Mike Lichty Wins Second Straight Fast 40 at Sandusky

Mike Lichty started his Hy-Miler weekend with a win in the Fast 40 on Friday night at Sandusky Speedway, his second straight win in the ISMA/MSS Supermodified Series event.

Lichty held off fellow Ontario native Mark Sammut for the victory in the 40-lap event, the precursor to Saturday's 100-lap marquee Supermodified event at the Ohio facility.

Lichty knew he'd have a fast car for Friday's feature, and hopes that translates to Saturday's Hy-Miler Nationals.

"The car was good," said Lichty. "Primarily, we don't have the greatest speed throughout the day here. Come feature time, I know it's always good."

He dedicated the win to the memory of Sammut's father, Tony Sammut.

"Racing with Mark's always great," said Lichty. "I didn't want to steal the win from him. I think we're all going to dedicate this to this father, Tony. We lost him about a week and a half ago, so I feel terrible for the family. Tony was such a great guy. I know he's up there and he was cheering Mark on, but this is dedication for him."

While Lichty was excited to win Friday's Fast 40 for the second year in a row, he hopes to score his first Hy-Miler Nationals win on Saturday. With six top-five finishes in his last seven starts in the race, including four runner-up finishes in that stretch, he badly wants to claim the elusive victory.

"Tomorrow's the one I want. We've had like five seconds, so that's the money one.

"It's kind of no different than last year on the 40-lapper. The longer we went, the better the car got. Last year, we kind of missed it. After about 60 laps, the car started failing. We'll make some fine-tune adjustments and see what tomorrow brings."

Sammut tipped his cap to Licthy, acknowledging the faster car won on Friday night.

"He was definitely a little better than we were. Maybe if that went green, we might have been able to hold him off, but that's not the way it went. You've got to hand it to him. He had a better car than we did, and he got me on the restart twice."

The 2010 winner of the Hy-Miler Nationals, Sammut hopes to score a second win in the event on Saturday.

"I don't know if it's the car or what it is, but we always seem to run pretty good here," said Sammut. "We've only won it once, but that's one more than some people. Hopefully, we'll get it going a little better tomorrow and we'll have a shot at it."

Tyler Shullick rounded out the podium in Friday's race.

"We really snuck up on it tonight," said Shullick. "I think we've got a little bit of room to improve and that's all we need. I think, in 100 laps, we'll be two spots better."

Fans can watch Saturday's Hy-Miler Nationals on RacingAmerica.TV. Click here to subscribe and watch the marquee Supermodified event live from Sandusky Speedway.

Fast 40 Unofficial Results