Rex King Jr. Nabs Fifth BRP Modified Tour Points Title

Story By: TOMMY HEIN / BRP MODIFIED TOUR – SLIPPERY ROCK, PA – Celebrating their 27th season of competitive dirt track Big Block Modified racing in the western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio region, the BRP Modified Tour honored Rex King Jr. at Slippery Rock’s Rockhouse Bar and Grill after he secured his fifth Tour point title, earning $5,000 for his efforts plus an additional $500 for perfect attendance and various contingency awards.

“It was good,” exclaimed King Jr. after clinching the title with 739 points. “Everything was fun, went to a lot of cool tracks, and had a lot of good runs. Had some luck our way and ended up winning the championship. You can’t ask more than that!”

Competing with consistently elite equipment, King Jr. campaigned a 2025 Bicknell Racing Products chassis powered by fresh J&M Motorsports engines, with his brother and crew chief, Russ King, and full‑time pit crew members Evan Dawson and Willie Davis meticulously preparing the car so it was 100% race‑ready every night.

Across the 13 scheduled race events, four of which were washed out by rain, King Jr. recorded two feature victories, on May 25 at Tri-City Speedway and July 19 at Mercer Raceway. “Mercer is always cool to win at,” admitted King Jr. “We have a lot of family history there, so it’s fun to go there and run well. We seem to run pretty good there more than anywhere else, but we’ve been close at other tracks too.” King Jr. added, “I like winning at Mercer more than at Tri-City because I have been there for a long time, know a lot more people, seen a lot of fans and stuff like that.”

After a season of sustained effort that produced 701 points, Fonthill, Ontario, Canada driver Tyler Willard was rewarded with a runner‑up finish in the BRP Modified Tour point standings. Reflecting on his performance, Willard noted, “Consistency is how we did it. We don’t have nearly what a lot of other guys have in motors and cars, time, energy, effort, and crew. So, I think it was consistency!”

Campaigning an older 2018 Bicknell Racing Products chassis paired with a used 2016 New Generation motor, Willard elaborated, “It was a used motor when I bought it several years ago. It was refreshed two or three times, and we just kept it going. I don’t think you need a $70,000 big block to compete. I think the team that we’ve got, the resources we’ve got, we can compete on a high level with a minimum budget, which is hard to do at our hometown track (Merrittville Speedway) with the small‑block division. The small‑block division budget got crazy. You’ve got to constantly have new everything and the horsepower wasn’t there to make it a driver’s race. It’s all about the car and the money. It got a little crazy! So, the big blocks kept things simple. You could do more with less.”

Assessing the broader narrative of his season, Willard continued, “We had a real shot at winning the BRP Modified Tour point championship this year. There was a bit of a controversy with the weights at the last race at Mercer and the appeal. If that appeal didn’t go through, we would have won the point championship. So that was a tough pill to swallow. We had the car, and we had the consistency. We actually had a championship, but due to the appeal process, being light at the scale, Rex (King Jr.) won the appeal (two days after the race), got his points back, and won the point championship. That’s a tough one. We worked hard. We thought we won it fair and square, and to lose it to an appeal, that’s the rule. It is an appeal-able process. That’s a tough one! But we’re not going to let that deter us. I guess that’s a tough one for us, knowing that first and second positions were the only two affected by the points and the appeal during that race. Nobody else would trade position, just first and second. I lost by around 39 points, and the appeal granted him (Rex King Jr.) the 46 points!”

Providing additional context on the August 16 controversy at Mercer Raceway, track promoter Ed Michael explained, “We, the racetrack officials, actually told the BRP Tour officials the scale was going to vary a little bit even before the race because we don’t have the scale certified. The scales are right, but they’re still not certified. They were going to give the drivers a 10‑pound weight break and that’s what they did. Then, at the scale, they (the BRP officials) decided they weren’t going to do that.”

“It was a four‑pound difference, and they scaled him (Rex King Jr.) three times and the last time they scaled him it came back he was in the right,” Michael admitted. “I could see if it was 50 pounds light, it would have been one thing, but it was four pounds. To take away a race position from somebody over four pounds, especially when it was pre‑discussed, I don’t know why they did what they did. They took it away from him and then they gave it back to him (two days later).”

Finishing third in the BRP Modified Tour point standings with 690 points, Garrett Krummert piloted a 2025 Bicknell chassis powered by a fresh CC Engine Performance. Offering a candid self‑evaluation, Krummert said, “It wasn’t as good as last year. I didn’t win a race, so that wasn’t very good, right? I ran second for a couple of nights and led two races we should have won but didn’t win. So overall, it was okay. It wasn’t as good as it was last year. The Tour is pretty much the only thing we have in western Pennsylvania that lets us travel a little bit, so we kind of make sure to be ready to go to all of them. But obviously your goal is to win every one of them, but that doesn’t always happen.”

Krummert did capture the 2025 Fan Engagement Award, while 70‑year‑old veteran Rodney Beltz, who owns 50 years of racing experience, received the Legacy Award for long‑term dedication and adherence to the core values of the BRP Modified Tour. Justin Shea earned the $1,000 Rookie of the Year honor.

A‑Main winners in the 2025 BRP Modified Tour campaign included Rex King Jr. (Tri-City and Mercer Raceway), Erick Rudolph (Lernerville and Tri-City Speedway), and Dalton Slack (Lernerville and Sharon Speedway), each registering two feature victories. Single‑event triumphs went to Mat Williamson (Lernerville), Kyle Fink (Mercer), and Colton Walters (Tri-City). Walters’ win at Tri-City Speedway on August 31 marked his first‑ever career feature victory.

Eighteen drivers achieved perfect attendance and were each awarded a $500 bonus: Rex King Jr., Tyler Willard, Garrett Krummert, Brad Rapp, Jeremiah Shingledecker, Ayden Cipriano, Dave Murdick, Justin Shea, Colton Walters, Rick Regalski Jr., Mike Kinney, Rodney Beltz, Jeff Walters, Cameron Miller, Shawn Kozar, Steve Barr, Steve Slater, and Tom Holden.

The BRP Modified Tour 2025 Schedule

(Date – Track – Winner)

Saturday May 3, 2025 Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway Rained Out

Friday May 16, 2025 Lernerville Speedway Mat Williamson

Saturday May 17, 2025 Mercer Raceway Rained Out

Sunday May 25, 2025 Tri-City Speedway Rex King Jr.

Friday June 6, 2025 Tri-City Speedway Rained Out

Saturday June 14, 2025 Stateline Speedway Rained Out

Friday July 11, 2025 Lernerville Speedwa Erick Rudolph

Saturday July 19, 2025 Mercer Raceway Rex King Jr.

Friday August 1, 2025 Lernerville Speedway Dalton Slack

Saturday August 2, 2025 Sharon Speedway Dalton Slack

Saturday August 16, 2025 Mercer Raceway Kyle Fink

Saturday August 30, 2025 Tri-City Speedway Erick Rudolph

Sunday August 31, 2025 Tri-City Speedway Colton Walters