Red Light Racing S14 Phoenix

Skitter Creek SK Modifieds
Season 14 Race 1
Phoenix Raceway

May 22, 2025
by Tim Corder

The first race of season 14 for Red Light Racing’s Skitter Creek SK Modified series was an event with some rare occurrences. First, it wasn’t an SK Modifieds race. The drivers instead got a chance to climb into the SK’s big brother – the Whelen Tour Modifieds. This put at their disposal 600+ horsepower compared with the normal 385 horsepower in the SKs. Another rarity – the event was held on a track 1 mile in length, that being, Phoenix Raceway, rather than the “normal” truly short tracks the series visits.

Another rarity – last season’s dominator and Champion, Eric Stout, led the most laps of the race (51) but didn’t take home the checkered flag. Fellow frequently fast driver Jeff Aho led 29 laps but also didn’t take home the win. In the end, it was the driver that led the third most laps, and series newcomer, Bill Benedict, that claimed the checkered flag. Benedict led 6 of the Green-White-Checkered extended 94 lap event. Fellow series newcomer, and the event’s pole-sitter, Eric Troutman led four laps, as did Josh Buckley.

Troutman claimed the pole with a 27.251 second qualifying lap, besting Chad Alcares by just 0.066 seconds for the pole. Stout, Brian Bianchi, and yet another series newcomer, Louis Flowers, rounded out the top five in qualifying.

Despite Stout and Aho leading 85% of the events laps, there were several entertaining battles for the lead, indeed there were quality battles throughout the field, during the course of the race. The ultimate battle for the lead reached a crescendo when Benedict and Stout were side-by-side on lap 89 after a restart. Benedict was ever so slightly ahead of Stout when the yellow came out after Josh Buckley and Chris Oliver tangled on the back stretch. Benedict chose the preferred inside line on the green-white-checker restart and held on to win as a first time driver in the series. In the end, Fred LeClair took home second after starting 12th on the field. Stout slid to 3rd to round out the podium. The rest of the top five finishers were pole-sitter Troutman, who finished fourth, and TJ Henson who gained one spot from his sixth place starting position to finish fifth.

The race was slowed by six cautions for a total of 18 laps. Fred LeClair turned the fastest lap, finishing the last lap of the race in 27.186 seconds. Only 3 of the 23 drivers finished the event without incident points. Those were: LeClair, Glenn Jamieson (finished 6th) and Adin All-Vecchione (finished 8th). Jamieson’s clean run was especially impressive as he also was the Hard Charger of the race, picking up 16 spots from his 22nd place qualifying position.

This being just the first race of the season, the top five in the run for the championship mirrors the race’s finishing order. With Stout garnering one more bonus point than LeClair did, Stout and LeClair are tied for second in the early point standings. Troutman and Jamieson are 6 and 7 points, respectively, outside of the top points position.

The second race of the season will be contested at rather circular Oxford Plains Speedway. The green flag will drop at 7:55 PM Eastern on May 29th. Catch all the action LIVE on Virtual Grip Network.