Sheppard outruns Taylor at Lincoln; McDermand takes Big Boy Bash 7’ Trophy

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Administrator
Staff member
By: Betty Glynn

Lincoln, IL – Steve Sheppard Jr. of New Berlin was the man to beat in Late Model class at the Lincoln Speedway on Saturday, August 18th. The Street Stocks also highlighted the night with their first ever Big Boy Bash.

To kick off the evening a Circles of Hope concert and festivities were held to raise money for the organization that is helping children of racing families who have challenging health issues.

Twenty four Late Model’s signed in for the night’s competition. Three heat events were held with starting positions determined by a draw system. The preliminary event finishes decided the feature race grid.

Heat one: Ryan Little (Springfield) and Don Cisco (Oreana) rolled into the front row over La Salle racer Mike Glynn and Mike Glascock. Other then Glascock’s ability to move up the pack, the finishes were nearly the same as their starts.

At the finish it was Cisco winning over Little, Glynn, Glascock, Cory Daughtery – Blue Mound, Keith Piano (Oglesby), Kyle Steffans, and Larry Elliott (Ellsworth).

Heat two: Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin started on the pole next to Matt Taylor (Springfield), row two held Tim Lance (Brimfield) and Matt Beadles (Clinton). Three cars were retired by the completion of this heat race.

Matt Taylor won with an impressive Jayme Zidar (Greefield, WI) flying from last into a second place finish over Chris Dick (Deland), Greg Longfellow (Washington), and Ryan Retter (Normal).

Heat three: Shane Tomlin and Matt Moore were on the front spots over Kevin Paul (Colchester) and Guy Taylor (Springfield).

The third heat was definitely the most exciting as contact was common place.
Steve Sheppard Jr. was running wide open in three wheeling style when he and Matt Murphy did a little more then just rubbing. Murphy’s ride returned to the pits while Sheppard stayed out and flew from last to first.

Sheppard took the win and collected the most passing points to earn the feature pole. Tomlin finished second ahead of Guy Taylor, Paul, Ed Barth (Havana), Lance Alcorn (Bloomington) and Moore.

The officials canceled the Semi Feature race because four of the eight took the field and they were transferring four anyway.

Sheppard flew from the pole to set the Feature pace leading his twenty competitors. The field went to caution before one lap was recorded. After the complete restart they were only able to get in a few laps when the biggest wreck of their main took place. Four contenders were sacrificed including Murphy, Cisco, Glascock and Glynn.

Once back to green, Sheppard was heavy on the gas while pulling away from Dick, Matt Taylor, and Zidar. Dick ran second until he pulled out of competition with about seven laps to go. Now Matt Taylor was positioned behind the leader and ready for an opening.

Lapped traffic kept Sheppard in just the right position til the final turn.
Matt completed the night runner up over Zidar, and Little. Longfellow finished fifth over a hard charging Lance who moved from seventeenth on the grid to his sixth place finish. Seventh through thirteenth was Tomlin, Guy Taylor, Daugherty, Alcorn, Paul, Moore, and Piano. Seven racers did not finish.

A horrific crash during the Modified feature with about eight laps into the race left most speechless. The #3 of T.D. Burger flipped repeatedly on the back stretch with parts flying. His tumble ended with an upside down heavily damaged machine and trip for medical care by ambulance.

Dick Taylor (Springfield) started the main event on the pole next to Tim Hancock (Mt Olive) with Burger and Jeff Leka (Buffalo) in row two.

Taylor was quick out of the blocks, as Jeff Leka and Hancock gave chase. The first ten or so laps were caution ridden but when the green stayed out the action of three and four wide racing was seen throughout the field.

By Lap 12, Jeff Leka was traveling up to Dick Taylor’s door in the turns but the leader had a good hold on his line and the lead. Four laps later, Taylor was looking at a comfortable lead when the caution brought everyone back into single file format.

For the restart it was Taylor, Jeff Leka, Cory Schwengel, Hancock and Brian Lynn (Mason City) for the first five running positions.

With two to go, Taylor got off his pace when he drove over the high berm on the front stretch and lost momentum. A quick thinking Jeff Leka flew into the lead for the first and final time.

Jeff Leka ended in the winners circle over Dick Taylor, Schwengel, Jeffrey Leka, Lynn who started in seventeenth, Hancock, Mark Tullis (Taylorville), Bobby Pearson (Forsyth), Roben Huffman (Clinton), Matt Goulden (Springfield), Randy Myers (Springfield), Justin McCoy (Streator), Abe Helfand (Clinton), and Eric Mattingly (Atlanta).

Jeff Leka, Hancock, and Taylor each won their heats.

Twenty Street Stock racers lined up for the twenty lap Big Boy Bash feature event. As soon as the flagman gave the go, a three wide battle for the lead took off between pole sitter Dustin Mugler (Minier), Shane Garrison (Dawson), and Steve Ewing (Decatur).

Mugler prevailed as the race leader for the first six laps. Several laps later, Mugler and Ewing were in an unhappy struggle with Ewing slamming hard into the turn four concrete wall ending with a flat tire. His desire to stay on the track ended with a black flag.

Fourteen cars remained at Lap 10.

Kevin McDermand (Springfield) started fourth on the grid and won the seven foot trophy over Travis Johnson (Ashland), Troy Dodson, Terry Miller (Lincoln), Garrison, David Awe (Lincoln), Greg Rubenacker (Clinton), Tyler Blankenship (St. Elmo), Keith Harre, Dan Winterbauer (Lincoln), Nick Vandenbergh (Ashland) and Chris Stipp (Gibson City).

Gary Turpin (Bloomington) won the Sportsman main over Billy Nail (Decatur), Greg Kimmons (Pleasant Plains), Rick Roedel (Shelbyville), Nick Macklin (Argenta), Al Crowder (Elwin), Jeff Graham (Stoninton), Curtis Hobbs (Farmer City), Andy Clark, and William Becker (Greenview).

Twenty four Hornet drivers started their main with seventeen cars finishing.

Eric Keymon (Lincoln) won over Matt Turley (Dawson), Josh Osbourne (Lincoln), Damin Jones (Chestnut), Bo O’Donoghue (Lincoln), Stacy Whitehouse (LeRoy), Scott Vanoppen (Roanoke), Larry Fletcher (Greenview), Jeff Rubenacker (Lincoln) and Eric Wisher.
 




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