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Coons Victorious in Jacksonville Last Lap Thriller

Jacksonville, Illinois (June 21, 2024) – Cale Coons was victorious Friday in Midget Auto Racing Association competition with a last lap, last corner pass to win at Jacksonville Speedway. This marked Coons’ second victory of the 2024 MARA season.

The night began with 20 MARA Midgets signed in to do battle. Mark McMahill took the Schoenfeld Headers fast time award with a lap of 12.867 seconds. Rookie Luke Wackerlin, RJ Corson, Tyler Roth and Jace Sparks rounded out the top five.

Agventure Heat Race 1 went to Coons with Tyler Roth, and Alex MidKiff following him to the line. Simpson Race Products Heat 2 was taken by fast qualifier McMahill over Corson and Charles Rufi who was making his first MARA appearance of the season.

The A-Main started with Rufi and Midkiff on the front row. At the drop of the green flag the two entered turns one and two side by side battling for the lead. That continued for the entirety of lap one with Midkiff leading by a nose at the line. Meanwhile Roth made his way from his fifth place starting position into third by lap three. On lap six the first caution of the event flew for a spin by Wackerlin in turn four. On the restart Midkiff jumped out to a two car length lead over Rufi and Roth. Two laps later Roth made a power move to the outside of Rufi to take over the second position through turns three and four. On lap 10 Roth then took the low line through turns three and four to pass Midkiff for the lead. While all this was happening Coons was slowly making his way through the field from his ninth place starting position sitting in fifth. The caution flew again on lap 12 for a crash between Charles Kunz and Corson in turn two. One lap was completed before Rufi spun off of turn two to bring the caution out for the third time. On the restart Roth drove away from the field to stretch his lead to over three seconds. Coons made his way past Greg Ross to move into third position on lap 19 and one lap later passed Midkiff to put himself into second. Caution flew on lap 22 when Ross jumped the cushion and smacked the wall in turn two putting Coons directly behind Roth for the restart. On the final restart Coons made a bid for the lead entering turn one but to no avail as he lost momentum putting Midkiff in striking distance to take second. Coons held on and began to go after Roth at the start of lap 24. Coons closed in on Roth coming to the white flag setting himself up for a shot at the lead. Entering turn three on the last lap, Coons dove to the bottom under Roth sliding in front of the nose of Roth’s car. From there it was a drag race off the corner with Coons passing under the checkers to take the victory. Following them to the line was Midkiff, McMahill, and Sparks who took the night’s hard charger award.

A Feature 25 Laps

63-Cale Coons[9]; 2. 18-Tyler Roth[5]; 3. 05-Alex Midkiff[2]; 4. 57M-Mark McMahill[8]; 5. 40-Jace Sparks[19]; 6. 19E-Daltyn England[4]; 7. 11K-Charles Kunz[10]; 8. 5-Jacob Sollenberger[14]; 9. 55-Chuck Walker[20]; 10. 29-Harrison Kleven[11]; 11. 12C-Dominic Bruns[18]; 12. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[7]; 13. 9-Keith Wilson[16]; 14. 51X-Greg Ross[3]; 15. 42-Kevin Battefeld[12]; 16. 51-Charles Rufi[1]; 17. 15C-RJ Corson[6]; 18. (DNS) 20H-Reuben Haslett; 19. (DNS) 00-John Heitzman; 20. (DNS) 77-Tim Siner
AgVenture/Wehmeyer Seed Heat 1 10 Laps AgVenture/Wehmeyer Seed

63-Cale Coons[4]; 2. 18-Tyler Roth[7]; 3. 05-Alex Midkiff[5]; 4. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[8]; 5. 19E-Daltyn England[6]; 6. 42-Kevin Battefeld[3]; 7. 5-Jacob Sollenberger[2]; 8. 9-Keith Wilson[1]; 9. 12C-Dominic Bruns[9]; 10. (DNS) 55-Chuck Walker
Simpson Race Products Heat 2 10 Laps |Simpson Race Products

57M-Mark McMahill[8]; 2. 15C-RJ Corson[7]; 3. 51-Charles Rufi[4]; 4. 11K-Charles Kunz[3]; 5. 51X-Greg Ross[5]; 6. 29-Harrison Kleven[9]; 7. 00-John Heitzman[2]; 8. 20H-Reuben Haslett[1]; 9. 77-Tim Siner[10]; 10. 40-Jace Sparks[6]
Group Qualifying

57M-Mark McMahill, 00:12.867[4]; 2. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:13.007[12]; 3. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:13.008[1]; 4. 18-Tyler Roth, 00:13.095[5]; 5. 40-Jace Sparks, 00:13.212[17]; 6. 19E-Daltyn England, 00:13.247[15]; 7. 51X-Greg Ross, 00:13.271[10]; 8. 05-Alex Midkiff, 00:13.296[2]; 9. 51-Charles Rufi, 00:13.301[9]; 10. 63-Cale Coons, 00:13.338[7]; 11. 11K-Charles Kunz, 00:13.428[19]; 12. 42-Kevin Battefeld, 00:13.534[11]; 13. 00-John Heitzman, 00:13.611[20]; 14. 5-Jacob Sollenberger, 00:13.727[18]; 15. 20H-Reuben Haslett, 00:13.783[6]; 16. 9-Keith Wilson, 00:13.913[16]; 17. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:13.999[8]; 18. 12C-Dominic Bruns, 00:14.032[14]; 19. (DNS) 77-Tim Siner, 00:14.316; 20. (DNS) 55-Chuck Walker, 00:14.316

[RMR3]

Sorry, did not mean to duplicate.

[RMR3]

For those that missed it, this was a great night of racing for MARA. The series is only in its second season back and we were able to bring 20 cars away from our home track. The feature was great to watch. Several cars in the hunt. Roth looked like he would score his first win until the late caution. He will get his soon for sure. Coons made the move of the night with that slide job to pass Roth coming off of turn four. The crowd cheered pretty favorably paying him off for his efforts. Hope to see some IOW fans at some MARA races the rest of the year!