Chase Pinsonneault Fends Off Seth Christensen for Motor City 125 Win

Chase Pinsonneault returned to victory lane at Flat Rock Speedway on Saturday night, but it wasn't without a fight.

One year ago, Pinsonneault won the Turn One CRA Pro Series event at the Michigan quarter-mile. The Canadian driver made it back-to-back wins in the Motor City 125 on Saturday, although late restarts added some suspense to the repeat bid.

With those late cautions, Seth Christensen moved into contention, applying pressure to Pinsonneault. However, Pinsonneault was mistake-free in the closing laps to secure the victory.

"Once everything got hot there at the end, I thought we were in a little bit of trouble," admitted Pinsonneault in victory lane. "The crew gave me an absolutely badass car. It just got better as the run went on, super proud of everybody at CHR. We've been putting in a lot of work, so I'm super thankful to be a part of CHR.

"Thankful to do it with Turn One as a new sponsor. I'm just super-happy to be here. It takes a lot to come to the racetrack, a lot of sacrifices for a lot of people. Happy to be back in victory lane two years in a row."

Christensen is a familiar name for Pro Late Model fans from the Southeastern United States, but has not been shy about traveling in recent years. His first visit to Flat Rock Speedway nearly resulted in a win.

On the late restarts, Christensen opted to line up behind Pinsonneault on the inside line rather than as the first car on the outside line. The Georgia driver believed that was his best shot to contend for the win.

"I knew if I was going to start on top, it wasn't going to work out," said Christensen. "The previous restart, a couple of times, I chose the outside of front row, I chose the outside of the front row and fell back to fifth or sixth or something like that. I knew we weren't going to be able to hang with them up there.

"It was a blast. I love this place. We unloaded, and I looked at it and I was like, there's no way. First practice, we sat top of the board, P1. We had really good sped, and it carried over to the race with the right adjustments."

While it was a pair of young guns battling for the win, veteran Michael Simko rounded out the podium with a third-place finish. Simko rebounded from a 10th-place effort in qualifying, patiently working his way forward on the tight and treacherous Flat Rock Speedway for his best career finish with the Turn One CRA Pro Series.

"We knew we were better than our qualifying effort. I don't know what happened. The car was never that free all day in practice, so qualifying, per usual, was terrible. I just picked them off one at a time. Very clean race car for a Flat Rock 125-lapper. That's probably the most proud thing."

Albert Francis finished fourth, with Guy Fire rounding out the top five. Fire's fifth-place finish improves on his career-best result with the Turn One CRA Pro Series, previously a sixth-place result one year ago at Flat Rock.

Saturday's win marks Pinsonneault's fourth career win in the CRA Pro Series. Along with his back-to-back wins at Flat Rock, he has a pair of wins at Owosso Speedway in the 2024 Big O Classic and the 2025 Owosso Nationals.

Up next for the Turn One CRA Pro Series is the Motor Mountain Masters 150 at Jennerstown Speedway. That event is scheduled for Saturday, June 27.

-Photo credit: Champion Racing Association

Motor City 125 Unofficial Results