July 5, 2023 | By Jordan Delucia

Harrison Wins Tri-City For First Career Late Model, Summer Nationals Victory

(Granite City, IL) -- Fifty-nine DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Feature wins. Six Summit Modified championships. A record eight DIRTcar UMP Modified national points titles. And now, at 48 years young and 27 years into his racing career, Mike Harrison is a DIRTcar Late Model Feature winner.

Harrison, of Highland, IL, piloted the Steve Lampley-owned #33 to his first-ever Late Model Feature win Tuesday night at Tri-City Speedway, leading all 30 laps on the way to Victory Lane to become only the third driver in Hell Tour history to have both a Late Model and Summit Modified Feature win in their career (Levi Kissinger, Dona Marcoullier).

Prior to the start of the season, team heads Steve Lampley and Randy Korte reached out to Harrison about being their driver for 2023, which he accepted despite having only limited past experience in the seat of the full-fendered machines. However, Harrison welcomed the new challenge with open arms, having already checked so many items off the bucket list in the UMP Modified world.

“Randy’s been around with Steve a long time in housing that car for [him],” Harrison said. “That was all kind of a gel, and it was a matter of me and Randy and my boys and their crew – Steve, Eric, Tyler, Schuster… there’s so many people that play an important role in all of it.”

Before Tuesday, the team had recorded multiple top-10 finishes, but had been barred from Victory Lane. That all changed when Harrison led flag-to-flag Tuesday, nearly unchallenged, to secure the $5,000 grand prize.

Since taking over the reins at the start of the year, Harrison said he’s been getting more and more comfortable in the car with every race. But after only a few laps Tuesday, he knew this time could be his time.

“From the drop of the green in Hot Laps, I actually felt better than I ever have,” Harrison said. “Hopefully, we’ve finally found something that I like in the feel.

“As soon as I Hot Lapped, I got out and told Randy [Korte] and I said, ‘That’s good. That’s good,’” Harrison said. “We didn’t really change a whole lot all night.”

Harrison won his Heat Race and redrew the pole for the Feature, which he wasted no time in taking advantage of, sprinting out to a massive lead in traffic that stood as large as over five full seconds before a caution flag on Lap 24 erased it.

“I didn’t want to see the yellow, but I was pretty confident when we went back green that I was gonna be able to go back to the same thing I was doing,” Harrison said. “But that’s the difference in this Late Model world – you never know where they’re at behind you. You never know when somebody finds something different.”

With the likes of Gordy Gundaker and Jason Feger on his tail for the restart, Harrison kept cool and hit his marks, fending off the pressure from behind to collect his first career DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature win.

“The way the car felt to me – I was totally confident in going back to doing exactly what I was doing before,” Harrison said. “I was just really comfortable all night long with what changes we made coming here.”

UP NEXT

The Summer Nationals Late Models continue Week 4 competition Wednesday, July 5 at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, IL. Tickets will be on sale at the gate; streaming available at DIRTVision.com.

RESULTS

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 33-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 25-Jason Feger[9]; 3. 11-Gordy Gundaker[3]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[12]; 5. 31AUS-Kye Blight[2]; 6. 91-Rusty Schlenk[6]; 7. 89-Mike Spatola[17]; 8. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[5]; 9. 18-Shannon Babb[15]; 10. 44-Blaze Burwell[7]; 11. 82-Billy Laycock[11]; 12. 15-Clayton Stuckey[10]; 13. 4G-Bob Gardner[4]; 14. 16-Rusty Griffaw[16]; 15. 51-Dean Carpenter[14]; 16. 38-Thomas Hunziker[19]; 17. 78S-Steve Stultz[13]; 18. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[8]; 19. 23NZ-Mick Quin[21]; 20. 14M-Reid Millard[20]; 21. 30-Mark Voigt[18]; 22. 4D-Doug Tye[22]

Consolation Race (8 Laps): 1. 16-Rusty Griffaw[1]; 2. 89-Mike Spatola[3]; 3. 30-Mark Voigt[2]; 4. 4-Jordan Suhre[8]; 5. 1-BJ Robinson[6]; 6. 25T-Tucker Finch[4]; 7. 5-Austin Vincent[9]; 8. 38-Thomas Hunziker[12]; 9. 14M-Reid Millard[11]; 10. 23NZ-Mick Quin[14]; 11. 82B-Jason Milam[7]; 12. 35-Claude Walker[5]; 13. 4D-Doug Tye[10]; 14. (DNS) T8-Tim Gauntt

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31AUS-Kye Blight[1]; 2. 4G-Bob Gardner[3]; 3. 44-Blaze Burwell[2]; 4. 15-Clayton Stuckey[4]; 5. 78S-Steve Stultz[7]; 6. 16-Rusty Griffaw[8]; 7. 25T-Tucker Finch[5]; 8. 82B-Jason Milam[6]; 9. 4D-Doug Tye[9]; 10. (DNS) T8-Tim Gauntt

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Gordy Gundaker[1]; 2. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 3. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[2]; 4. 82-Billy Laycock[5]; 5. 51-Dean Carpenter[3]; 6. 30-Mark Voigt[8]; 7. 35-Claude Walker[6]; 8. 4-Jordan Suhre[7]; 9. 14M-Reid Millard[10]; 10. 23NZ-Mick Quin[9]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Mike Harrison[2]; 2. 91-Rusty Schlenk[1]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[4]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[5]; 5. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 6. 89-Mike Spatola[8]; 7. 1-BJ Robinson[6]; 8. 5-Austin Vincent[7]; 9. 38-Thomas Hunziker[9]

Qualifying 1: 1. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:14.509[8]; 2. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:14.656[10]; 3. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:14.661[1]; 4. 15-Clayton Stuckey, 00:14.707[3]; 5. 25T-Tucker Finch, 00:14.830[9]; 6. 82B-Jason Milam, 00:15.401[6]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:15.446[2]; 8. 16-Rusty Griffaw, 00:15.618[7]; 9. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:15.703[5]; 10. (DNS) T8-Tim Gauntt, 00:15.703

Qualifying 2: 1. 11-Gordy Gundaker, 00:14.847[7]; 2. 51B-Brandon Carpenter, 00:14.876[4]; 3. 51-Dean Carpenter, 00:15.010[1]; 4. 14G-Trevor Gundaker, 00:15.074[9]; 5. 82-Billy Laycock, 00:15.187[3]; 6. 35-Claude Walker, 00:15.325[5]; 7. 4-Jordan Suhre, 00:15.331[10]; 8. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:15.370[2]; 9. 23NZ-Mick Quin, 00:15.763[8]; 10. 14M-Reid Millard, 00:16.045[6]

Qualifying 3: 1. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:14.605[1]; 2. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:14.627[7]; 3. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:14.637[4]; 4. 25-Jason Feger, 00:14.687[5]; 5. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:14.693[3]; 6. 1-BJ Robinson, 00:14.950[9]; 7. 5-Austin Vincent, 00:15.162[2]; 8. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:15.179[8]; 9. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:15.209[6]

Hot Laps: 1. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:15.225[1]; 2. 15-Clayton Stuckey, 00:15.671[3]; 3. 14G-Trevor Gundaker, 00:15.257[19]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:15.042[24]; 5. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:16.093[2]; 6. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:14.807[27]; 7. 25-Jason Feger, 00:14.813[25]; 8. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:14.916[21]; 9. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:15.030[26]; 10. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:15.263[23]; 11. 11-Gordy Gundaker, 00:15.307[17]; 12. 1-BJ Robinson, 00:15.374[29]; 13. 82-Billy Laycock, 00:15.567[13]; 14. 5-Austin Vincent, 00:15.796[22]; 15. 35-Claude Walker, 00:15.951[15]; 16. 4-Jordan Suhre, 00:15.963[20]; 17. 82B-Jason Milam, 00:16.117[6]; 18. 51-Dean Carpenter, 00:16.198[11]; 19. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:16.370[5]; 20. 16-Rusty Griffaw, 00:16.394[7]; 21. 14M-Reid Millard, 00:16.398[16]; 22. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:16.447[12]; 23. 51B-Brandon Carpenter, 00:16.465[14]; 24. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:16.571[10]; 25. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:16.768[28]; 26. 23NZ-Mick Quin, 00:16.968[18]; 27. 25T-Tucker Finch, 00:17.077[9]; 28. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:17.790[8]; 29. T8-Tim Gauntt, 00:24.432[4]

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NICELY WINS TRI-CITY FOR FOURTH SUMMIT MODIFIED TRIUMPH OF 2023

By Jordan Delucia (Granite City, IL) -- Tyler Nicely padded his stats Tuesday night at Tri-City Speedway, leading another DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Feature flag-to-flag, garnering his ninth career victory with the series.

The 27-year-old from Owensboro, KY, took advantage of his pole starting spot, grabbed the lead on the opening lap and never looked back, holding off all pressure from behind to secure the win.

One big pressure-applier was six-time Summit Modified champion Mike Harrison, who was gunning to make Hell Tour history as the first driver to win both the Late Model and Modified Feature in the same Summer Nationals program. Harrison made a great effort to get close enough to make a move in the closing laps but was unable to seal the deal as Nicely drove off to victory.

“I knew Harrison was gonna be there, I could see him on a couple laps,” Nicely said. “I started messing-up my entry [in turns 3-4] and it was really messing me up all the way through the corner. I knew when the caution came out, I was gonna have to hit three perfect laps.”

UP NEXT

The Summit Modifieds continue Week 4 competition Wednesday, July 5 at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, IL. Tickets will be on sale at the gate; streaming available at DIRTVision.com.

MODIFIEDS

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. K9-Will Krup[15]; 3. 24H-Mike Harrison[2]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[6]; 5. 130-Chase Allen[5]; 6. 51-Timmy Hill[10]; 7. 76-Shawn Knuckles[3]; 8. 99B-Blake Brown[18]; 9. 84G-Gary Gross[16]; 10. 24T-Trevor Ringle[12]; 11. 27R-Steve Rex[20]; 12. 54-Zachary Hawk[19]; 13. 00S-Chris Spalding[11]; 14. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[7]; 15. 21J-Clay Harris[8]; 16. 34D-Treb Jacoby[14]; 17. 14C-Rick Conoyer[21]; 18. 19-Chad Bauer[13]; 19. 82-Dalton Lane[22]; 20. 13-Charlie Mefford[9]; 21. 18L-Michael Long[4]; 22. 1D-Dean Hoffman[17]

Last Chance Showdown 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1D-Dean Hoffman[1]; 2. 14C-Rick Conoyer[2]; 3. 21M-Willy Myers[3]; 4. 94P-Tom Pasek[5]; 5. 27R-Steve Rex[4]; 6. 36E-Dan Ems[9]; 7. 11B-Blake Bailey[10]; 8. I99-Mikey Kopka[7]; 9. 82-Dalton Lane[8]; 10. 6C-Troy Carter[11]; 11. (DNS) 79C-Caleb DeMoss

Last Chance Showdown 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99B-Blake Brown[6]; 2. 54-Zachary Hawk[2]; 3. 22-Austen Becerra[8]; 4. 99-Wade Olmsted[7]; 5. 28D-Matt Diaz[4]; 6. 94-Mark Clary[5]; 7. 3B-Tyler Blankenship[3]; 8. (DNS) 79D-John DeMoss; 9. (DNS) 87C-Landen Curran; 10. (DNS) 6-Chris Stauffer

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 130-Chase Allen[4]; 3. 13-Charlie Mefford[3]; 4. 19-Chad Bauer[2]; 5. 1D-Dean Hoffman[7]; 6. 21M-Willy Myers[6]; 7. 94P-Tom Pasek[8]; 8. I99-Mikey Kopka[9]; 9. 36E-Dan Ems[5]; 10. 6C-Troy Carter[10]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[6]; 3. 00S-Chris Spalding[4]; 4. K9-Will Krup[3]; 5. 14C-Rick Conoyer[2]; 6. 27R-Steve Rex[8]; 7. 79C-Caleb DeMoss[5]; 8. 82-Dalton Lane[7]; 9. (DNS) 11B-Blake Bailey

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 18L-Michael Long[1]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[2]; 3. 51-Timmy Hill[3]; 4. 34D-Treb Jacoby[5]; 5. 79D-John DeMoss[4]; 6. 3B-Tyler Blankenship[6]; 7. 94-Mark Clary[7]; 8. 99-Wade Olmsted[8]; 9. 87C-Landen Curran[9]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 76-Shawn Knuckles[4]; 2. 21J-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 24T-Trevor Ringle[5]; 4. 84G-Gary Gross[6]; 5. 54-Zachary Hawk[9]; 6. 28D-Matt Diaz[7]; 7. 99B-Blake Brown[1]; 8. 22-Austen Becerra[2]; 9. 6-Chris Stauffer[8]

Qualifying A: 1. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:15.880[17]; 2. 24H-Mike Harrison, 00:15.940[18]; 3. 19-Chad Bauer, 00:16.055[19]; 4. 14C-Rick Conoyer, 00:16.188[7]; 5. 13-Charlie Mefford, 00:16.282[8]; 6. K9-Will Krup, 00:16.295[12]; 7. 130-Chase Allen, 00:16.328[9]; 8. 00S-Chris Spalding, 00:16.352[1]; 9. 36E-Dan Ems, 00:16.430[3]; 10. 79C-Caleb DeMoss, 00:16.442[6]; 11. 21M-Willy Myers, 00:16.504[16]; 12. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr, 00:16.533[10]; 13. 1D-Dean Hoffman, 00:16.619[11]; 14. 82-Dalton Lane, 00:16.672[14]; 15. 94P-Tom Pasek, 00:16.771[5]; 16. 27R-Steve Rex, 00:17.193[4]; 17. I99-Mikey Kopka, 04:14.202[13]; 18. 11B-Blake Bailey, 04:14.202[2]; 19. 6C-Troy Carter, 04:14.202[15]

Qualifying B: 1. 18L-Michael Long, 00:15.806[4]; 2. 99B-Blake Brown, 00:15.842[5]; 3. 36-Kenny Wallace, 00:15.868[8]; 4. 22-Austen Becerra, 00:16.025[9]; 5. 51-Timmy Hill, 00:16.034[14]; 6. 21J-Clay Harris, 00:16.306[7]; 7. 79D-John DeMoss, 00:16.326[15]; 8. 76-Shawn Knuckles, 00:16.399[17]; 9. 34D-Treb Jacoby, 00:16.410[18]; 10. 24T-Trevor Ringle, 00:16.631[13]; 11. 3B-Tyler Blankenship, 00:16.739[11]; 12. 84G-Gary Gross, 00:17.064[6]; 13. 94-Mark Clary, 00:17.106[1]; 14. 28D-Matt Diaz, 00:17.767[16]; 15. 99-Wade Olmsted, 00:17.891[10]; 16. 6-Chris Stauffer, 00:17.973[12]; 17. 87C-Landen Curran, 00:17.973[3]; 18. 54-Zachary Hawk, 00:17.973[2]

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4 CYLINDERS

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 111-Phillip Sandell[1]; 2. 32-Joshua Hawkins[2]; 3. 28J-Justin Hall[6]; 4. 52-Bradley Stanfill[7]; 5. 15-David Lauritson[4]; 6. 23G-Bryan Gegg[11]; 7. 21-Chris Rakers[5]; 8. 41-Jaekob Durbin[8]; 9. 35-Lynn Lash[9]; 10. 14-Frank Zang[13]; 11. 17-Brooke Trivitt[12]; 12. 47-David Bolyard[10]; 13. 9-James Trivitt[14]; 14. 10-Robie Poston[15]; 15. 74-Joey Laws[3]; 16. (DNS) 21K-William Kidman

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 111-Phillip Sandell[4]; 2. 74-Joey Laws[1]; 3. 21-Chris Rakers[2]; 4. 52-Bradley Stanfill[6]; 5. 35-Lynn Lash[7]; 6. 23G-Bryan Gegg[5]; 7. 14-Frank Zang[8]; 8. 10-Robie Poston[3]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 32-Joshua Hawkins[4]; 2. 15-David Lauritson[2]; 3. 28J-Justin Hall[8]; 4. 41-Jaekob Durbin[7]; 5. 47-David Bolyard[1]; 6. 17-Brooke Trivitt[5]; 7. 9-James Trivitt[6]; 8. (DNS) 21K-William Kidman

PURECOOL HART LIMITED MODIFIED SERIES

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 69-Treb Jacoby[2]; 2. 9-Ken Schrader[4]; 3. 42-Clint Young[5]; 4. 0K-Damian Kiefer[1]; 5. 13-Zach Whaley[6]; 6. 26S-Paulie Schrempf III[7]; 7. C4-Chris Soutiea[9]; 8. Z24-Zach Taylor[11]; 9. 83S-Chris Stahlschmidt[10]; 10. 1-Cole Cygan[14]; 11. 52-Joe Rudy[13]; 12. 19C-Aaron Canterberry[16]; 13. 88J-Joshua Dolenz[18]; 14. 14G-Tommy Gaither[12]; 15. 11-Alex Cygan[15]; 16. 67-Austin Seets[3]; 17. 74-James Hileman[8]; 18. 19-Jimmy Cummins[17]; 19. 27-Jessy Snyders[20]; 20. 51S-Bob Stanton[19]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 19C-Aaron Canterberry[4]; 2. 19-Jimmy Cummins[2]; 3. 88J-Joshua Dolenz[5]; 4. 51S-Bob Stanton[7]; 5. 79-Nathan Wright[1]; 6. 15G-Zach Gaither[6]; 7. 80-Tony Walker[3]; 8. 4-TJ Vonder Haar[9]; 9. (DNS) 22-Pondrio Anderson; 10. (DNS) 17E-Matthew Edler; 11. (DNS) 1M-Dylan Politte

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69-Treb Jacoby[4]; 2. 67-Austin Seets[6]; 3. 14G-Tommy Gaither[1]; 4. C4-Chris Soutiea[7]; 5. 11-Alex Cygan[3]; 6. 52-Joe Rudy[9]; 7. 19C-Aaron Canterberry[5]; 8. 15G-Zach Gaither[8]; 9. (DNS) 1M-Dylan Politte

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Ken Schrader[1]; 2. 42-Clint Young[7]; 3. 13-Zach Whaley[8]; 4. Z24-Zach Taylor[5]; 5. 79-Nathan Wright[2]; 6. 19-Jimmy Cummins[3]; 7. 88J-Joshua Dolenz[4]; 8. 51S-Bob Stanton[6]; 9. 4-TJ Vonder Haar[9]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 0K-Damian Kiefer[2]; 2. 26S-Paulie Schrempf III[4]; 3. 74-James Hileman[6]; 4. 1-Cole Cygan[1]; 5. 83S-Chris Stahlschmidt[8]; 6. 80-Tony Walker[3]; 7. 27-Jessy Snyders[9]; 8. 22-Pondrio Anderson[5]; 9. 17E-Matthew Edler[7]