Jack Ely Outduels Matt Hirschman for May Flowers 75 Win at Chemung

Jack Ely earned some redemption on Saturday night, winning the May Flowers 75 for the Race of Champions Modified Series at Chemung Speedrome.

In the series opener at Mahoning Valley Speedway, Ely's race ended with 15 laps to go against the outside wall in turn two. The efforts to repair his car from that incident paid off on Saturday, as Ely passed Matt Hirschman on lap 55 and led the rest of the way for the victory.

"We haven't had a car this good here before, so it was nice redemption to come back after the mishap in the first race of the year to be able to park it in victory lane," said Ely in victory lane. "It was a lot of long nights in the shop to get it back together.

"It was a really long day today. If people knew what all we went through today. We had the rack out, we changed brake calipers. We did more work on this car today than I'd like to do all week, but it turned out for the best."

Ely took the lead just after halfway, but lost the top spot to Hirschman on a restart on lap 43. However, Ely patiently waited and chased Hirschman back down, passing him with 20 laps to go.

"I knew the inside was going to be a little tricky off of four on the restarts," said Ely. "When he got by me, I knew I just had to get back in a rhythm and hopefully wait for his car to start to fall off a little bit.

"Probably about four laps before I passed him, I saw him wiggle a little bit. I figured if I was gonna go, I had to go. We didn't fall off at all, so it was great."

Austin Beers passed Hirschman with seven laps remaining in the 75-lap race to finish second. That gives Beers a win and a runner-up effort in the first two RoC events after winning the Bunny Hop 75 at Mahoning Valley.

"We were in the shop until about midnight, working on that thing," said Beers. "He did a hell of a job. Obviously, when you pass Matt for a win, that's something special. You know, we worked really hard on both of these cars since Mahoning. To come out here with a second, I didn't know how this was going to be tonight. You know, third time here with this car.

"I would have liked to see a yellow. Maybe we could have scrapped made my mom take some heart pills after having to watch us. It was definitely a fun race."

Hirschman settled for a third-place finish. "Big Money" is an eight-time RoC winner at Chemung, but has only been able to race once at the track since the start of the 2023 season.

"It was a good, hard race," said Hirschman. "I was able to get ahead of him on that restart. I just didn't have enough to hold him off. He ran a real good race, he had a real good car. He could really roll the center and then get a good, straight launch up off where I had to use a little more racetrack. Better car won tonight.

"I don't want to sound like an excuse, but I really haven't raced here much in recent years. Last year, we got wrecked out on lap three and the year before, I broke my arm and missed the August race. I wasn't here in August last year either because of a conflict. I'm a little behind on these guys, I used to really do well at this place. We won a lot of races here at one time, but not so much recently. We've got some work to do."

Jayden Harman finished fourth, with Bryce Bailey rounding out the top five.

The Race of Champions Modified Series' next stop is Spencer Speedway on Friday, May 23. The Memorial Day weekend event is a special one on the RoC calendar, the Tribute to Tommy Druar and Tony Jankowiak 110.

-Photo credit: MoJo Photos/Race of Champions

May Flowers 75 Unofficial Results