On lap 12, Ted Christopher and Ryan Preece had caught up to Myers, and TC started to apply pressure to Myers as Preece patiently watched to see what the outcome would be. It only took TC 1 lap to get under Myers, with Preece following him through as Myers dropped to 6th.  By lap 15, Pennink had caught up to Stefanik, riding right near his bumper, while Preece had gotten by TC to take 4th the lap before as the front of the field began to close up, with the exception of Santos, who held a comfortable 5 car length lead.

     Now on lap 22, Todd Szegedy had moved up to 6th, as Silk was now 7th, Myers had dropped to 8th, and George Brunnhoelzl III was 9th. Up front, Stefanik, Pennink, Santos and TC were running nose to tail and closing in on Santos, who was starting to encounter lapped cars. About 4 laps later, Brunnhoelzl fell out of the top 10, dropping back to about 15th or so, obviously needing to make a pit stop to make adjustments to his car. Preece was now past Pennink for 3rd spot, but Pennink was doing all he could to get the spot back, but that had allowed Santos and Stefanik to pull away to about a 10 car length spread over the rest of the field by lap 35. 

      By lap 40, Santos had pulled away from Stefanik by 10 car lengths, and Stefanik had at least that much of a lead over Preece as they really got spread out by that time. On lap 47, Preece had worked his way back up to Stefanik’s bumper once more, even as Santos held a 10 car length lead over both. Just before lap 50, Jamie Tomaino started showing smoke as he went through the turns, and on lap 52, as it got worse, NASCAR officials black flagged him and he pitted on lap 55. About that point, Preece made a move for 2nd by getting up along side Stefanik, but Stefanik poured on the gas, and pulled ahead of Preece once more. Suddenly, Jake Marosz and Chuck Hossfeld collided, spinning on the back stretch right in front of the leaders, bringing out the race’s first caution. 

    This brought on the first round of mass pit stops with all the leaders, except TC, coming to pit road for tires.  When the green flew again on lap 64, TC held the lead, starting on the outside line, with Santos on the inside, and TC took off, beating Santos to turn 1, as Preece and Stefanik got by Santos, dropping him to 4th, but on lap 66, caution flew again as Erick Rudolph spun in turn 2.  Once again, TC took the outside lane for the restart, with Stefanik now to his inside, and at the drop of the green, they ran side by side the whole way around the track, until Stefanik pulled into the lead as they crossed the Start/Finish line as they banged wheels all the way down the front stretch. Stefanik pulled out front, with TC on his bumper, while Santos passed Preece to take 3rd away, while Eric Beers watched from 5th spot. TC, Santos and Preece were now locked in battles for position, but none of them gained or lost a spot as Stefanik continued to hold the lead.  

     On lap 76, Preece passed Santos to takeover 3rd spot, as TC continued to ride just feet off of Stefanik’s bumper. One lap later, Preece passed TC to take 2nd spot, and Preece immediately mounted a challenge on Stefanik for the lead, but Stefanik managed to hold him off for the moment.  Both of them were now pulling away from TC and Santos as they continued to battle for the lead. Preece took another shot at passing Stefanik off turn 4 as they started to encounter lapped traffic, but Stefanik continued to hold him off. Caution flew on lap 86 for a piece of sheet metal laying on the track in turn 3. Green came out once more on lap 90, and TC mounted a charge to get by Preece for 2nd, but a wreck in turn 2 negated any chance of that. Green flew once again on lap 95, with Stefanik holding the lead starting from the outside lane, and he and Preece battled side by side until they completed the lap, as Stefanik pulled ahead, but James Civali hit the outside wall in turn 2, and caution flew once more. TC finally chose this opportunity to pit for 4 new tires.

     Green flew again on lap 101, with Preece taking the lead from Stefanik with a ’bump and run’ as they came off turn 2, with Stefanik ‘bump drafting’ Preece to show his displeasure, giving Santos a chance to get down low, but a few more cars collided in turn 2, bringing the caution out again on lap 103, before Santos could gain any positions. Green came back out on lap 107, with Preece leading as Santos got under and along side Stefanik, taking 2nd away as 4th place Pennink ‘helped‘  Preece by Stefanik with a little push as Pennink took 3rd away from Stefanik. By this point, TC, who’d come out of the pits in 15th, had worked his way up to 9th spot. Preece and Santos now worked on stretching out their lead over the rest of the field, pulling about 6 car lengths away by lap 110. 

Preece had Santos riding right on his bumper as the laps continued to add up, as Pennink, Stefanik and Eric Bernt made up the rest of the top 5. 

     While Santos was able to ride near Preece’s bumper through the turns, Preece had more power down the straights at this point. On lap 115, Glenn Tyler spun, with caution waving once more. On the restart, Preece led from his outside row starting spot, but Santos took the lead as they exited turn 2 and sped down the back stretch, while Szegedy took 4th  from Pennink. A moment later, TC got by Pennink, dropping him to 6th. Up front, Preece looked to pass Santos low, but Santos pulled away, leaving Preece in 2nd. The top 5 were running just feet from each other at this point, while further back, Woody Pitkat and Charlie Pasteryak battled over 10th spot. 

      The top 6 continued to run in a tight pack as they passed lap 125, with Santos holding his line and the lead, leaving Preece no choice but to follow and wait for an opening. With 20 laps to go, Santos and Preece pulled away by about 4 car lengths from Stefanik even as they started to encounter lapped traffic again. Preece took a look underneath off turn 4 on lap 129, but Santos held him off down the straightaway as they continued running bumper to bumper. By lap 135, Santos had pulled away from Preece by about 4 car lengths after Preece apparently used up his tires trying to go low off the turns to make a pass. All of the top 6 were now considerably ahead of the rest of the field, and running into heavy lapped traffic, forcing them to stay single file as they passed the slower cars. TC was now looking for a way around Szegedy for 4th with 9 laps left, and made the pass on lap 142. Santos rode comfortably 3 car lengths in front of Preece, as Stefanik now had to deal with TC closing in on him, as the top 6 were broken into 3 groups of 2 cars each. They remained that way through the end, with Bobby Santos III taking the victory, as Ryan Preece, Mike Stefanik, Ted Christopher and Todd Szegedy rounded out the top 5. The race was completed by 4:22 PM, one of the earliest finishes ever for Icebreaker Sunday, and a pat on the back goes out to Thompson’s staff for putting on a wonderful, well run show.

      In post race interviews, both Ryan Preece and Bobby Santos III remarked how much fun they’d had racing against each other, something they’ve done since their days in go-karts. Preece did say he really didn’t have good tires at the end and couldn’t get by Santos, and that he was happy for Bobby, because he had always looked up to him. Santos remarked that his car was good right from the start, and that his crew had given him a great pit stop. He said it was a lot of fun being able to race with Mike Stefanik and Ryan, and it was ‘pretty awesome to be as dominant as he was all weekend’. He was ‘happy to get this win‘, as he feels it’s ‘going to be hard to win a lot of races on a tour as competitive as this one’.

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News and notes: Good racing all around in every division, with no major incidents, allowed the program to move along nicely and get everyone on the road home earlier than most expected….  Burt Myers happily gave autographs and posed for pictures in the pits before the race. He ran as high as 3rd , but an apparent missed shift on a late race restart quickly dropped him out of 7th place to an eventual 14th place finish in his first NWMT appearance. Let’s hope he comes back for more…  Jimmy Blewett made his Tour debut in the Dick Barney #14, finishing a respectable 15th, but I’m sure he’d hoped for better. He never really broke into the top 10 all race long…  George Brunnhoelzl III also made his debut as a ‘rookie’ in the #46 racer owned by Bob Caton. He finished behind Blewett in 16th after running in the top 10 during the race… Eric Beers managed a top 10 finish (10th) driving for Blewett Motorsports, his new ride for the season…   Erick Rudolph only managed a 19th place finish in his new ride with Henke/Baldwin racing…  Great weather all afternoon after some morning clouds made it appear rain was going to be a problem. A nice breeze and temps in the 60’s made for nice weather for everyone.

Until next time, live well and be safe. We’ll be back next week with a report on the 1st practice from the local track if all goes well.  WJ