The season is about halfway done at Merced Speedway, but the IMCA Modified championship battle is heating up with the weather.  The popular division headlines this Saturday night's show along with IMCA Sport Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and the Valley Sportsman division.

Antioch's John MacDougall was a Top 5 driver at his own track last season, but when he won an IMCA Modified Main Event early in the season at Merced, he decided to start racing for points.  MacDougall has been consistent so far this season, and he finds himself leading IMCA State point leader Alex Wilson of Salinas by four points.  Atwater's Bill Egleston is only 13 points out of the lead.

While neither Egleston nor Wilson has won a feature so far this year, Alex's brother Kyle Wilson has two feature wins and was second at the County Fair race last week.  Merced's Karl Rose won that race for his first win of the season, but Mariposa's Ricky Thatcher probably should have won.  Thatcher made a mistake exciting Turn 2 and fell back to third at the finish.  Thatcher has a two point lead over Bob Williamson in the battle for fourth in points.

Josh Hensley of Atwater holds a commanding lead in the track's IMCA Sport Mod championship battle, and he is coming off of an impressive win at Chowchilla last Saturday.  The battle is now for second, and Merced's Dwayne Short holds down that position by a comfortable margin at this point.  With his Top 3 finish last Wednesday in the County Fair Race, Jeremy Hoff of Copperopolis has moved back into the Top 5 in the standings.

Mark Odgers of Mariposa isn't far behind Hoff and trails by just 16 points.  This division has seen several drivers make their debuts in recent weeks, including Nick Tucker of Hilmar and Chase Thomas of Atwater.  When 2014 champion Rick Diaz of Los Banos shows, he is a front runner.  He won the race last Wednesday for what was his third win of the season.

Sonora's Kevin Joaquin and Kristie Shearer of Los Banos each have more than one feature win this year from a list of an impressive ten different Hobby Stock winners.  Shearer has won the last two and is a three time winner, while point leader Joaquin has two wins and five seconds for a big point lead.  In fact, rookie Jennifer Corder of Modesto is a solid second at this stage of the season, leaving the battle for third.

One time winner Shannon Nelson has just a one point lead over Shearer in the battle for third, and both have been running strong lately.  Either one of these ladies are a threat to win when they show up.  Still looking for their first Merced wins are Dexter Long of Merced and George Silva, also of Merced.  However, Silva did win last week's Main Event at Chowchilla Speedway.  The Hobby Stocks have been competitive all season long, and you never know who will win next.

Mike Palmberg says we should have a half dozen Sportsman cars as drivers have been working to get their cars back to the track.  Marcus Lung leads Jeff Bristow by 30 in the point race with Kenny Birdsong 36 points behind Bristow.  All four of these drives are anticipated for Saturday, and you never know who else might show up next.

Merced Speedway Top 5 At A Glance

IMCA Modified

John Macdougall     290
Alex Wilson         286
Bill Egleston         277
Ricky Thatcher         233
Bob Williamson         231

IMCA Sport Mod

Josh Hensley         437
Dwayne Short         319
Keith Brown Jr.     271
Jeremy Hoff         268
Fred Ryland         264

Hobby Stock

Kevin Joaquin         534
Jennifer Corder     402
Shannon Nelson         312
Kristie Shearer     311
Dexter Long         264

Valley Sportsman

Marcus Lung         216
Jeff Bristow         186
Kenny Birdsong         150
Eric Sealy         112
Mike Palmberg         100