CONCORD, NC – April 7, 2008 –
WHAT A SHOW: A 55-car field teeming with top-notch talent. A record, standing-room-only crowd. A racy, multi-groove track surface.
And, best of all, a dramatic 100-lap A-Main that will be remembered as one of the best dirt Late Model races of this or any other season.
Roll all that up, and there’s no doubt that the inaugural ‘Illini 100’ at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway was a smashing success.
The excitement of the biggest dirt Late Model event ever run in the state of Illinois impressed virtually everyone, including World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular Shannon Babb, a native of nearby Moweaqua, Ill., who grew up racing at the quarter-mile oval.
“I knew this would be a good place to have a big show, but honestly, I didn’t think it would be that good,” a smiling Babb said after engaging in an A-Main battle for the ages that saw him finish second by scant feet to his racing mentor Billy Moyer. “It was awesome, and hopefully it’ll be a yearly deal now and just get bigger and bigger.”
That’s the plan for the ‘Illini 100,’ says Farmer City promoter Don Hammer. He was thrilled with the competitor and fan support for the first-time, $20,000-to-win event and envisions the weekend developing into a must-see early-season show on the dirt Late Model calendar.
GOOD REVIEWS: Hammer and his Farmer City track crew whipped up a racing surface that produced fast speeds (witness Moyer’s new track record lap of 11.973 seconds during Friday’s time trials) and entertaining action with a minimum of roughness.
“It had a hole or two in the track, but heck, it’s springtime,” said Moyer, who credited Hammer with doing “a good job” on the surface. “Myself, I think every track should have a bump or two. It doesn’t bother me any. It gives you something to do.”
SMART DECISION: Babb had second thoughts about his tire-compound choice when he rolled onto the track for the pre-race driver introduction.
So what did he do? He conferred with crewmen Tommy Grecco and Jay Hunt and then changed the left-rear and right-front tires of his Clint Bowyer-owned Rayburn car, giving him three soft 20-compound tires and a hard 40-compound shoe on the right-rear.
By WoO LMS rules, the tire change on the racetrack forced Babb to the rear of the 24-car field for the start. But he was scheduled to start 19th, so moving back five spots wasn’t a major problem.
“I walked out there (for the pre-race festivities) and seen how much traction was left on the bottom,” said Babb. “Right there I thought we should go softer on tires. If you have the same thing as everybody else you’re gonna be equal, so we made the change and it worked real good for us.”
Babb came close to becoming only the second driver in the WoO LMS’s modern era (2004-present) to win a tour event after starting last. Tim McCreadie holds the last-to-first distinction, accomplishing the rare feat on June 5, 2005, at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.Dak.
WANTED MORE: Defending WoO LMS champion Steve Francis summed up the ‘Illini 100’ with a couple simple phrases.
“It was a helluva race,” he said. “That’s about all you can say about it.”
Francis, who briefly led the race on two occasions, finished third, just a few car lengths behind the lead Moyer/Babb pair. He felt his outcome could have been a little better.
“We were a little tight getting in to the middle of the corner,” Francis said of his Dale Beitler-owned No. 19. “But what kinda buried us was when Moyer got into us (with a slide-job for second place on lap 82). We lost a lot of ground there.
“Really, we were lucky to hold on to third, so I was happy with everything. It came down to where we needed track position, and we didn’t have it.”
WRONG PLACE: Francis was able to survive without losing a position when Moyer’s slide up in front of him on the 82nd lap forced him to check up, but the chain-reaction jam-up behind him cost WoO LMS regulars Chub Frank and Josh Richards.
Frank, who was running fourth at the time, slowed to avoid Francis and was hit by Tim McCreadie. The contact bent Frank’s left-side bodywork into his tire, leaving him with a blown tire on lap 88 that relegated him to a 12th-place finish.
“I was just trying to keep my car in one piece and get a good finish out of it,” said Frank. “The line I was using wasn’t the fastest, but I ran it because I was trying to stay out of the holes so I wouldn’t tear a left-rear tire off like I saw so many guys doing.
“We were just hoping for a good points night, but we got caught anyway and got a flat.”
Richards, meanwhile, ran in the top five for much of the distance. But his ill-fated positioning in the Moyer/Francis aftermath cost him three spots and he only recovered enough to finish sixth.
The 20-year-old Richards had high hopes for the 100 after timing second-fastest, winning a heat and capturing the 8-lap dash on Friday night, but his Rocket No. 1 was off just a little on Saturday night. He said changing the machine to a four-link from a swing-arm setup just before the A-Main and going too hard with their tire choice hampered his effort.
NICE RUN: Former Farmer City champ Wes Steidinger of Fairbury, Ill., came on late in the ‘Illini 100’ to place fifth – his best finish ever in WoO LMS competition.
The 25-year-old Steidinger, who finished second in the 2007 UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model national points standings, earned the $500 WoO LMS ‘Bonus Bucks’ prize for being the highest-finishing driver who hasn’t won a tour event and wasn’t ranked among the top 12 in the points. He wondered afterward, however, if he could have advanced even further forward from the 17th starting spot if he hadn’t gone too hard with his tire choice by bolting four 40-compound tires on his Rayburn mount.
ETCETERA…
* Darrell Lanigan had to use a provisional to start the A-Main after being unable to recover from a slide back in his heat race, but he persevered through a mid-race pit stop to finish eighth in the 100. He remained one of only two drivers (Moyer is the other) to score a top-10 finish in all four WoO LMS events contested this season.
* Racing at a track where he cut his teeth and just three days after celebrating his 27th birthday, Brian Shirley was feeling good about his chances. But after running in the top five early he slipped back and ultimately slowed on lap 62 with a broken j-bar on his Ed Petroff-owned Rayburn.
* Rick Eckert debuted a new Rayburn car with a seventh-place finish in the 100. He slipped into the top five momentarily in the shakeup that accompanied the Moyer/Francis action on lap 82, but, with his car’s tow knocked out from hitting a rut, he wasn’t able to stay there for the remainder of the distance.
* Tim Fuller’s hopes were quickly dashed in the 100 when a broken right-rear axle forced him to the infield on lap five. He returned many laps down to collect some extra points.
* After spending a mid-week day testing his swing-arm car at his sponsor Don Cliburn’s Jackson (Miss.) Speedway (along with Eckert and Fuller), Clint Smith was primed and ready for the ‘Illini 100.’ But he struggled in the A-Main, spinning on the homestretch on lap 26 and finishing one lap down in 14th.
* Shane Clanton spent most of the distance as a fringe top-five runner, but he faded to 11th at the finish after an apparent sealed right-rear tire hampered him in the closing laps.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS heads to Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va., on Fri., April 11, for the 50-lap ‘Rumble on the River IV’ and then visits Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., for the 50-lap ‘Showdown in Sarvertown’ on Tues., April 15.
OUTLAWS INFO: To learn more about the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
WHAT A SHOW: A 55-car field teeming with top-notch talent. A record, standing-room-only crowd. A racy, multi-groove track surface.
And, best of all, a dramatic 100-lap A-Main that will be remembered as one of the best dirt Late Model races of this or any other season.
Roll all that up, and there’s no doubt that the inaugural ‘Illini 100’ at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway was a smashing success.
The excitement of the biggest dirt Late Model event ever run in the state of Illinois impressed virtually everyone, including World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular Shannon Babb, a native of nearby Moweaqua, Ill., who grew up racing at the quarter-mile oval.
“I knew this would be a good place to have a big show, but honestly, I didn’t think it would be that good,” a smiling Babb said after engaging in an A-Main battle for the ages that saw him finish second by scant feet to his racing mentor Billy Moyer. “It was awesome, and hopefully it’ll be a yearly deal now and just get bigger and bigger.”
That’s the plan for the ‘Illini 100,’ says Farmer City promoter Don Hammer. He was thrilled with the competitor and fan support for the first-time, $20,000-to-win event and envisions the weekend developing into a must-see early-season show on the dirt Late Model calendar.
GOOD REVIEWS: Hammer and his Farmer City track crew whipped up a racing surface that produced fast speeds (witness Moyer’s new track record lap of 11.973 seconds during Friday’s time trials) and entertaining action with a minimum of roughness.
“It had a hole or two in the track, but heck, it’s springtime,” said Moyer, who credited Hammer with doing “a good job” on the surface. “Myself, I think every track should have a bump or two. It doesn’t bother me any. It gives you something to do.”
SMART DECISION: Babb had second thoughts about his tire-compound choice when he rolled onto the track for the pre-race driver introduction.
So what did he do? He conferred with crewmen Tommy Grecco and Jay Hunt and then changed the left-rear and right-front tires of his Clint Bowyer-owned Rayburn car, giving him three soft 20-compound tires and a hard 40-compound shoe on the right-rear.
By WoO LMS rules, the tire change on the racetrack forced Babb to the rear of the 24-car field for the start. But he was scheduled to start 19th, so moving back five spots wasn’t a major problem.
“I walked out there (for the pre-race festivities) and seen how much traction was left on the bottom,” said Babb. “Right there I thought we should go softer on tires. If you have the same thing as everybody else you’re gonna be equal, so we made the change and it worked real good for us.”
Babb came close to becoming only the second driver in the WoO LMS’s modern era (2004-present) to win a tour event after starting last. Tim McCreadie holds the last-to-first distinction, accomplishing the rare feat on June 5, 2005, at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.Dak.
WANTED MORE: Defending WoO LMS champion Steve Francis summed up the ‘Illini 100’ with a couple simple phrases.
“It was a helluva race,” he said. “That’s about all you can say about it.”
Francis, who briefly led the race on two occasions, finished third, just a few car lengths behind the lead Moyer/Babb pair. He felt his outcome could have been a little better.
“We were a little tight getting in to the middle of the corner,” Francis said of his Dale Beitler-owned No. 19. “But what kinda buried us was when Moyer got into us (with a slide-job for second place on lap 82). We lost a lot of ground there.
“Really, we were lucky to hold on to third, so I was happy with everything. It came down to where we needed track position, and we didn’t have it.”
WRONG PLACE: Francis was able to survive without losing a position when Moyer’s slide up in front of him on the 82nd lap forced him to check up, but the chain-reaction jam-up behind him cost WoO LMS regulars Chub Frank and Josh Richards.
Frank, who was running fourth at the time, slowed to avoid Francis and was hit by Tim McCreadie. The contact bent Frank’s left-side bodywork into his tire, leaving him with a blown tire on lap 88 that relegated him to a 12th-place finish.
“I was just trying to keep my car in one piece and get a good finish out of it,” said Frank. “The line I was using wasn’t the fastest, but I ran it because I was trying to stay out of the holes so I wouldn’t tear a left-rear tire off like I saw so many guys doing.
“We were just hoping for a good points night, but we got caught anyway and got a flat.”
Richards, meanwhile, ran in the top five for much of the distance. But his ill-fated positioning in the Moyer/Francis aftermath cost him three spots and he only recovered enough to finish sixth.
The 20-year-old Richards had high hopes for the 100 after timing second-fastest, winning a heat and capturing the 8-lap dash on Friday night, but his Rocket No. 1 was off just a little on Saturday night. He said changing the machine to a four-link from a swing-arm setup just before the A-Main and going too hard with their tire choice hampered his effort.
NICE RUN: Former Farmer City champ Wes Steidinger of Fairbury, Ill., came on late in the ‘Illini 100’ to place fifth – his best finish ever in WoO LMS competition.
The 25-year-old Steidinger, who finished second in the 2007 UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model national points standings, earned the $500 WoO LMS ‘Bonus Bucks’ prize for being the highest-finishing driver who hasn’t won a tour event and wasn’t ranked among the top 12 in the points. He wondered afterward, however, if he could have advanced even further forward from the 17th starting spot if he hadn’t gone too hard with his tire choice by bolting four 40-compound tires on his Rayburn mount.
ETCETERA…
* Darrell Lanigan had to use a provisional to start the A-Main after being unable to recover from a slide back in his heat race, but he persevered through a mid-race pit stop to finish eighth in the 100. He remained one of only two drivers (Moyer is the other) to score a top-10 finish in all four WoO LMS events contested this season.
* Racing at a track where he cut his teeth and just three days after celebrating his 27th birthday, Brian Shirley was feeling good about his chances. But after running in the top five early he slipped back and ultimately slowed on lap 62 with a broken j-bar on his Ed Petroff-owned Rayburn.
* Rick Eckert debuted a new Rayburn car with a seventh-place finish in the 100. He slipped into the top five momentarily in the shakeup that accompanied the Moyer/Francis action on lap 82, but, with his car’s tow knocked out from hitting a rut, he wasn’t able to stay there for the remainder of the distance.
* Tim Fuller’s hopes were quickly dashed in the 100 when a broken right-rear axle forced him to the infield on lap five. He returned many laps down to collect some extra points.
* After spending a mid-week day testing his swing-arm car at his sponsor Don Cliburn’s Jackson (Miss.) Speedway (along with Eckert and Fuller), Clint Smith was primed and ready for the ‘Illini 100.’ But he struggled in the A-Main, spinning on the homestretch on lap 26 and finishing one lap down in 14th.
* Shane Clanton spent most of the distance as a fringe top-five runner, but he faded to 11th at the finish after an apparent sealed right-rear tire hampered him in the closing laps.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS heads to Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va., on Fri., April 11, for the 50-lap ‘Rumble on the River IV’ and then visits Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., for the 50-lap ‘Showdown in Sarvertown’ on Tues., April 15.
OUTLAWS INFO: To learn more about the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
