The first night of on-track action for the 2023 Chilly Willy at Tucson Speedway has come to close.
Three divisions took center stage on Friday evening. Two 50-lap Super Late Model features headlined the night’s festivities alongside the Legends, Legends / Pro & Masters and Pro Stock races.
RELATED: Watch the 2023 Chilly Willy live on FloRacing
Opening night helped set the stage for what is expected to be a busy Chilly Willy weekend at Tucson, which will culminate into the 150-lap Super Late Model feature on Sunday afternoon.
Below are the takeaways from the first night of racing at Tucson.
- Defending Chilly Willy champion Preston Peltier picked up from where he left off in 2022 by dominating the first Super Late Model race from the pole. The two-time race winner set the best overall time earlier in the day with a 15.051, besting Brandon Farrington by 0.094 seconds.
- Brett Yackey finished second to Peltier in the first Super Late Model race. Jimmy Parker Jr., former NASCAR Xfinity Series competitor Kody Vanderwal and Kasey Kleyn completed the top-five.
- Farrington was denied a shot at a victory as well on night one after he was passed late by Eddie Vecchiarelli in the second Super Late Model feature. Vecchiarelli is set to make his third Chilly Willy start after finishing third in last year’s event.
- Sean Hingorani, who is set to compete full time in ARCA Menards Series East this year with Venturini Motorsports, finished third in the second Super Late Model race. Rounding out the top-five were Kole Ran and Tristan Swanson.
- ARCA Menards Series West competitor Tyler Reif put together a dominant performance to win the Legends Pro Masters feature. Jake Bollman was second, followed by Brenden Ruzbarsky, Cody Brown and Brandon Giannini.
- In the Legends division, Gavin Ray took the checkered flag ahead of Dylan Wolf by more than half a second. Andrew Riehl, T.J. Roberts and Tessa Marine made up the rest of the top five finishers.
- A five car Pro Stock race saw Barry Levitt prevail in a thrilling battle with Richard Dorman, who spun coming to the checkered flag and settled for third behind Larry Leetch.
The on-track action for the Chilly Willy continues Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. ET/1 p.m. MT on FloRacing.