Shane Clanton takes lead late and wins Illini 100 over Brian Birkhofer

jdearing

Administrator
Staff member
With most of the line-up already set for Saturday's Illini 100, all that was left was to run two semi features (sorry, B-mains) and for the heat winners to draw for their starting positions. The top two advancing from the first semi were Eric Smith and Scott Bull. Daren Friedman, Jimmy Dehm, and Brent Robinson rounded out the top five. The second semi saw Dennis Erb Jr win out over Ryan Unzicker, with those two advancing and Kevin Weaver, Donny Walden and Ted Loomis rounding out the top five.

The heat winners drew for their starting positions, with the pole going to Shane Clanton, the outside front row to Brian Birkhofer. The second row went to Jimmy Mars and Josh Richards. The third row would start Rick Eckert and Richie Hedrick.

The feature would see Brian Birkhofer blast out to the early lead. Shane Clanton stayed right with him, taking the lead on lap eight, just to see Birky go back by one lap later. The first of two cautions came out with 63 laps remaining, as Dennis Erb Jr would stop on the track just as he was getting lapped, and he retired for the evening. Birky then commanded the lead spot, for just six laps later, Brady Smith brought out the second caution with a flat tire and a spin. The remaining fifty seven laps were run under the green flag, with Birky in the lead, weaving through traffic, only to find Shane Clanton pull alongside and take the lead with eight laps to go. Birky would stick right with him for the next two laps, until Clanton cleared traffic, and went on to collect the checkered flag and the $20,000 that goes with it.

Birky would finish a close second, followed by Josh Richards, who spent most of the race running in the third spot.

unofficial finish:
25 Shane Clanton
15 Brian Birkhofer
1 Josh Richards
28 Jimmy Mars
18 Shannon Babb
0 Richie Hedrick
29 Darrell Lanigan
25 Jason Feger
1* Chub Frank
24 Rick Eckert
19 Tim Fuller
44 Clint Smith
21 Matt Lux-1
2 Brady Smith-1
19 Steve Francis-1
32 Vic Coffey-3
Z Joe Harlan-4
9 Eric Smith-4
12 Jordan Bland-5
56 Russ King-5
DNF
28 Dennis Erb Jr
1 Will Vaught
73 Zach Johnson
83 Scott Bull
24 Ryan Unzicker

The modified heat races went to Denny Schwartz, Jeff Leka, Gary Cook Jr, and Mike Spatola. The semis went to Kent Robinson and George Aimone. The feature event went to Denny Schwartz over Jeff Leka, Gary Cook Jr in an uneventful race. Denny Schwartz had set fast time at 14.084 seconds. Also during time trials Dave Sandage smacked the tires in turn #3 and flipped, he was uninjured.
 




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