2-time Firecracker 100 runner-up wins Thursday night feature at Lernerville

Mike Marlar has been close to winning the Saturday finale of the Firecracker 100 with a pair of runner-up finishes.

On Thursday night, the Winfield, Tenn. native set himself up well to try to get his first 100-lapper Saturday by scoring his first preliminary win at Lernerville Speedway.

Marlar passed pole sitter Ashton Winger on lap four and led the rest of the way to score the 30-lap $6,000-to-win Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series preliminary feature during the 16th annual Firecracker 100 weekend at Lernerville Speedway in Buffalo Township.

“You just use this night to build off of,” Marlar said. “We know we’re good enough to win a 30-lap race here, but we’re still going to have to do a little work to get it good enough for 100 laps. We’re pretty close out of the box, which is good, because if you’re too far off right away, it’s pretty hard to get reeled back in.”

It was the first Lucas Series race in Lernerville history after the previous 15 Firecracker 100s were sanctioned by the World of Outlaws.

The win will likely give Marlar a premium starting spot in a heat race for Saturday’s finale.

He held off challenges from defending Firecracker 100 winner Brandon Overton and Earl Pearson Jr. before pulling away from both.

“I just figured out what my car needed there and overcame a couple issues I was having to get them off my back,” Marlar said. “It’s really tough competition, so you can’t mess around too long out there or they will pass you. It was definitely an awesome racetrack. You could use the top, middle or bottom. Lernerville always provides an awesome racetrack.”

Overton settled for second, Pearson was third, Brandon Sheppard placed fourth, and Tyler Erb rounded out the top five. Michael Norris was the top local finisher in 13th.

Norris recovered from a poor qualifying effort, moving from eighth to third in his heat race to transfer into the main event.

Overton was pleased with his effort for the start of his title defense.

“We definitely put ourselves in a good position,” Overton said. “We could move around, and my car felt good in the middle of the track. We’ll keep working on it and see what we got.”

The feature had one caution and a red flag for Chub Frank after a wild flip on lap eight. Frank, 60, was OK.

There were 54 Lucas entries, which were split into two groups. Fayetteville, N.C. native Dalton Wilson set fast time in group 1 at 15.291 and was fastest overall. Winfield, Tenn. native Mike Marlar was fastest in group 2, stopping the clock at 15.346.

Winger passed Wilson on lap 2 and went on to win the first of six heat races. Pearson, Jr. and Frank collided racing for the lead on lap 3 of heat two, but both kept going and Pearson went on to win.

Overton took heat three. Marlar topped Sheppard and Drake Troutman in heat four. Erb led wire to wire in heat five

Sarver native John Garvin Jr. thrilled the local fans by holding off Scott Blomquist and Ricky Thornton Jr. to win heat six. Garvin returned to late model racing this year for the first time since 2013. He had raced sprint cars the last few years.

Wilson, Matt Lux and Daryl Charlier won the Lucas B mains.

The Rush crate late models qualified to set heat races for the Bill Emig Memorial. Mark Whitener was fast time in group A and Amanda Robinson topped group B. There are 56 Rush entries.

There are four former Firecracker 100 champions in the field: Bloomquist, the lone three-time champ (2009, ’12, ’16), Overton, a two-time champ (2017, ’21), Rick Eckert (2015) and Tim McCreadie (2019).