few laps in.

Finally, the race got going for a number of laps before the yellow waved again. Taking the checkers was McGraw, NY’s Jordan Millard in the #99 car.

“I almost got caught up in several cautions,” Millard said.  “Thanks to the grace of God, I didn’t.”

The Open Modified feature went close to halfway before being slowed by a couple of yellow flags.  The bottom of the track proved to be the fastest this night and Rusty Smith came away victorious.

“I wanted to tip toe around the bottom,” Smith said.  “However, I had to try and go high a few times for different reasons.  Luckily we got the job done.”

For the Factory Stock feature event, the victor was Doug Stack Jr.  This was Stack’s second victory of 2025 as he also won the Friday night portion of the Jan Corcoran Memorial a few weeks ago.

Rounding out feature action was the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds which saw Darren Smith grab the checkers.  Smith was challenged the whole race by Will Shields from King Ferry, NY but held off everything Shields could throw at him.

“I didn’t realize someone was that close until I got a tap in turn 4 on the last lap,” Smith said.  “Thankfully, all I had to do was get to the start / finish line.”

Notes:

The Hustle the highway race will be covered in a companion article.

The stands were full of spectators and the pits were jammed packed with cars ready to to take the green.  On hand were 27 open Modifieds, 10 entries for the DIRTcar 358 mods, 31 DIRTcar Sportsman, 20 Factory Stocks, 12 600cc Sprint Cars and 28 600cc Mods.

Due to Afton Speedway raining out, DIRTcar Sportsman driver Jared Labagh was at Thunder in his .38 Special Comfort Experts sponsored ride. Labagh decided to make the drive since he had never raced at Thunder.

His plan for Saturday nights is to race at Afton, since the drive is a little closer. He also plans to run the Big Series 2 at Orange County Fair Speedway.

DIRTcar Sportsman driver Rich Talada took a few minutes to talk about his new (to him) HigFab chassis.  Talada felt he needed to switch to HigFab after coming up short with his previous Bicknell car.

Talada explained to me that quite a few drivers are switching to HigFab and enjoying success.

“I want to finish better than last year,” Talada said.

Last year, he was runner-up in points.

Speaking of HigFab, Jerry Higbie was on hand supporting his son, Cody, in the family-owned #97 car. Jerry was a staple at Orange County and made quite a few events on both the Super DIRTcar Big Block & 358-Modified Series over the years.

“I’m pretty much retired,” Higbie said.  “I love supporting Cody these days.”

Higbie also enjoys building cars and working with the next generation of drivers. The Higbies will also be supporting the Big Series 2 at the Orange County Fair Speedway in early June.

New to Thunder this year is the use of the MyRacePass app. The app is free to download and allows fans, drivers, teams etc to follow along with race results, line ups, lap times and other features.

Opening night at Thunder Mountain Speedway was quite successful. Car counts in all classes were decent and many fans turned out to watch the races.

With the exception of a few cautions, the events were run off quickly and fans were on the way home at a decent hour.  Coming up next week is another full program of action plus IMCA Modifieds and Classics on Dirt.

OPEN MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (35-LAPS): 1 Rusty Smith 2 Brett Tonkin 3 Darren Smith 4 Byron Worthing 5 Tommy Collins 6 Brandon Loucks 7 Matt Smith 8 Ajay Potrzerbowski 9 Dan Morgiewicz 10 Cody Higbie 11 Will Shields 12 Eric Leet 13 Brian Malcolm 14 Mike Austin 15 Matt Latwinski 16 Jeff Sheely 17 Tom Eiklor 18 PJ Goodwin 19 Geoff Quakenbush 20 Doug Polhamus 21 Danny Tyler 22 Brandon Walters 23 Jimmy Zacharias 24 Alan Barker 25 Nick Nye DNS Dominic Roselli, Arthur Bray

DIRTCAR 358 MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (25-LAPS): 1 Darren Smith 2 Will Shields 3 Gordon Smith 4 Shayne Spoonhower 5 Doug Smith Jr. 6 Jamie Kamrowski 7 Joey Bonetti 8 Cameron Black 9 Josh Landers DNS Erik Holmgren

DIRTCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25-LAPS): 1 Jordan Millard 2 Matt Brewer 3 Damon Decker 4 Rich Talada 5 Luke Powell 6 Travis Green 7 Cody Jackson 8 Eric Winsor 9 Will Eastman 10 Gary Smith 11 Avery Decker 12 TJ Frost 13 Chance Spoonhower Jr. 14 Jake Waibel 15 Todd Hayward 16 Sullivan Dickey 17 Johnathon Fowlston 18 Devon Green 19 Trevor Dudley 20 Alan Komar 21 Dale Folejewski 22 Scot Torbitt 23 Randy Brokaw 24 Chuck Lowe 25 James VanAbs 26 Wyatt Frink 27 Ray Taylor 28 Jared LaBagh 29 Jason Beebe DNS Leif Holmgren DQ Thor Holmgren

HUSTLE THE HIGHWAY SERIES 600 MODIFIEDS (20-LAPS): 1 TJ Smith 2 Doug Windhausen 3 Jame Randall 4 Jake Waibel 5 Tom Donahue 6 Anthony Desimone 7 Tommy Paige 8 Tyler Talada 9 Bumps Scutt 10 Owen Mossow 11 Harold Oliver 12 Charles Lohmeyer 13 Dustin Jordan 14 Ajay Tuttle 15 Sam Hubbard 16 Cameron Searls 17 John Hoover 18 Leon Poirier 19 Chelsie Beebe 20 Logan Ladue 21 Kyle Percy 22 James Deisz 23 Nick Johnson 24 Marty Eaves 25 Liam Zacharias 26 Adam Doll 27 Ali Scutt 28 Brenden Johnson 29 Justin Ladue DNS Casey Doll

FACTORY STOCK FEATURE FINISH (20-LAPS) 1 Jerry Lobdell Jr. 2 Brian Rhodes 3 Luke MIlls 4 Josh Towner 5 Thomas Hammond 6 Doug Stack Sr. 7 Tommy Groover 8 Harry Marvin 9 Andy Bolles 10 Shane Moshier 11 Bryant Beach 12 Austin Baldwin 13 Rich Sharpsteen 14 Harry Lobdell Jr. 15 Justin Lovejoy 16 Randy Mathews 17 Jermie Hale Jr. 18 Kyle Lingerfelt DNS Jason Rhodes DQ Doug Stack Jr.

600 SPRINT FEATURE (20-LAPS): 1 Zach Bobbett 2 Tommy Paige 3 Ivan Forney 4 Wayne Stell Jr. 5 Mary Earley 6 Cliff Pierce 7 Billy Applebee 8 David Johnson 9 Kevin DeLong 10 Charles Bruce DNS Nate Combs, Kyle Pierce