Brent Marks Gets First Win With High Limit Racing; Second of 2024

Justin Peck, Brent Marks and Brad Sweet in Victory Lane after competing with High Limit Racing at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois (Photo: High Limit Racing Media)

GRANITE CITY, Ill. — The High Limit Racing sprint cars traveled to Tri-City Speedway on Saturday night to compete in an exciting 30-lap main event.

Justin Peck and Hunter Schuerenberg led the field to the starting line and, as soon as the green flag waved, Peck jumped out in front of everyone else and put a lengthy gap between himself and Schuerenberg, who had maintained second as they shot out of Turn 2.

With 20 laps to go, two cars got turned around on the track, bringing out a caution. This was exactly what the other drivers needed if they wanted to get by Peck and Schuerenberg for those coveted top spots.

On the restart, Peck shot out to the lead again, but instead of Schuerenberg cruising in second, James McFadden charged forward and gave him a run for his money. Coming out of Turn 2, McFadden was wheel-to-wheel with Schuerenberg, but down the back straightaway, Schuerenberg was faster and maintained second. Schuerenberg’s luck changed as they entered the next turn and McFadden went high, blasting past him to claim the position.

Schuerenberg’s challenges were far from over as Cory Eliason made his presence known to the driver in third. However, both drivers had another problem in the form of Brent Marks. Marks was coming for the two of them with no hesitation, and he succeeded at overtaking both Schuerenberg and Eliason at the end of Lap 11. Coming off of Turn 4, Marks went low and passed Eliason for fourth. Then, as he raced down the front stretch, he passed Schuerenberg for third, holding that spot at the line.

With Marks ahead of Eliason and Schuerenberg, this left the two of them to tango. Eliason got by Schuerenberg for fourth but felt the pressure from Brad Sweet, as he was moving up the ranks as well. 

With 13 laps to go, Peck ran into lapped traffic. This proved to be a problem for both Peck and McFadden as Marks was right on their heels. Coming off of Turn 4, McFadden lost second to Marks and as they came out of Turn 2, Marks passed Peck for the lead.

Brent Marks competing with High Limit Racing at Tri-City Speedway (Photo: McIntyre Photography)

While the lead changed hands, Sweet moved his way up into third and also overtook McFadden. Two laps later, Sweet passed Peck going into Turn 2 for second place.

On Lap 22, Brenham Crouch tagged the wall going into the infamous second turn and Tanner Thorson, having nowhere to go, crashed into him and was pushed onto his back wheels looking up into the night sky. 

“[This] sucks, man,” said Thorson about his crash. “We tore up a really good race car and I think that this thing is probably junk [now].”

Starting single-file, Marks took off ahead of Sweet and put at least four car-lengths between himself and the former World of Outlaws champion. As the field raced down the back chute, Rico Abreu stuck his nose into the top few positions and attempted to pass McFadden to no avail.

The last five laps proved to be very interesting as McFadden hit the wall due to a flat right rear. But instead of going into the pits after losing multiple spots, he decided to keep it under power and continue running around the racetrack with that flat tire. As Marks raced down the front straightaway, he tagged the wall, giving Sweet a little bit of hope for some progress.

Finally, McFadden’s tire was tired of being dragged around the racing surface and decided to explode on Lap 28, bringing out a caution while McFadden limped to the infield. As this was happening though, Marks tagged the wall yet again as he came off of Turn 4. Being in the lead though, Marks opted to remain on the track and run out the two remaining laps, even with an injured car.

It was a good thing Marks chose to do that because he ended up having no problems on the restart and went on to win his first race with High Limit Racing. Sweet, Peck, Abreu and Tyler Courtney rounded out the top five.

Besides winning for the first time with High Limit Racing, Marks was also the second Durst Dice-Roll winner of the year, splitting $5,000 with a very lucky fan.

The High Limit Racing series travels to Kokomo Speedway in Indiana on Monday for another installment of their “Mid-Week Money Series”.