By BZ

(Macon, IL) Tim Hancock, Sr. has been dominating the scene in the Neal Tire & Auto Pro Modified class for the the last few years and now he has been entering his Pro Modified in the BillingsleyRewards.com Modified class and racing double duty for the last two seasons. Hancock has been able to score top five finishes in that car during those races and even captured the checkered flag in surprising twists. Many race fans and drivers have figured out that he’s just a great driver who takes advantage of opportunity. Saturday night during the final month of the 2019 season, Hancock pulled the double duty feat again and scored two checkered flags because of it.

Starting on the pole position of both features, Hancock steered his 0 machine through the turns and avoided contact as best he could as well as the lapped traffic. During the Neal Tire & Auto Pro Modified feature, Rob Timmons was primed to take a solid lock on the lead but lapped traffic changed those events as Timmons bounced off the lapped car and towards the concrete wall and that allowed Hancock the advantage to grab the lead and stay ahead of Timmons, who was puffing smoke for the duration of the race. From midway on, Hancock reigned supreme.

With Hancock finishing the Pro Modified feature, a race between his next adventure allowed him to refuel and just rest up. He made no changes to the racecar and just trusted himself and his car to keep him out of trouble. Little did he know that it was also putting him in victory lane. Gliding ahead of Rodney Standerfer and Alan Crowder, Hancock used his bottom groove to pull ahead and through and while incidents were going on behind him, Hancock stayed the course and locked up the double checkered flag.

Few drivers have scored two feature wins on the same night. Most recently, Kyle Logue in the Late Models and Modifieds and Mike Pickering in the Sportsman and Street Stocks but those wins are few and far between. Hancock continues to re-write the record books when he comes to Macon Speedway.

Nick Macklin got help from lapped traffic to win the Archer’s Alley Street Stock feature event. Rudy Zaragoza was fast but was slowed down coming toward the final straightaway to the flags and that allowed Macklin to put the pedal to the floor and speed by for the feature win.

Trevin Littleton was well behind Riley Goodno during the Micro Sprint feature race but a caution midway through the action allowed Littleton to close the gap and then pull ahead with the restart. Goodno could not close the distance between him and Littleton and the Jacksonville driver scored another feature win.

Aaron Heck has had a successful season in the Pro Late Model class. The Mt. Vernon driver hasn’t faired well in Macon, however, but things changed Saturday night when he stormed by Roben Huffman and kept his distance from Blaze Burwell to lock up the Decatur Building Trades Pro Late Model feature. With the win, he believes to have also locked up the UMP National Championship for the division. Heck was very excited with screams from the car after the race and into the postrace interview.

Dennis Vandermeersch blew by the group in the Sportsman division as he got another feature win. Vandermeersch led all 15 laps en route to the win.

The evening was capped off with the annual Hornet World Championship race, a 20-lap race for $300-to-win. Clinton’s Erik Vanapeldoorn started third and thanks to some bumping between leader Matt Mackey and second place car Brady Reed, Vanapeldoorn moved up and took off with the lead. Mackey tried to get back into it but was not able to regain the lead.

The evening’s action was sponsored by Skeff Distributing as well as the Taylorville Chamber of Commerce and businesses from Taylorville such as the Funky Monkey Bar, Taylorville Tire & Auto, Palomino Club, Rosati’s Pizza and NCP Speed & Machine.

The evening also housed the Spectator Races in which four drivers participated in racing their personal cars around the 1/5th mile track. Jim Eades from Clinton won two one-lap races to win the trophy for the night.

Macon Speedway returns next Saturday with its final visit from the POWRi Midgets & Micro Sprints in the POWRi Fall Nationals event. Neal Tire & Auto Pro Modifieds will be part of the action as will the Street Stocks in the 5th Annual John Osman Memorial race with $2,000-to-win and $100-to-start.

Neal Tire & Auto Pro Modifieds–1. Tim Hancock, Sr. (Mt. Olive), 2. Rob Timmons (Centralia), 3. Billy Knebel (Pocahontas), 4. Nick Justice (Decatur), 5. Tim Hancock, Jr. (Mt. Olive), 6. Tim Riech (Petersburg), 7. Roby MaGee (Springfield), 8. Greg Logue (Warrensburg), 9. Brady Lynch (Hillsboro), 10. Brian Offer (Springfield)

BillingsleyRewards.com Modifieds–1. Tim Hancock, Sr. (Mt. Olive), 2. Cory Daugherty (Blue Mound), 3. Curt Rhodes (Taylorville), 4. Shaun Horstmann (Highland), 5. Rodney Standerfer (Summerfield), 6. Tim Hancock, Jr. (Mt. Olive), 7. Jeff Graham (Stonington), 8. Joe Strawkas (Buffalo), 9. Josh Thomas (Edinburg), 10. Alan Crowder (Elwin)

Archer’s Alley Street Stocks–1. Nick Macklin (Argenta), 2. Rudy Zaragoza (Jacksonville), 3. Jaret Duff (Maroa), 4. Bobby Beiler (Blue Mound), 5. Darrell Dick (Monticello), 6. Nick Justice (Decatur), 7. Jeff Hartzell (Genoa), 8. Andy Zahnd (White Heath), 9. Brian Dasenbrock (Decatur), 10. Greg Brewer (Bement)

Micro Sprints Presented by Bailey Chassis–1. Trevin Littleton (Jacksonville), 2. Riley Goodno (Knoxville, IA), 3. Larry Drake (Terre Haute, IN), 4. Michael Brummitt (Mt. Zion), 5. Molly Day (Atwood), 6. Jeff Beasley (Urbana), 7. Hayden Harvey (Warrensburg), 8. Daryn Stark (Springfield), 9. John Barnard (Sherman), 10. James Koenigseein (New Athens)

Decatur Building Trades Pro Late Models–1. Aaron Heck (Mt. Vernon), 2. Blaze Burwell (Mt. Vernon), 3. Cody Maguire (Carlinville), 4. Blake Damery (Macon), 5. Roben Huffman (Midland City), 6. Donny Koehler (Macon), 7. Devin McLean (Mt. Vernon), 8. Storm Beiler (Decatur), 9. Tony Harter (Sherman), 10. Curt Rhodes (Taylorville)

Sportsman–1. Dennis Vandermeersch (Springfield), 2. Wes Odell (Springfield), 3. Phil Moreland (Assumption), 4. Scott Landers (Taylorville), 5. Randy Huffman (Maroa), 6. Tim Bedinger (Taylorville), 7. Stefan Bedinger (Taylorville), 8. Bobby Beiler (Blue Mound)

Hornets–1. Erik Vanapeldoorn (Clinton), 2. Matt Mackey (Delavan), 3. Jimmy Dutlinger, 4. Danny Oates (Pekin), 5. Steve Stine (Stonington), 6. Mike Eskew (Springfield), 7. Marty Sullivan (Decatur), 8. John Lewis (Cerro Gordo), 9. Cook Crawford (Lincoln), 10. Jeremy Reed (Decatur)