Duncan Triumphs in Eden-Piercy Memorial

By Rocky Ragusa – Fairbuy, Ill. (7/18/20) With temperatures in the 90’s on Saturday, the racing action was hot and heavy at the Fairbury Speedway. A FALS Cup weekly program saw McKay Wenger (Late Model), Allen Weisser (Modified), Tommy Duncan (Sportsman), Nick Seplak (Street Stock), and Thad Gee (Hobby-Modified) gracing victory lane.

The CR Towing Sportsman class was the featured race of the night in the annual Eden-Piercy Memorial. First year driver, Austin Friedman paced the 20 cars in qualifying with a lap of 14.400. After time trials a six lap trophy dash saw Lyndon Whitfill taking the win. Dennis Vandermeersch and Tommy Duncan took heat race wins.

Duncan and Whitfill exchanged the lead several times in the first 10 laps of the 25 lap race before Duncan assumed command on lap 11. Whitfill kept Duncan within his sights but was never able to complete a pass for the lead. At the line, Duncan won the $1500 in a hard fought race.

“ I don’t know how some of these drivers race on the top side,” stated Duncan. “ Lyndon drove me a clean race. He is going to win his share of races.”

Alex Wilson posted a career best and was the race’s hard charger, finishing third, followed by Anthony Craven, Tyler Roth, Friedman, Austin Odell, Brendan Ramer, Dan Coit, and Makinzi Semmens.

The Modified class drew 28 cars for their 25 lap, $1500 to win race. Michael Long was the fast qualifier with a time of 13.740. Jason Hastings, Allen Weisser, and Mike McKinney were the heat race victors. Tommy Sheppard Jr. was the semi-feature winner.

Starting in the third position, McKinney quickly wrestled the lead away from frontrow starters, Weisser and Hastings. McKinney, Weisser,and Long put on a spirited display of driving the top groove of the ¼ oval before Weisser moved to the bottom and took the lead with seven laps to go. Weisser, last year’s division track champion, was able to record his first Fairbury win of the year.

“ McKinney and Long were putting on a show on the top,” spoke Weisser. “ We were digging on the bottom. It is finally nice to get a win at Fairbury.”

McKinney, Long, Hastings, and Nick Clubb completed the top five. The remainder of the top ten were Dan Rork, Sheppard Jr. (hard charger), Michael Ledford, Derrick Doerr, and Kyle Hammer.

McKay Wenger timed a lap of 12.726 over 22 other drivers in the 30 lap, $2500 to win feature.

Heat races went to Wenger, Mike Mataragas, and Kevin Weaver.

Wenger led the opening lap before fourth starting Spatola charged into the lead. Spatola looked to be on his way to the win until the yellow flag waved with two laps to go. On the restart, Wenger executed a slide job and took the lead. Wenger, to the delight of the hometown fans, picked up his second FALS Cup trophy of the season.

“ My brakes started going away about halfway in the race,” and exhausted Wenger commented. “ I knew if I timed my restart right, I could get a good run on Mike. I think I had him at the flagstand. So at that point you just have to go for it.”

Allen Weisser was also able to get by Spatola for second, as Spatola settled for third. The remainder of the top ten went to Weaver, Scott Schmitt, Eric Smith, Jeffrey Ledford, Derek Chandler, Mataragas, and Mike Provenzano. Mike Glasscock’s 14th place finish earned him the race’s hard charger.

A lap of 15.304 earned Megan Erwin fast time for the 27 Street Stock drivers. Rick Thomas, Nick Seplak, and Zach Zuberbier were the heat race winners. The B-main went to Al Gray.
Taking the lead on the start of the 15 lap race, Seplak was able to lead flag to flag and record his second straight win.

“ That was a heck of a race,’ Seplak said. “ Me and dad worked on the car all winter. I think we have a good piece.”

Andrew Funki stuck with Seplak, but settled for second, with Kyle Anderson, Zuberbier, Erwin, Matt Fabrizius, Joe Brown, Josh Hetherington, Michael Schomas (hard charger), and Gray rounding out the top ten.

Darren Kerrins and Thad Gee won their heat race for the 12 lap Hobby-Modified race.

Gee led at the start as Caden McWhorter charged through the field to contend with Gee. McWhorter was able to show the nose of his car to Gee on several occasions, but Gee was able to hold off the future star for his second win of the year.

“ I saw Caden there and I knew I needed to protect the bottom,” Gee said.” We tried something new on the car today and it worked.”

Mcwhorter, Troy Ricketts, Kelly Christmas, and Clay Wisher took the first five positions.

Next Saturday night, another FALS Cup weekly program will be held.

B Modifieds