Haubstadt, IN – June 26, 2016 – Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, IL, won the Dirt Car UMP Summernationals event held at Tri-State Speedway Sunday night. In collecting the victory Pierce earned his second weekly title for the 2016 summer series. The race at Tri-State ended the Heartland Tour portion of the annual four week long Summernationals.
Pierce won 3 of this past week’s five completed features and that brings this year’s overall win total up to five.

This late model race was a classic and one that will be remembered.
The field of 23 late models took their place on the track for pace laps as the threat of rain became more and more visible. Wind gusts picked up dust in the infield and distant lightning lit up the northern sky. The green flag waved and the race was on with cars battling cars and the weather rapidly approaching. Fans were both impressed and distracted as an epic battle developed between Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard for the lead.

Brandon Sheppard had a fast car! He had won the previous night in Illinois and persisted with effort after effort to somehow win this event. He would pass Pierce only to be passed back in the next turn.
Bundled traffic ahead would force a temporary split of a few car lengths before Sheppard could find the room and power to quickly make up the distance. The two were absolutely uncanny in trading slide jobs and in overtaking and sorting out the slower traffic. Lap after lap flew by. With less than 5 laps to go rain began. The track was suddenly too wet to race on! The feature was shortened and ruled
complete with 38 laps scored. Pierce was the winner with Sheppard
finishing second. Ryan Unzicker was third after having led the first third of the event.

Timothy Culp and Michael Kloos rounded out the top five. Mike Marlar headed the second five which included Shannon Babb, Kent Robinson, Rodney Melvin, and Jason Feger. Brent Larson gained the most spots of any driver in finishing13th. The three late model heat races were won by Sheppard, Pierce, and Unzicker. The three Illinois drivers had brought their perfected short track game to Tri-State Speedway.

The UMP Summit Modifed Nationals events fell prey to the downpour.
The feature event had to be postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date. All the preliminary events were held with 41 cars competing.

Paul Miles, Mike Harrison, Trent Young, and Levi Kissinger won the heat races. Hunt Gossum won the C Main. Joel Jenson won the B Main.
The B and C were both action packed. One car hit the backstretch wall and flipped in the B. Matt Lane finished third in the C and second in the B as he worked his way into the feature line-up. A flat tire at the beginning of the 1st heat race had sent him to the pits to wait for the last chance races.

The next event scheduled at Tri-State Speedway is the Southern Indiana Sprint Car Stampede on Sunday July 3rd. The program will include the MSCS Sprints, the MOWA Winged Sprints, and the UMP Modifieds. Race time is 7:30 P.M.
SUMMARY:

“Late Model Summernationals”
Tri-State Speedway
Haubstadt, IN
June 26, 2016

DIRT CAR UMP LATE MODELS:
(23 Entries)

First Heat – Brandon Sheppard, Timothy Culp, Rodney Melvin, Kent Robinson

Second Heat – Bobby Pierce, Mike Marlar, Shannon Babb, Jason Feger

Third Heat – Ryan Unzicker, Michael Kloos, Bob Gardner, Jeremy Sneed

Feature ( ) – Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, Ryan Unzicker, Timothy Culp, Michael Kloos, Mike Marlar, Shannon Babb, Kent Robinson, Rodney Melvin, Jason Feger, Chad Zobrist, Bob Gardner, Brent Larson, Gordy Gundaker, Jeremy Sneed, Chris Cowling, Tanner English, Caleb Ashby, Dustin Nobbe, Tom Collini, Jarryd Holhouser, Richard Frost, Brent McKinnon

UMP Open Wheel Modifieds
(41 Entries)

Overall Fastest Qualifier – Paul Miles, 15.477 seconds

First Heat – Paul Miles, Nick Hoffman, Willie Madison, Shawn Cates

Second Heat – Mike Harrison, Stephen Schnapf, Dustin Beck, Tyler Nicely

Third Heat – Trent Young, Clay Lane, Kenny Wallace, Ray Walsh

Fourth Heat – Levi Kissinger, Josh Harris, Dave Baldwin, Josh McPherson

B Main – Joel Jenson, Matt Lane, Brian Shaw, Matt Hines

C Main – Hunt Gossum, Mark Cole, Matt Lane, Wes Harms

Feature ( ) – Rained Out (To be rescheduled at a later date)