Saturday night we made our first trip since 2019 to the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri. Six classes of cars were on the program, including the Cash Money Super Dirt Series late models under a scorching July sun. The headline class this night was the UMP Bi State Battle late models. A two track collaboration with the Highland, Illinois Speedway has worked out extremely well for both tracks. Featuring the high powered late models on a loosely rotating basis, both tracks have seen increased car counts, with thirty one checking in Saturday. The Cash Money Series, a lower cost late model touring series based in southwest Missouri rolled in to town eighteen strong. Considering Pevely would be at the outer reaches of their travel area, that was not a bad count. Add in UMP modifieds, UMP Pro mods, sportsman and Pro 4s and the final count came in at 128.
Hot laps rolled off shortly after 6:15, and by 7:15 the first of eighteen heat races was on the track. Pevely does not run time trials, a plus in my book, and heats are lined up by a draw. The top eighteen in passing points move on in the super late model class while the Cash Money group appeared to use a top six redraw. The other classes appeared to use a straight up start or redraw format. As near as I could tell, none of this was explained, so some of it is just me guessing. Only the UMP late models needed a B main to fill out the starting grid, and following a brief intermission, it was feature time.
The Pro 4 division was up first, with all but two of the twenty three scheduled cars lining up for twelve laps around the high banked third mile oval. Heat one and two winners Austin Harris and Joshua Hawkins filled row one, with heat three winner Clayton Stanfill and Chuck Johnson in row two. Hawkins, the class points leader, shot to the front at the drop of the green and survived several cautions to take the win. Bryce Pasley came from row four to claim second followed by fifth starting Morgan Greene, Johnson, and Stanfill.
Memphis, Tennessee hot shoe Dane Dacus captured heat three from the fifth starting spot, earning enough points to line up on the pole of the twenty five lap UMP late model feature. Series regular Brent McKinnon advanced from seventh to second in heat one, good enough for the outside pole. More good reasons to oppose time trials, only one of the four heat races was won from the front row! Dacus jumped to the early lead, with McKinnon and Jordon Bauer following. Bauer cleared McKinnon on lap two, and along with Logan Martin and heat one winner Rusty Griffaw, the top five began to put distance on the field. As Dacus opened his lead, McKinnon, Bauer, and Martin raced three wide for second. Slower traffic came into play nine laps in, and as the leaders threaded the needle, tenth starting Daryn Klein blasted into the top five. Taking a shot at fourth, he made contact with a lapped car, spinning to bring out the yellow just before the halfway mark. On the Delaware restart, Martin jumped to the cushion, taking over the runner up slot then attempted unsuccessfully twice to crossover the leader in turn four. Peoria, Arizona driver Steve Stultz, who was entered in both late model classes, broke into the top five as Griffaw powered to third. With the laps winding down, Dacus and Martin pulled away from the pack, again hitting lapped traffic four laps from the finish. Martin had one last shot at the lead with three laps to go when Dacus slapped the concrete wall in turn three, but he recovered quickly, putting his #54 in victory lane. Martin took the runner up spot, trailed by Griffaw, Bauer, and Stultz. Michael Kloos started sixth and finished there while Mark Voigt moved up four spots to seventh. Kaeden Cornell started behind Voigt and ran eighth, Charlie Cole was ninth, and McKinnon faded to tenth.
Points leader Treb Jacoby and heat two winner Rick Conoyer sat on row one for the twenty car, twenty lap UMP modified feature. Jacoby paced the opening circuit before Conoyer used the cushion to take over on lap two. Dean Hoffman cleared Jacoby for second ahead of a pair of lap three cautions, then Treb retook the spot as racing resumed. Now it was heat one winner Jim Black racing into second as the heat three winner, NASCAR driver Justin Allgaier came from a row four start to third. Conoyer continued to pound the treacherous cushion while Black and Allgaier battled down low. With those three well out front, Black made a move for the lead just as the yellow flag waved with six laps remaining. On the restart, the trio ran three wide, with Black edging ahead as a final caution came one lap later. Once more the green flag waved, and now Allgaier slipped around the fading Conoyer for second. He took a couple runs at Black in the closing laps, but the "Junkyard Dog" was up to the challenge, taking a popular win. Allgaier brought his #7 home in second, besting Conoyer, twelfth starting Steve Meyer Jr., and Hoffman.
Thirty laps would be the distance for the Cash Money headliner. Heat two victor Cole Wells and double duty Stultz paced the nine rows of cars. Series points leader Mitch Keeter won the first heat, started third, and took the early lead in front of the Wells, Cole and heat three winner Justin. Ketter was on cruise control around the inside retaining wall, catching the back of the pack on lap nine. The first caution period came with fourteen laps scored. The field was reset single file, as it had been during heat race cautions, and with this being my first time with the series, I then assumed there were no double file restarts. Cole Wells was racing the mostly unused middle line around the track, and he now charged to the lead., pulling away from the field even as Keeter stayed within striking distance. With ten laps left on the scoreboard, Doug Tye, the other driver racing both late model classes, brought out the caution when he smacked the backstretch wall. Now the field was realigned Delaware style - perhaps it is only used with ten or fewer laps left? At any rate it was no problem for Cole Wells, as he stretched his margin and parked his #7 in victory lane. Keeter scored the runner up spot, while Dustin Mooneyham came on late to grab third. Justin Wells was fourth and Stultz made it two fifth place finishes for the night. Eleventh starting Jim Body III outgunned Jim Body (I?) for sixth, followed by Mike Anderson, Isaac Keeper, and Steve Johnson.
Two more features were left to run, but the clock was ticking towards 11 PM, reports said it was raining between there and home, so we headed for the parking lot, more than pleased with the action presented on the evening. The folks sitting in front of us in the Joel Ortberg shirts may regret leaving early, as he topped the sportsman main event, while Billy Smith closed out the night taking the Pro Mod checkers.
Our friend Bill is visiting from the Seattle area, and we are trying to fill his racin' craving, so Tuesday night we will head for the Davenport Speedway for MARS and IMCA late models along with IMCA modifieds. Hope to see some of you there!
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