RPW Exclusive: Daniel Morgiewicz Drives To Doug Worthing Memorial Win At Thunder Mountain

Column By: JOSEPH PHILLIPS / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – Summer is officially here! The temps are warm.  The sun’s shining and the racing action at Center Lisle’s Thunder Mountain Speedway is getting even hotter.

Saturday night, fans were treated to a quickly-run program of Open Modifieds, DIRTcar 358-Modifieds, DIRTcar Sportsman, Factory Stocks, 600cc Mods and 600cc sprint cars.  It was also First Responder Night and, even more special, the Doug “Junkyard Jet” Worthing Memorial.

Two fire trucks from Marathon Fire Department were on hand to act as pace cars for all features.

Before the program, Bryan Worthing, Doug’s son, took a few minutes to reflect on his Dad’s legacy.

The Southern Tier of NY has its share of great drivers. Colsten, Akulis, Kneisel and Weaver are just a few of the sstandout drivers with many wins at Thunder Mountain and the former Five Mile Point.

When asked what kind of man Doug Worthing was, Bryan was straight-forward.

“He was a hard driver,” the younger Worthing said.  “He was a tough man on the track, but everyone’s friend off.”

He then remembered several of the big battles his dad had over the years.

“My dad had many on track battles with Mike Colsten and Brian Weaver,” he said.  “Many fans thought they hated each other.  However, they were all good friends.”

Worthing did mention a time at Five Mile Point where his Dad and Colsten got to throw pies in each others faces to the delight of fans. Track promoters did this stunt to show that the two men really were actually great friends.

Before hot laps, Chuck Bruce #79, Dave Johnson # 29 and Kevin Delong # 64, all 600cc sprint car drivers chatted about their cars. The 600cc Mods run Suzuki engines and a Kawasaki is the engine of choice for the sprint cars. The sprints have a minimum weight of around 700 lbs. with driver. Add in the race bike motor, and these sprint cars are seriously fast machines.

Feature winner Zach Bobbett was turning 14.44 second laps. That is comparable to the Open Modified times.

Speaking of the Open Mod’s , Goshen NY driver Daniel Morgiewicz took the checkers Saturday evening. Morgiewicz started third and assumed the lead fairly quick. However, it was not an easy run.

Cody Higbie was on the move from the sixth starting spot.  He was close to winning the past couple of weeks and he was hungry to take the checkers on Saturday. The race ended at 35 laps as Higbie finally caught Morgiewicz.

Last week’s feature winner, Brandon Loucks finished in the sixth spot.  Loucks was one of many drivers who are happy with how the track has been the past couple weeks. Kudos to the track crew at Thunder Mountain.

The surface has multiple grooves and plenty of bite, but did take on rubber and glazed over for the last couple of features on the night. That is to be expected with the summer sun and high horsepower cars competing on track.

In the 358-Modifieds, Jimmy Zacharias was the feature winner.  Zacharias has been close to winning a few times this year so far and was able to get the job done from the seventh starting position.

Jimmy Z dedicated his win to his longtime friend, Conner Sellars. Zacharias also admitted that he made a mistake that cost him the win in last week’s Open Modified feature.

In the DIRTcar sportsman world, Matt Brewer was victorious for the second-consecutive week. Staring ninth in the 22-car field, Brewer methodically worked through the field.  In the last few laps, and with the help of a couple of cautions, he was able to overtake Waverly NY’s Chris Clemons for the victory.

Samuel Hubbard won the 600cc Mod feature. Last week’s winner, Tyler Talada, had issues and finished 22nd after starting tenth.

Rounding out the program was the Factory Stocks, won by Jerry Lobdell Jr. and 600cc Sprint Cars that was captured by Zach Bobbet in the 99Z car.

Next week, Thunder Mountain, is silent as many local schools are having their annual Graduation ceremonies for High School seniors.  The track will roar back to life on July 5th for its annual 4th of July Celebration, featuring a full program plus the return of the IMCA Modifieds.

Doug Worthing Memorial Race Results 6/22/25

Open Modified

Dirt Track Digest A Feature 1 (35 Laps): 1. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr[3]; 2. 97-Cody Higbie[6]; 3. 55-Pj Goodwin[2]; 4. 713-Tommy Collins[7]; 5. 6NN-Nick Nye[5]; 6. 23-Brandon Loucks[11]; 7. 42-Jimmy Zacharias[9]; 8. 63-Byron Worthing[14]; 9. 72K-Ajay Potrzebowski II[4]; 10. 12-Darren Smith[10]; 11. 71-Jordan Millard[12]; 12. 82S-Will Shields[8]; 13. 119-Brian Malcolm[17]; 14. 9BT-Brett Tonkin[16]; 15. 11X-Eric Leet[13]; 16. 28-Matt Smith[15]; 17. 44-Tom Eiklor[19]; 18. 9-Michael Austin[1]; 19. (DNF) 14B-Arthur Bray[20]; 20. (DNF) 38-Jeff Sheely[18]; 21. (DNF) 37-Alex Tonkin[21]

DIRTcar 358 Modifieds

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 71-Jimmy Zacharias[8]; 2. 12-Darren Smith[6]; 3. 119-Doug Smith Jr[5]; 4. J82-Will Shields[4]; 5. JD33-Joshua Landers[2]; 6. 55-John Kendall[9]; 7. 34-Shayne Spoonhower[11]; 8. 84S-Melvin Schrufer[7]; 9. TREE-Erik Holmgren[10]; 10. 284-Jamie Kamrowski[3]; 11. (DNF) M85-Hunter Metzger[12]; 12. (DNF) 20B-Joey Bonetti[1]; 13. (DNS) 23-Cameron Black

DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds

Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 39B-Matt Brewer[10]; 2. 121-Chris Clemens[3]; 3. 90-Ray Taylor[5]; 4. 7-Chance Spoonhower Jr[4]; 5. 79-Eric Winsor[9]; 6. 120-Will Eastman[8]; 7. 78-Stephen Winsor[7]; 8. D3-Dale Folejewski[15]; 9. 22A-Avery Decker[22]; 10. 21K-Josh Akshar[16]; 11. B17-Randy Brokaw[21]; 12. 08-Rich Talada[17]; 13. 7UP-Gary Smith[13]; 14. 33-Todd Hayward[14]; 15. 48-Luke Powell[6]; 16. 27-Chuck Lowe[1]; 17. 3T-Thor Holmgren[20]; 18. P16-Johnathon Fowlston[2]; 19. 88-Alan Komar[19]; 20. (DNF) 99M-Jordan Millard[12]; 21. (DNF) 99-Cody Jackson[18]; 22. (DNF) 7K-Kortney Slavick[11]; 23. (DNS) 77-James VanAbs

Factory Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 202L-Jerry Lobdell Jr[3]; 2. 115-Buck Mills III[5]; 3. 18-Buck Mills jr[4]; 4. 83T-Rich Sharpsteen[7]; 5. 1I-Shane Moshier[6]; 6. 22L-Harold Lobdell Jr[2]; 7. M60-Lukas Mills[1]; 8. (DNS) 25-Holden Taylor

600cc Modified

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 28-Samuel Hubbard[5]; 2. 80-Tyler Talada[12]; 3. 22-Owen Mossow[7]; 4. 8-Doug Windhausen[6]; 5. 717-Tom Donahue[11]; 6. 17J-James Randall[13]; 7. 108-Ali Scutt[10]; 8. 17A-Dustin Jordan[14]; 9. 99L-Justin LaDue[8]; 10. 66-Timothy Cornell[18]; 11. 71-Liam Zacharias[19]; 12. 08-Alyson Rushlo[20]; 13. 23-Logan Ladue[9]; 14. 44-James Deisz[1]; 15. 52-Nick Johnson[22]; 16. (DNF) 34-Marty Eaves[17]; 17. (DNF) 108*-Bumps Scutt[23]; 18. (DNF) 101-TJ Smith[4]; 19. (DNF) 23H-Leon Poirier[2]; 20. (DNF) 17C-Chelsie Beebe[16]; 21. (DNF) 29A-Ajay Tuttle[3]; 22. (DNF) 04D-Anthony Desimone[15]; 23. (DNF) 134-Harold Oliver[24]; 24. (DNF) 1-Ryan Baranska[21]

600cc Sprints

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 99Z-Zach Bobbett[3]; 2. 7F-Ivan Forney[1]; 3. 2P-Thomas Paige[2]; 4. 15-Timothy Westlake[5]; 5. C4-Nate Combs[4]; 6. 55-Cliff Pierce[6]; 7. 52J-Tucker Jones[9]; 8. 29-David Johnson[8]; 9. 64-Kevin DeLong[7]; 10. 73-Charles Bruce[11]; 11. (DNF) 40-Kevin Kaiser[10]