Story By: BEN SHELTON / MIKE MARLAR RACING – WINFIELD, TN – Mike Marlar collected his fourth victory of the 2023 season on Tuesday evening with a $10,000 Ultimate Heart of America Series victory at Tennessee’s Clarksville Speedway aboard his Delk Equipment Sales / Petroff Towing No. 157 Can-Am Auto Salvage / Mesilla Valley Transportation / Longhorn Race Car / Clements Racing Engine Super Late Model.
“The car was good there on Tuesday night at Clarksville (Speedway) and the cautions played out nice for me. I hadn’t been there in several years, so it was nice to get the win,” Marlar said in Victory Lane. “We had a pretty good car on Wednesday night in the Castrol (FloRacing Night in America) race at Florence Speedway, but we had a mechanical failure that knocked us out of the race. Just one of those deals. We’re regrouping now and getting ready for the Dream at Eldora Speedway next week. Thank you as always to everyone who supports our race team.”
Kicking off the three-day Memorial Day weekend with the World of Outlaws (WoO) Case Late Model Series, Mike Marlar traveled to Sharon Speedway (Hartford, Ohio) on Thursday evening for the opening round of the Battle at the Border.
With 40 cars entered, Mike laid down a 16.866-second lap in time trials to capture the Simpson Quick Time Award before placing first in his heat. Rolling off third for Thursday’s $6,000-to-win prelim, Marlar made a late charge in the 25-lapper to record a third-place finish. He chased race-long pacesetter Chris Madden and Bobby Pierce to the checkers.
For another round of prelims on Friday, Marlar followed up the sixth-fastest lap in his time trial group with a second-place finish in his heat. With $6,000 on the line in the feature, Mike steered forward four positions to finish fourth.
On Saturday, Mike locked his spot into the $25,000-to-win Border at the Battle finale with a runner-up run in his heat race. Working his way into the Top 5 late, Marlar grabbed fifth from Gregg Satterlee on lap 43 and went onto place fifth. He followed Chris Madden, Tanner English, Bobby Pierce, and Brian Shirley across the line.
Tuesday found the team competing with the Ultimate Heart of America Series at Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway. Pulling off a clean sweep of the program, Marlar followed up the fast time honors with a heat and feature victory. He led all 50 laps en route to his fourth win of the season and a $10,000 payday.
The busy stretch of racing drew to a close on Wednesday evening at Florence Speedway (Walton, Ky.) with the seventh round of the Castrol FloRacing Night in America campaign. Thirty-two Super Late Models entered the program, and Mike started the night with fast time in his heat race followed by a second-place finish in his heat race. Starting the feature in fifth, a mechanical failure knocked Marlar out of the main event on the 32nd lap while running sixth. He was credited with a 17th-place finish.
Mike is currently eighth in the latest miniseries standings.
The Delk Equipment team will be idle this weekend before invading Eldora Speedway (Rossburg, Ohio) on June 8 – 10 with the 29th running of the Dirt Late Model Dream. The field will be divided into twin $12,000-to-win programs on Thursday and Friday with Saturday’s finale being headlined by a $129,000-to-win feature.