5/6/2023
Mike Marlar
Marlar cruises in John Bradshaw Memorial at Ponderosa
Mike Marlar hit the ground running in early May with a victory aboard his Delk Equipment Sales / Petroff Towing No. 157 Can-Am Auto Salvage / Mesilla Valley Transportation / Longhorn Race Car / Clements Racing Engine.
His third triumph of the year came on Friday in the John Bradshaw Memorial at Ponderosa Speedway (Junction City, Ky.) and was worth $12,000.
“I want to thank my car owner and all of these great sponsors,” said the victorious Marlar in Lucas Oil Victory Lane on Friday night. “It takes a lot of people to have a great race team. It’s fun when it’s working good. The car was really good again tonight. We had that one caution and sometimes your tires cool off, or the track bleeds and other things happen under caution. It’s usually a good thing especially when you have a clean track in front of you. You run these cars on such a fine line.
“It’s cool the John Bradshaw Memorial has got to be as big as it is,” Marlar added. “When it first started it was $5,000 to win and we were just lucky to have a race that paid that around here. So, all of these big races we are having around here now it’s’ getting big crowds like tonight. I don’t think I have seen this many fans here.”
Mike Marlar was one of 43 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) entries packed into the pit area at Atomic Speedway (Chillicothe, Ohio) on Thursday evening for the ninth running of the Buckeye Spring 50.
Following the sixth-fastest qualifying lap, Marlar passed one car in his heat race to finish second. Earning the eighth-starting spot for the $12,000-to-win A-Main, Mike climbed five positions in the 50-lapper to register a third-place finish. He chased Hudson O’Neal and Brandon Overton to the checkers.
For the John Bradshaw Memorial on Friday evening at Ponderosa Speedway (Junction City, Ky.), Mike’s third-to-first run in his heat placed him on the pole for the feature. Leading flag-to-flag in the 50-lap affair, Marlar rolled to his third win of the season and 18th-career LOLMDS triumph.
He bagged a $12,000 payday ahead of Hudson O’Neal, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, and Ricky Thornton Jr.
To wrap up the weekend on Saturday at Florence Speedway (Union, Ky.), Marlar secured his spot into the Ralph Latham Memorial A-Main with a third-place showing in his heat. With $15,000 on the line, Mike raced to an 11th-place finish in the 50-lap finale.
Full results from the events are available at www.LucasDirt.com.
Mike now turns his attention to the second annual Illinois Speedweek. Action kicks off in the Land of Lincoln on Wednesday and Thursday as Marlar carries the Castrol FloRacing Night in America point lead into a pair of $23,023-to-win events at Spoon River Speedway (Banner, Ill.) and Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway.
From there the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will sanction a $25,000-to-win program on Friday at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway and a $30,000-to-win slate on Saturday at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway.
Full details on the weekend are available at www.FloSeries.com and www.LucasDirt.com.
Article Credit: Ryan Roberts Photography
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