Todd Rose | Daily Press Terry Royer leads Kevin Lustila (02), Charlie Peterson (29), Jamie Iverson (1) and David Broeders (9) in the opening laps of the Miller Pipeline Vintage Modified feature race last Saturday during the Art Richer Memorial at the Upper Peninsula International Raceway in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — The Upper Peninsula International Raceway kicks off Fourth of July weekend Friday evening with the UPIR Salute to Veterans presented by Sayklly’s Candies in Escanaba.

Last week, however, the track paid tribute to one of the legends of local racing with the annual Art Richer Memorial.

The night saw an impressive feat from Jamie Iverson (Escanaba) as he swept all four of the races he competed in with a heat and feature victory in the Miller Pipeline Vintage Modifieds and the Bink’s Coca-Cola Sport Modifieds.

“It’s cool to win the Art Richer Memorial,” Iverson commented. “We’re good friends with the Richers, and I had never won one of them. So, it’ll be a nice trophy to put in the trophy case.”

Not only was it a first for Iverson in his storied racing career, it was redemption from the opening week of racing when a solo spin took him out of the lead and contention for a win.

“I’ve had a couple clean sweeps with fast times, heats and features but never won that many times in a night,” Iverson said.

“After I messed up the last time I was racing and spun put on my own in the lead, I had to kind of make amends on that and prove that ain’t what I do,” he chuckled.

Terry Royer and Charles Peterson (Rapid River) finished second and third in the vintage class, while Matt Valiquette (Rapid River) and Lonnie Dalgord (Escanaba) followed Iverson in the sport modifieds.

To help celebrate the Art Richer Memorial, the group of Darrin Allard, Jeff Allard, Jim Straseski, Ralph Pulver and Matt Schellinger made the trip up from the Milwaukee area as they have for the past several years.

The first feature race of the night, as usual, belonged to the Riverside Auto Group Youth Micro Sprints. It also ended up being, arguably, the best race of the night.

Following his win in the B Feature, Tanner Rae (Escanaba) worked his way through the field from the ninth starting spot to take the lead from Kaleb Warm (Escanaba).

In lapped traffic, though, Warm took the spot back in the late laps of the feature.

A battle between Warm, Rae, Cole Constantino, Griffin Iverson (Escanaba) and Bentley Richer (Escanaba) at the front half of the field kept fans entertained for the majority of the race.

A late-race yellow for Bentley Richer coming to a stop due to a mechanical issue set up a green, white, checkered finish.

Rae got the jump on the field, but Warm was soon hot on his tail. Coming out of the second corner on the final lap, Warm lunged to the outside with momentum on his side.

He gained an advantage through turns three and four, but Rae stayed tight on him in an attempt to hold off the charging number 19.

At the line, Warm edged out Rae by just a few feet to earn the win. Behind the pair in third place was Cole Constantino.

Heading into the final restart, there was one goal on Warm’s mind.

“Pedal to the metal the whole time,” Warm said.

With his foot firmly planted in the floorboards and the checkered flag waving, Warm thought to himself, “I think that I just won.”

“It felt good,” Warm said to sum up his feelings about the win.

The other two sprint classes followed with their features after intermission.

In the Don’s HVAC Sportsman, it was Carson Artley (Escanaba) taking the win over Tyler Demars (Green Bay, Wis.) and Ethan Manninen (Cornell).

Dennis Ness (Gladstone) held off stepson Kevin Warm (Escanaba) in the EMP 600 Micro feature after a hard-fought battle between the two. Logan Getzloff (Wilson) followed in third.

Scott Degnan (Escanaba) survived a late-race restart to win the JD Machine Super Modified feature ahead of Jesse Denome (Escanaba) and Clayton Peterson (Rapid River).

A tough break for young Gunnar Hansen (Ogantz) gave the lead to Degnan midway through the race. Hansen held the lead for much of the opening section of the race but fell out as he was leaking fluid.

Former track champion Paul Wagner (Gladstone) earned the Five Corners Market Street Stock feature to return to the UPIR victory lane for the first time in 2022. Behind him in second was Brendan Lambert (Escanaba) earning his best career finish at UPIR, with Neil Aaberg (Escanaba) in third.

Tom Waselesky (Harvey) copped his first feature win of the season as he defends his title of Island Resort Sport Compact Champion. Zach Gazda (Vulcan) and Garrett Greenfield (Escanaba) rounded out the top three.

Green flag is set for 7:00 p.m. eastern Friday evening for UPIR’s Salute to Veterans presented by Sayklly’s Candies.