RPW Exclusive: Extremely Close Modified Finish At Thunder Mountain Proves To Be Just Perfect

Column By: JOSEPH PHILLIPS / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – Conner Sellars Memorial night at Thunder Mountain Speedway was a night of contrast, comebacks and redemption.

Last week’s event was plagued by scoring issues and multiple red flags. Due to a heavy track, the event started late and with a lot of cars in the pits, the program ran long.

Saturday night, however, saw hot laps run off quickly and was followed by the qualifying heat races which were all completed in about 45 minutes or so.  After a brief intermission, the features took the track so, it was definitely a redemption from last week’s long program.

Cody Higbie was running strong in last week’s feature before getting caught up in a couple of cars spinning off of turn 3. This week, Higbie won his heat convincingly in his HigFab chassis Handsome Devil BBQ number 97.

Due to last weeks poor finish, Higbie started the race on the front row. The next generation of the Higbie clan led close to three quarters of race, before a caution was thrown for a slowing car. On the restart, Higbie was passed by Brandon Loucks and Jimmy Zacharias.

Complicating the matters was Darren Smith, who was coming up fast on the leaders.

Loucks and Zacharias battled for the lead over the last few laps. At the checkers it was Loucks by a margin of .022 seconds. It was close enough that the winner had to be verified by scoring.

Matt Brewer prevailed in the DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Last week, Brewer’s number 39b was caught up in a multi-car crash on the frontstretch. His Bicknell chassis mount needed a new front clip installed. His crew thrashed through the week, tearing the car down , welding a new clip, and getting it back together.

Brewer started the feature from the ninth spot and methodically worked his way to the front. 2025 has been a year of near victories, but Matt Brewer was on a mission, and he rewarded his crew’s hard work with a victory.

For the 600 cc mods, Tyler Talada scored the win. Talada started in 14th, and worked his way steadily through the field.

There was one red flag for the 25P of Ben Shaw who was caught up in a multi-car tangle and rolled his mount over. Shaw was uninjured.

The IMCA Modifed feature was won by Earl Zimmer, of Newark Valley, NY. This was the second event for the IMCA cars and 17 entries came for competition. Oddly, with Skyline and Five Mile Point speedways no longer running, the IMCA class really does not have a home track in the Southern Tier with the exception of the bi-weekly schedule at Thunder Mountain.

The factory stocks saw 8 cars take the green for the feature with Jerry Lobdell JR taking the win. The 600 cc Sprint cars had 9 entries for the night and Ivan Forney took the feature win.

After several rain outs and technical issues, it appears Thunder Mountain Speedway is starting to hit its season stride. Saturday night’s program was run off quickly and produced one of the closest Open Mod finishes in recent history.  The track was smooth, multi grooved and had plenty of bite. It did slick up near the end of the night, but that is to be expected.

So yes, it was a night of comebacks all around!

Notes

Due to New Egypt Speedway cancelling, Corey Cormier was on hand with his Comfort Experts #26R ride. Cormier started 12th and finished 11th.

The Sellars family had Conner’s Modifed on display in victory lane. Conner’s Dad drove the modified to pace the Open Modified feature.

Thunder Mountain and Accord Speedway announcer Ric Ryder led a wonderful tribute to Conner and even sang The National Anthem while attending the drivers meeting in the pits. Ric is a man of many talents!