The Place, The Draw The Question Mark and the Show at Farmer City Raceway Friday night

jdearing

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The place was Farmer City Raceway Friday night April 3, 2009. The Hammers, aka TruSpeed, Inc prepared a beautiful racetrack following cold, rainy conditions and the fans came out in droves. The fairgrounds were muddy, but with the afternoon sun and wind, although chilly, the mud problems pretty much disappeared. The racing surface was in excellent, smooth condition. A total of 134 cars in four divisions were in the pits, which were overflowing, mostly due to the mud.

The draw was the World of Outlaws Late Models first night of two for the second annual Illini 100, paying a whopping $20,000 to win. The cars were very fast, with Moweaqua's Shannon Babb turning in fast time at 12.179 seconds about two tenths of a second off Billy Moyer's track record set last year at this event. With Fifty One late models on hand, the six heat races were basically a battle from the start to the first two turns. With five of the six races, the leader on the first lap went on uncontested to the checkers, with the top three from each advancing to Saturday's feature event. The first heat went to West Virginia's Josh Richards over Shannon Babb and Clint Smith. The second heat went to Iowa's Brian Birkhofer over Steve Francis and Jason Feger. The third heat went to Wisconsin's Jimmy Mars over Joe Harlan and Zach Johnson. The fourth heat went to Georigia's Shane Clanton over Darrell Lanigan and Will Vaught. The fifth heat went to Urbana, Illinois' Richie Hedrick over Matt Lux and Vic Coffey. The sixth and final heat went to Pennsylvania's Rick Eckert over Brady Smith and Chub Frank. This last heat race held the only excitement, as leader Chub Frank had a flat tire with three laps to go, went to the pits, changed the tire, restarted at the rear and literally BLASTED his way back up to third with last lap contact on both Ryan Unzicker and Donny Walden to take the final transfer spot. The only other late model action was Jon Rogers flip during hot laps, he was unhurt.

The question mark of the evening, perhaps of the whole 2009 season seems to be the Crates/Sportsmen division. In an effort to keep car counts up, the crate late models are now being mixed with the sportsmen class. This class, at least for the first night, seemed to be a mixture of one to five year old late models, new crate late models, last year's sportsmen and at least one street stocker. Needless to say, the cream rose straight to the top. There were a total of twenty cars on hand for this division, and there were definitely first night woes. The first heat went to Nick Bauman over Jim Moon and Gary Engles, with the second heat going to the beautifully wrapped car of Tyler Adams over Jason Unzicker and Greg Kimmons. The feature event was a yellow flag event, with five yellow flag laps needed to finish every five laps. I honestly lost count of the yellow flags in this event, I even made a trip to the restroom and returned to my seat, hearing that they had three more yellows, but had not completed any more laps. Nick Bauman in another former late model car led the first half before the car broke, giving up the lead to Jim Moon from Indiana. Jason Unzicker in his old sportsmen was right with him at the checkers, along with Kevin Moffett's late model car. This is going to be confusing to say the least.

The street stockers had sixteen cars in the pits, with heats going to Josh Griffith and Jim Quinn, and one of the few passes for the lead all evening. Defending track champion Jim Quinn would go on to dominate the feature, with a good race going on for second, finally going to Josh Griffith over Steve Ewing and Bob Simpson.

The modified feature would eventually be the complete show for the evening. And what a barn-burner it was. The 47 modifieds on hand started out with Kent Robinson trouncing the field in the first heat by half a lap over the unknown number 12, and Lance Dehm. The second heat was a very exciting race up front with Danny Schwartz finally winning out over Jeff Leka, and Chad Evans was within a car length of taking the checkers, that was an exciting race. The third heat went to Gary Cook Jr over Mckay Wenger and a fast charging Denny Schwartz. The fourth heat went to Nathan Balensiefen, even though I cannot spell his name correctly, Nathan flat out drove the field, with Darcey Wey second by half a lap, and the number 22 of Lauder in third. The fifth heat went to the 52 of Thoennes over Jeffrey Curl and Mark Anderson.

The modified feature started with Jeff Leka on the pole and Kent Robinson on the outside. Robinson took off for an early lead, but Leka was not gonna let him get away. Through a number of yellow flags, Leka and Robinson put on a great show up front. But right on their tails were Gary Cook Jr, the two Schwartz's, Jeffrey Curl, Mark Anderson and Nathan Balensiefen putting on a show for third. The familiar #12 of Curl would take an early exit. The final lap would show Robinson as the winner, alongside was Jeff Leka, and trying to get around them was third place Denny Schwartz and fourth place finisher Danny Schwartz. They were followed very closely by Mark Anderson, who worked his way from the back half of the field, Gary Cook Jr, and Nathan Balensiefen. Again, this was the best race of the evening by far.

Saturday nights events start at 6 pm with a full show for the modifieds, along with late model semi features, a non-qualifier feature and the Second Annual 100 lap Illini 100 paying a whopping $20,000 to the winner.


Racenut.... Dan Stewart.... www.midwestdirttrackfacts.com
 




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