Spatola, Weisser Headline FALS Cup Weekly Winners
By Rocky Ragusa – Fairbury,Il. (6/3/23) The Fairbury Speedway held their first FALS Cup Weekly program on Saturday night under ideal weather conditions. The Illinois State Rifle Association and Addis Auto Parts played host to five divisions of DIRTCar racing. Making their way to be interviewed by the renowned track announcer, Mike Norris in victory lane were Mike Spatola (Late Model), Allen Weisser (Modified), Tommy Duncan (Sportsman), Cody Clubb and Don Hilleary (Stock Car), and Ryan Kohler and Dylan Turpin (Hobby-Modified).
Fairbury’s McKay Wenger was the night’s fastest qualifier in Late Model competition as 16 drivers looked to take home the $2500 first place money and the highly prized FALS Cup. Wenger toured the ¼ mile dirt oval with a time of 12.674 and was the winner of the first heat race. Mike Spatola was the victor of the second heat race.
The 30 lap Late Model race two cautions fell before a lap could be completed. When the field settled down and the race went green, Spatola and Wenger traded the top spot early in the feature race before Spatola laid claim to the lead. Spatola went to the top of the high banked oval and was able to stretch his lead to over a straight away lead. After the caution came out with six laps to go, Spatola dispersed his competitors and ended his early season frustration with his first win of the season.
Relieved in victory lane, Spatola commented on the team’s win. “ We needed this win worse than probably I have ever needed a win. It’s great we could get the win on our sponsor’s night. Hats off to the FALS staff on a great track. That was vintage FALS there. To me it takes more finesse driving on that track then the slickest track in the world. You’re in a hole and you have to be wide open. If you are in a slick spot, you are going to be back pedaling quick.”
Wenger held off Kevin Weaver for third, with 10th starting Rich Bell in fourth. Donny Walden finished in fifth, with the rest of the top ten going to Bob Gardner, Brian Dively, Josh Boller, Dale Markham, and Jason Wagner.
The race of the night had to fall to the Modified division. Allen Weisser led the field to the green with Austin Friedman, Jared Thomas, Michael Ledford, and Mike McKinney in pursuit. After a caution on the first lap, Ledford powered his way past Weisser into the lead. The topside of the track seemed to be the fastest way around, as McKinney moved to the highside and was soon contending Ledford for the lead. McKinney found just enough room after a lap 14 caution period to squeeze past Ledford for the lead, exiting turn two. McKinney held a half a straight away lead over Weisser and Ledford, but was closing in on lapped traffic. Weisser was able to chip into McKinney’s lead and as the leader’s worked their way past four slower cars, Weisser was able to capitalize and got past McKinney for the lead. Another caution fell with two laps to go, but Weisser prevailed and took a thrilling win.
“ I didn’t have any idea on where to go,” Weisser said. “ I was running the top at the beginning of the race and the car was just dunking around, getting all crazy. So I went to the bottom and they passed me. The car was good on the bottom, top, anywhere I went. To beat McKinney and Ledford, you can’t ask for much more.”
The region’s hottest driver, McKinney finished second, with Ledford, Steven Brooks, and Alan Stipp in fifth. The remainder of the top ten saw Tanner Sullivan, Thomas, Caden McWhorter, Eric Vaughan, and 16th starting, Don Hammer.
Fast time honors for the 21 drivers went to McKinney with a time of 13.786. Weisser, Brooks, and Friedman won their heat races.
Patience was the key for Tommy Dunacn in the 15 lap, Sportsman race. Giving up the lead to Steven Mattingly on the second lap, Mattingly appeared to be on his way to the feature win. Mattingly jumped the cushion and Duncan moved back into the lead. Duncan went on to take his second straight feature win.
“ I didn’t mean to pinch Mattingly on the frontstretch,” Duncan said. “ I thought I had him cleared, but lapped traffic helped me alot.”
Mattingly finished in second. Landen Miller turned back Tyler Roth in a race for third. Josh Hetherington, Doug Carls, Makinzi Semmens, and Aaron Ried completed the running order.
Mattingly was the lone heat race winner and a time of 15.924 earned him fast time.
The Stock Car class held two feature races, allowing drivers the chance to make a race up from a previous rainout. Cody Clubb’s time of 15.465 gave him fast time.
In the first race, Clubb raced out to a commanding lead in the 20 lap contest.By the end of the race,Clubb had lapped up to the seventh place car and held over a straight away lead. Andy Thompson turned back Tim Loomis for second, and Don Hilleary was fourth. Brandon Tracy, Randy Schoener, Eric Legner, Brice Slavens, Bailey Downey, and Kevin Anderson completed the top ten.
“ I wasn’t expecting the car to be that good,” Clubb said. “ I was worried about the lapped traffic, but we worked through it.”
The field was inverted for the second race. Hilleary moved past Legner early in the race and held off Clubb for his first win at Fairbury since June 21, 2014.
“ We got torn up a couple of weeks ago at Kankakee,” explained Hilleary. “ We worked all week putting the car back together and finally got it rolling. Glen Thompson was a long time friend and sponsor, but this win is for him.”
Clubb took second, followed by Loomis, Anderson, Legner, Thompson, Michael Schomas, Tracy, Slavens, and Jace Gall.
A field of 24 Hobby-Modified drivers were in attendance for their 12 lap feature. Officials made the decision to break down the class into two feature races.
Racing like a seasoned pro, Ryan Kohler took the lead on the start and completely outdistanced the field to earn a satisfying win. Scott Williams was second, Reid Gall took third, with Wes Ricketts and Meara Tilstra rounding out the top five.
The second race, had young Dylan Turpin taking his first ever feature win followed by Scott Brown, Jonathan Hall, Payton Semmens, and Jenna Norvell.
This Saturday night another FALS Cup weekly show will be held, with the Allen Memorial race for Late Models as the headline race.
DIRTCAR LATE MODELS
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[2]; 2. 42-Mckay Wenger[1]; 3. B12-Kevin Weaver[3]; 4. 21B-Rich Bell[10]; 5. 1W-Donny Walden[5]; 6. 4G-Bob Gardner[4]; 7. 11D-Brian Diveley[6]; 8. 05B-Josh Boller[9]; 9. 3-Dale Markham[7]; 10. J12-Jason Wagner[8]; 11. 33-Billy Hough[16]; 12. 9-Lyle Zanker[13]; 13. Z61-Alex Wilson[15]; 14. 4-Ryan Wilson[11]; 15. 74-Dan DeYoung[12]; 16. (DNS) 30-Mike Glasscock
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42-Mckay Wenger[1]; 2. B12-Kevin Weaver[2]; 3. 1W-Donny Walden[3]; 4. 3-Dale Markham[4]; 5. 05B-Josh Boller[5]; 6. 4-Ryan Wilson[7]; 7. 9-Lyle Zanker[6]; 8. Z61-Alex Wilson[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[1]; 2. 4G-Bob Gardner[2]; 3. 11D-Brian Diveley[5]; 4. J12-Jason Wagner[6]; 5. 21B-Rich Bell[3]; 6. 74-Dan DeYoung[8]; 7. 30-Mike Glasscock[4]; 8. 33-Billy Hough[7]
Qualifying 1: 1. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:12.674[9]; 2. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:12.867[7]; 3. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:12.993[2]; 4. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:13.016[5]; 5. 1W-Donny Walden, 00:13.076[12]; 6. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:13.086[13]; 7. 3-Dale Markham, 00:13.106[6]; 8. 30-Mike Glasscock, 00:13.295[1]; 9. 05B-Josh Boller, 00:13.443[3]; 10. 11D-Brian Diveley, 00:13.459[11]; 11. 9-Lyle Zanker, 00:13.514[4]; 12. J12-Jason Wagner, 00:13.583[10]; 13. 4-Ryan Wilson, 00:13.630[15]; 14. 33-Billy Hough, 00:14.230[14]; 15. Z61-Alex Wilson, 00:14.478[8]; 16. 74-Dan DeYoung, 00:16.184[16]
DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIEDS
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 25W-Allen Weisser[1]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney[4]; 3. 37-Michael Ledford[7]; 4. 5B-Steven Brooks[2]; 5. 88S-Alan Stipp[8]; 6. 20-Tanner Sullivan[6]; 7. 43-Jared Thomas[5]; 8. 14-Caden McWhorter[11]; 9. 36-Eric Vaughan[13]; 10. 45-Don Hammer[16]; 11. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[12]; 12. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann[15]; 13. M14-Scott Martin[14]; 14. 36V-Macy Vaughan[19]; 15. 71T-Troy Ricketts[20]; 16. 81-Victor Strong[21]; 17. 32-Mason Duncan[9]; 18. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[18]; 19. 89-Austin Friedman[3]; 20. 25S-Jake Straka[17]; 21. 11S-Nick Seplak[10]
Heat 1: 1. 25W-Allen Weisser[2]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 3. 37-Michael Ledford[3]; 4. 11S-Nick Seplak[4]; 5. 36-Eric Vaughan[5]; 6. 45-Don Hammer[6]; 7. 36V-Macy Vaughan[7]
Heat 2: 1. 5B-Steven Brooks[1]; 2. 43-Jared Thomas[2]; 3. 88S-Alan Stipp[5]; 4. 14-Caden McWhorter[3]; 5. M14-Scott Martin[4]; 6. 25S-Jake Straka[6]; 7. 71T-Troy Ricketts[7]
Heat 3: 1. 89-Austin Friedman[1]; 2. 20-Tanner Sullivan[2]; 3. 32-Mason Duncan[3]; 4. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[4]; 5. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann[6]; 6. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[5]; 7. 81-Victor Strong[7]
Qualifying 1: 1. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:13.786[1]; 2. 5B-Steven Brooks, 00:13.968[6]; 3. 89-Austin Friedman, 00:13.990[11]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser, 00:14.059[16]; 5. 43-Jared Thomas, 00:14.121[21]; 6. 20-Tanner Sullivan, 00:14.247[7]; 7. 37-Michael Ledford, 00:14.304[9]; 8. 14-Caden McWhorter, 00:14.323[10]; 9. 32-Mason Duncan, 00:14.373[8]; 10. 11S-Nick Seplak, 00:14.422[17]; 11. M14-Scott Martin, 00:14.456[2]; 12. 0F-Matt Fabrizius, 00:14.527[4]; 13. 36-Eric Vaughan, 00:14.548[12]; 14. 88S-Alan Stipp, 00:14.683[14]; 15. 21-Lyndon Whitfill, 00:14.698[15]; 16. 45-Don Hammer, 00:14.732[18]; 17. 25S-Jake Straka, 00:14.809[5]; 18. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann, 00:14.842[20]; 19. 36V-Macy Vaughan, 00:15.086[19]; 20. 71T-Troy Ricketts, 00:15.217[13]; 21. 81-Victor Strong, 00:15.395[3]
CR TOWING SPORTSMANS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 32-Tommy Duncan[3]; 2. 7-Steven Mattingly[1]; 3. 110-Landen Miller[2]; 4. 20R-Tyler Roth[4]; 5. 15-Josh Hetherington[5]; 6. 14-Doug Carls[6]; 7. 66-Makinzi Semmens[7]; 8. 13-Aaron Reid[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Steven Mattingly[1]; 2. 110-Landen Miller[2]; 3. 32-Tommy Duncan[4]; 4. 20R-Tyler Roth[3]; 5. 15-Josh Hetherington[5]; 6. 14-Doug Carls[6]; 7. 66-Makinzi Semmens[7]; 8. 13-Aaron Reid[8]
Qualifying 1: 1. 7-Steven Mattingly, 00:15.024[3]; 2. 110-Landen Miller, 00:15.030[6]; 3. 20R-Tyler Roth, 00:15.207[8]; 4. 32-Tommy Duncan, 00:15.218[7]; 5. 15-Josh Hetherington, 00:15.498[2]; 6. 14-Doug Carls, 00:16.079[1]; 7. 66-Makinzi Semmens, 00:16.478[4]; 8. 13-Aaron Reid, 00:17.753[5]
DIRTCAR STREET STOCKS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 23-Cody Clubb; 2. 63-Andy Thompson; 3. 93-Tim Loomis; 4. 10H-Don Hilleary; 5. 63T-Brandon Tracy; 6. 37S-Randy Schoener; 7. 27-Eric Legner; 8. 32-Brice Slavens; 9. 19K-Bailey Downey; 10. 55A-kevin anderson; 11. 66-Derrick Weiand; 12. 23G-Jace Gall; 13. F5-Michael Schomas; 14. 12-Nick Clubb
A Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 10H-Don Hilleary[4]; 2. 23-Cody Clubb[7]; 3. 93-Tim Loomis[5]; 4. 55A-kevin anderson[10]; 5. 27-Eric Legner[1]; 6. 63-Andy Thompson[6]; 7. F5-Michael Schomas[13]; 8. 63T-Brandon Tracy[3]; 9. 32-Brice Slavens[8]; 10. 23G-Jace Gall[12]; 11. 66-Derrick Weiand[11]; 12. 37S-Randy Schoener[2]; 13. 19K-Bailey Downey[9]; 14. (DNS) 12-Nick Clubb
Qualifying 1: 1. 23-Cody Clubb, 00:15.465[7]; 2. 23G-Jace Gall, 00:15.538[6]; 3. 12-Nick Clubb, 00:15.583[1]; 4. 63T-Brandon Tracy, 00:15.638[13]; 5. 63-Andy Thompson, 00:15.697[8]; 6. 93-Tim Loomis, 00:15.735[5]; 7. 27-Eric Legner, 00:15.848[10]; 8. 10H-Don Hilleary, 00:15.988[4]; 9. F5-Michael Schomas, 00:16.104[3]; 10. 37S-Randy Schoener, 00:16.183[11]; 11. 66-Derrick Weiand, 00:16.250[2]; 12. 32-Brice Slavens, 00:16.322[12]; 13. 55A-kevin anderson, 00:16.642[14]; 14. 19K-Bailey Downey, 00:17.322[9]
HOBBY MODS
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 21JR-Ryan Kohler[2]; 2. 112-Scott Williams[5]; 3. 27-Reid Gall[7]; 4. 22-Wes Ricketts[3]; 5. 31T-Meara Tilstra[10]; 6. 26-Cameron Pierce[11]; 7. 75-Gavyn Parmele[6]; 8. 21-Jake Green[8]; 9. X20-Lucas Boulton[1]; 10. 12B-Brooke Wagner[12]; 11. 14R-Mike Miller[9]; 12. 23T-Rick Thomas[4]
A Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. X75-Dylan Turpin[2]; 2. B17-Scott Brown[11]; 3. 3J-Jonathan Hall[7]; 4. 66-Payton Semmens[3]; 5. 25-Jenna Norvell[6]; 6. 44R-Austin Norman[5]; 7. 20-Michael Killion[1]; 8. (DNS) 21G-Coltin Grace; 9. (DNS) 77M-Scott McDonald; 10. (DNS) 324-Brady Reed; 11. (DNS) 34R-Dustin Price; 12. (DNS) 00-Gregg Pierce
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. X20-Lucas Boulton[5]; 2. 23T-Rick Thomas[2]; 3. 27-Reid Gall[4]; 4. 31T-Meara Tilstra[3]; 5. 20-Michael Killion[8]; 6. 21G-Coltin Grace[6]; 7. 3J-Jonathan Hall[1]; 8. 34R-Dustin Price[7]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 21JR-Ryan Kohler[1]; 2. 112-Scott Williams[5]; 3. 21-Jake Green[4]; 4. 26-Cameron Pierce[6]; 5. X75-Dylan Turpin[2]; 6. 44R-Austin Norman[8]; 7. 77M-Scott McDonald[3]; 8. B17-Scott Brown[7]
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 22-Wes Ricketts[2]; 2. 75-Gavyn Parmele[3]; 3. 14R-Mike Miller[5]; 4. 12B-Brooke Wagner[6]; 5. 66-Payton Semmens[4]; 6. 25-Jenna Norvell[7]; 7. 324-Brady Reed[1]; 8. 00-Gregg Pierce[8]
Qualifying 1: 1. 3J-Jonathan Hall, 00:15.101[13]; 2. 21JR-Ryan Kohler, 00:15.229[10]; 3. 324-Brady Reed, 00:15.238[12]; 4. 23T-Rick Thomas, 00:15.273[3]; 5. X75-Dylan Turpin, 00:15.277[14]; 6. 31T-Meara Tilstra, 00:15.685[15]; 7. 77M-Scott McDonald, 00:15.710[4]; 8. 75-Gavyn Parmele, 00:15.773[2]; 9. 27-Reid Gall, 00:15.773[16]; 10. 22-Wes Ricketts, 00:15.784[21]; 11. 21-Jake Green, 00:15.784[5]; 12. 66-Payton Semmens, 00:15.805[1]; 13. X20-Lucas Boulton, 00:16.027[9]; 14. 112-Scott Williams, 00:16.042[11]; 15. 14R-Mike Miller, 00:16.310[23]; 16. 21G-Coltin Grace, 00:16.367[24]; 17. 26-Cameron Pierce, 00:16.604[19]; 18. 12B-Brooke Wagner, 00:16.856[6]; 19. 34R-Dustin Price, 00:16.973[7]; 20. B17-Scott Brown, 00:17.010[18]; 21. 25-Jenna Norvell, 00:17.119[22]; 22. 20-Michael Killion, 00:17.176[20]; 23. 44R-Austin Norman, 00:17.663[17]; 24. 00-Gregg Pierce, 00:20.259[8]
Rocky Ragusa photos
