Mike McKinney – Rocky Ragusa photo
McKinney Rallies For Mod Win

Fairbury, Ill. (9/4/21) Despite threatening weather conditions during the morning and afternoon, a strong field of cars were in attendance for the twin 50 lap features for the MARS Late Model series and DIRTcar Modifieds. 2021 Fairbury track champion, Mike McKinney took the Modified race, while DIRTcar Summer National champ,Bobby Pierce won a slugfest in the Late Models.

New Solutions Ag was the presiding sponsor for the $10,000 to win MARS Late Model race which drew a field of 29 competitors. Frankfort’s Frank Heckenast Jr. was the event’s fastest qualifier with a time of 12.965. Heckenast Jr,Benton, Ky. stanout, Tanner English, and Gibson City’s Hall of Famer, Kevin Weaver won in their respective heat races. Tonica’s Scott Schmitt working out the kinks in his new ride was the winner of the semi-feature.

22 drivers took the green flag from flagman Jim Whittington that saw the second starter, English lead on lap one before Heckenast moved to the front. Three straight yellow flag situations had the field go to a single file restart. With Heckenast and English running the bottom, Pierce found his comfort zone on the Fairbury cushion. Pierce was able to get by English for second as the caution fell for Shannon Babb’s spin. On the restart, Pierce opened a ten car length lead while English and Heckenast raced side by side for second., with Weaver and Brian Shirley following. English took over the second spot and closed the margin on Pierce. As Pierce was entering turn one, he changed his line with English on his bumper. Contact was made with English looping his car around for another yellow flag. The restart had Pierce leading Heckenast, Shirley, Jason Feger, and McKay Wenger. Shirley moved to second, with a heated battle between Heckenast, Wenger, and Feger. Wenger took over the third position and as the trio were entering turn one, Feger got into the back of Heckenast, resulting in a caution. Another caution fell on lap 26 for fifth running, Taylor Scheffler tagging the wall on the backstretch. When the field went back to green, Wenger working the bottom, overtook Shirley for second and closed in on Pierce. The final 20 laps were some of the best racing that Fairbury has seen, as Pierce and Wenger put the gloves on, asking and receiving no quarter. Wenger, running the bottom, was able to lead laps 30-34. Pierce , on the middle and top side, took over to lead laps 35-44. Wenger , looking for his first 10 grand win, took over on laps 45-46. Pierce edged ahead for the 47th lap, Wenger, with the fans on the feet, supporting their hometown hero, executed a slide job to take over for laps 48 and 49. On the final lap, Pierce dove under Wenger in turns one and two, and Wenger slid up the track just enough for Pierce to get by. Contact was made, as Pierce looked to hold off Wenger. Pierce was able to hang on and earn a hard fought victory.

“ I’m pretty fired up”, commented Pierce. “ That’s a tough race. I am glad it’s over with. I think that every car that battled for the lead hit me. Wenger had a good race. I know he wanted that win badly”.

Somewhat dejected, Wenger spoke after the race. “ One of these days, we are going to get us one. That is all I had. I guess all you can ask for is to be there and have a chance”.
New Mexico’s Garret Alberson finished in third, followed by Ryan Unzicker, English, Feger, Heckenast Jr., Mike Spatola, Trevor Gundaker, and Torin Mettille.

62 Modifieds made qualifying attempts for the Casey’s General Store Modified Nationals. In his first ever appearance to the track, Bluegrass native, Cole Falloway paced group one qualifiers with a time of 14.305. A time of 14.159 gave Michigan’s Curt Spalding quick time for group two.

Falloway, Show-Me state pilot, Treb Jacoby, Fairbury’s adopted son, Mike Harrison, Spalding, Mt. Carmel’s Will Krup, and former NASCAR star Kenny Wallace picked up heat race wins.
Three semi features had Garrett Jameson from Indiana, Peoria’s Allen Weisser, and Tar Heel state wheelman, Nick Hoffman advancing to the $10,000 to win race.

Falloway opened a 10 car length lead on the start, as Spalding, Krup, Harrison, and Wallace trailed. Harrison looked to be the fastest on track and was up to second by the eighth lap. Harrison pulled along Falloway on the ninth lap and took over to lead lap 10. Just as quickly as Harrison took the lead, his night came to an end with engine problems. Falloway moved back into the lead, with Tyler Nicely in pursuit. Nicely moved into the lead on lap 15 and headed the field for the next ten circuits. Nicely led Falloway, Spalding, Nick Hoffman, Derek Losh, and 22nd starter, Mike McKinney. Galloway moved by to the point on lap 26, but it was short lived as Summit Modified champion, Hoffman took command. McKinney, the fastest car on the track was up to second by lap 31. McKinney and rival Hoffman went toe to toe before McKinney pulled ahead on lap 36. McKinney stretched his lead and as the checkered flag was waved, had over a half a straight away lead and picked up his 99th career feature race win.

“ We shouldn’t have even been in the race”, said McKinney. “ We had to take a provisional after getting caught up in that heat race wreck. I made some laps in the B-main, because I knew we were in the feature and just planned to run a few laps in the feature. To beat Nick, one of the best drivers in the country, it means the world to me”.

Hoffman settled for second, with Spalding taking third. Brandon Bollinger, Weisser, Falloway, Victor Lee, Dillion Nusbaum, Wallace, and Jacoby completed the top ten.

Racing will return on Tuesday, September 14 as Flo Racing and I Beam Sliding Doors will present “ Flo Night in America” with a $15,000 to win Late Model race and Modifieds in a $2000 to win race.

A Feature 1: 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[22]; 2. 2-Nick Hoffman[15]; 3. 5CS-Curt Spalding[2]; 4. 242-Brandon Bollinger[10]; 5. 25W-Allen Weisser[14]; 6. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 7. 4-Victor Lee[21]; 8. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[11]; 9. 36W-Kenny Wallace[6]; 10. J82-Treb Jacoby[3]; 11. 757-Bradley Jameson[18]; 12. 21-Derek Losh[7]; 13. 0G-Garrett Jameson[13]; 14. 15-Richard Gibson[24]; 15. 89-Austin Friedman[16]; 16. 28M-Frank Marshall[12]; 17. (DNF) 25-Tyler Nicely[9]; 18. (DNF) 7L-Mark Lamont[8]; 19. (DNF) 22-Will Bennett[19]; 20. (DNF) K9-Will Krup[4]; 21. (DNF) 24H-Mike Harrison[5]; 22. (DNF) 35-Ethan Weber[20]; 23. (DNF) 1S-Brian Shaw[23]; 24. (DNF) 53-Bobby Stremme[17]

B Feature 1: 1. 0G-Garrett Jameson[1]; 2. 89-Austin Friedman[2]; 3. 22-Will Bennett[5]; 4. 37-Michael Ledford[7]; 5. 21A-Nick Allen[6]; 6. 777-Trevor Neville[9]; 7. 22C-Nick Clubb[3]; 8. 18-Jarrett Stryker[12]; 9. 51-Rob Brickert[8]; 10. 18M-Brandon McDowell[13]; 11. 44-Andy Sherley[15]; 12. 60-Shannon Fisk[16]; 13. 36-Eric Vaughan[14]; 14. (DNF) 96-Cole Parker[4]; 15. (DNF) 24B-Brent Weaver[10]; 16. (DNF) 10-Jason Highley[11]; 17. (DNF) 327-Dustin Bruce[17]

B Feature 2: 1. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 2. 53-Bobby Stremme[1]; 3. 35-Ethan Weber[2]; 4. K67-Ian Keller[6]; 5. 59R-Jacob Rexing[4]; 6. 21S-Kenny Shaw[5]; 7. 14C-Rick Conoyer[12]; 8. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[10]; 9. 5B-Steven Brooks[7]; 10. 41-Daniel Dehner[11]; 11. 1L-Dave Lilja[8]; 12. 15J-Jimmy Hayden[9]; 13. (DNF) 15-Richard Gibson[16]; 14. (DNS) 1D-Dean Hoffman; 15. (DNS) 10Y-Trent Young; 16. (DNS) 7D-Pete Sabatino; 17. (DNS) 63-Dustin King

B Feature 3: 1. 2-Nick Hoffman[4]; 2. 757-Bradley Jameson[3]; 3. 4-Victor Lee[2]; 4. 96M-Mike McKinney[10]; 5. 1W-Bob Pohlman[8]; 6. 12L-Lucas Lee[12]; 7. 2M-Matt Mitchell[9]; 8. 16C-John Clippinger[11]; 9. 11S-Nick Seplak[6]; 10. 12M-John McClure[17]; 11. 73-Mark Rhoades[16]; 12. 1-Nash Hilmes[14]; 13. 22H-Josh Harris[15]; 14. 6-Troy Carter[13]; 15. (DNF) T9-Ryan Thomas[1]; 16. (DNF) 1S-Brian Shaw[5]; 17. (DNF) 7-Tim Nash[7]

Heat 1: 1. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 2. 21-Derek Losh[3]; 3. 0G-Garrett Jameson[8]; 4. 22C-Nick Clubb[2]; 5. 22-Will Bennett[6]; 6. 37-Michael Ledford[11]; 7. 777-Trevor Neville[10]; 8. 10-Jason Highley[9]; 9. (DNF) 18M-Brandon McDowell[5]; 10. (DNF) 44-Andy Sherley[7]; 11. (DNF) 327-Dustin Bruce[4]

Heat 2: 1. J82-Treb Jacoby[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[5]; 3. 89-Austin Friedman[3]; 4. 96-Cole Parker[7]; 5. 21A-Nick Allen[4]; 6. 51-Rob Brickert[6]; 7. 24B-Brent Weaver[2]; 8. 18-Jarrett Stryker[9]; 9. 36-Eric Vaughan[8]; 10. 60-Shannon Fisk[10]

Heat 3: 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[2]; 3. 53-Bobby Stremme[4]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 5. 21S-Kenny Shaw[5]; 6. 5B-Steven Brooks[7]; 7. 15J-Jimmy Hayden[6]; 8. 41-Daniel Dehner[8]; 9. 7D-Pete Sabatino[9]; 10. (DNS) 1D-Dean Hoffman

Heat 4: 1. 5CS-Curt Spalding[1]; 2. 7L-Mark Lamont[2]; 3. 35-Ethan Weber[3]; 4. 59R-Jacob Rexing[4]; 5. K67-Ian Keller[6]; 6. 1L-Dave Lilja[5]; 7. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[7]; 8. 14C-Rick Conoyer[8]; 9. 10Y-Trent Young[9]; 10. 15-Richard Gibson[10]; 11. (DNS) 63-Dustin King

Heat 5: 1. K9-Will Krup[1]; 2. 242-Brandon Bollinger[7]; 3. T9-Ryan Thomas[2]; 4. 757-Bradley Jameson[9]; 5. 1S-Brian Shaw[5]; 6. 7-Tim Nash[6]; 7. 2M-Matt Mitchell[8]; 8. 16C-John Clippinger[10]; 9. 6-Troy Carter[11]; 10. 22H-Josh Harris[3]; 11. 12M-John McClure[4]

Heat 6: 1. 36W-Kenny Wallace[2]; 2. 28M-Frank Marshall[4]; 3. 4-Victor Lee[1]; 4. 2-Nick Hoffman[7]; 5. 11S-Nick Seplak[5]; 6. 1W-Bob Pohlman[8]; 7. 96M-Mike McKinney[3]; 8. 12L-Lucas Lee[6]; 9. 1-Nash Hilmes[9]; 10. 73-Mark Rhoades[10]