BROWNSTOWN
Tim McCreadie went to victory lane at Brownstown Speedway on Saturday night, capturing his second Jackson 100 and first since 2008.
McCreadie, 46, of Watertown, New York, took the lead on Lap 15 and held it the rest of the way for his second win in the last three Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races.
The 41st annual event drew 60 late models, the largest Jackson 100 field since 2006.
Jonathan Davenport chased McCreadie to the checkers to finish second. Tanner English came from the 11th starting spot to finish third. Completing the top five were Zack Dohm and Earl Pearson Jr.
Davenport led the first 14 laps of the 100-lap event until yielding to McCreadie. McCreadie then survived several restarts to pick up his second career win in the track’s most prestigious event that began in 1980.
McCreadie’s seventh LOLMDS win of the season.
“When I first came here, we won the first time out the gate,” McCreadie said. “I thought, ‘Man, I love this place. This is a lot of fun.’ I was thinking 12 years later, it hasn’t been a lot of fun for 11 of them, but 12’s pretty cool, that’s for sure.”
He was fatigued at the end.
“I am wore out,” McCreadie said. “This is probably the hardest I have worked for anything. I saw 49 on the board, and I thought to myself, ‘Don’t hold off one lap because he will make you pay.’ I thought (Davenport) was getting close, so I just moved down the track a little bit.”
Davenport, like McCreadie, was looking for his second win in the event that paid $15,000 to the winner. He finished 2.455 seconds behind McCreadie.
“We had a good car tonight, just not good enough,” Davenport said. “I think we were pretty close. Congratulations to McCreadie on the win. I think he has been in my trailer as much as he has been in his. Whenever I find something, I try to help him out, and he does the same for me. I was just probably one lap too late in moving up there in the beginning.”
English earned another podium finish at one of his favorite tracks.
“We definitely had a fast car at the end,” he said. “It seemed like every time after a caution, we would pass two or three cars and then kind of even out at the end. Everybody seemed to start fading at the end, and I started to gain on them, picking them off one by one. I had one of the best cars I have had all year.”
Completing the top 10 were Mike Marlar, Tyler Erb, Chris Ferguson, Devin Moran and Ricky Thornton Jr.
On Friday night, Josh Richards held off a late rally from Ricky Thornton Jr. in the Bowman 50 as part of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Night Before the Jackson 100 event. That carried a $10,000 prize.
Richards, the 2017 LOLMDS national champion, was the fourth different leader of the race when he took the top spot on Lap 14. He held the lead the rest of the way despite Thornton’s furious charge.
Earl Pearson Jr. crossed the line third, followed by Davenport and Dohm. Moran and new Brownstown Hall of Famer Billy Moyer each led two laps early.
In Lucas Oil victory lane for the 31st time in his career and for the third time this season, Richards came from the seventh starting spot.
“Coming here in the past, we didn’t really have a good package,” Richards said. “I have never really ran real stellar here. We have worked hard on the car the last couple weeks. I have the best team in the business, and my guys have been awesome.”
Thornton, who keeps getting closer to a first career win in the Lucas Oil series, said there was good racing.
“To race as hard as we did and we never touched once, it’s pretty awesome,” he said.
Pearson started sixth and finished third. He was followed by Tyler Erb, Bobby Pierce, McCreadie, Moran and English.