It was a perfect Sunday night for racing at Adams County, Il. Speedway. The five regular classes were on the card, with the 4 Cylinders also running their make up feature that had been postponed by high winds three weeks ago. And to top things off, the Iowa based American Iron Racing Series made an appearance, giving us eighty eight race teams and a full night of action before a large holiday weekend crowd. The feature attraction for the night was the Gene Patrick Memorial for UMP A Mods, with the winner taking home a cool $1,000. All of this action made for a long night of racing, stretching past the ten o'clock hour.
Sixteen starters returned to compete in the twelve lap make up event. Jaden Delonjay and Jimmy Dutlinger brought the field to the green flag, with Delonjay and Travis Demint leading lap one. With four laps down, Dutlinger rebounded to second. Two laps later, the only yellow flag came as Dyllan Bonk slowed with an apparent expired engine. His #2B had been showing smoke for the last several races, and a brief fire under the hood signaled the end of the power plant. On the restart, Dutlinger moved to the front. He then picked up the win, his second in less than twenty four hours, having won Saturday night in Charleston, Illinois. Jaden rolled home second, while older brother Jeffery Delonjay and Spencer Coats charged to third and fourth in the closing laps. Demint completed the top five.
Mike Vanderiet Jr. topped Modified qualifying at 14.533 seconds, then thirteen heat races set the regular feature fields.
With intermission finished, IMCA Sport Mods saw all but one of the seventeen entrants line up for eighteen laps. Yellow fever was the theme of the race, somewhat aided by a flagman who for some reason was very quick on the trigger on this night. Reed Wolfmeyer sat on the pole position, and was the other story of the race, leading from flag to flag to pick up his first ever feature win. Several times during the night drivers were penalized for firing off early, both on original starts and on restarts, including alleged violations on restarts by top contenders Adam Birck and Tanner Klingele. During a caution period near the halfway mark, both Birck and Dakota Girard, second and third at the time. retired to the pits. Klingele chased Wolfmeyer to the checkers while Nicholas Profeta won a tight battle with Logan Cumby for third. A.J. Tournear recovered from a flat tire early to claim fifth. Only eight cars were still running at the end.
Darren Cawthon made his season debut in the Crate Late Model class, but was the only one of fifteen to not make the feature call. Denny Woodworth and Tommy Elston redrew the front row start, and ran side by side for a couple laps before Tommy edged ahead in a two car breakaway. Elston was running a middle line on the black slick track while Denny worked around the tire barriers. Just past the half way point of the twenty lapper, Woodworth executed a successful slider out of turn two to grab the lead. Slower traffic came into play about lap fifteen, and even though three cars were racing for position, Woodworth was able to pick his way around them. As the white flag was displayed , the lone yellow came for Jeffery Delonjay. Woodworth had no problem on the green, white, checkers finish, picking up win number two of the season. Jason Perry drove around Sam Halstead and Elston for second in those final laps, with Jamie Wilson in fifth. Patrick Shumaker towed in from Sellersburg, Indiana to come home sixth ahead of Braden Bilger, Jason Oenning, Christian Miles, and Darin Weisinger Jr.
Shawn Deering topped lap one of the UMP Modified headliner over Vanderiet Jr. in a battle of heat race winners. Following an unexplained very lengthy caution period two laps in, Austen Becerra had fallen out of his heat race and now charged all the way from twelfth to enter the top five. Two more cautions came about half way through with Mark Burgtorf and Becerra blasting to second and third on the restart as Becerra flirted with disaster lap after lap on the treacherous cushion With five laps to go, Burgtorf pulled alongside Deering, but a quick yellow for a slowing Matt Diaz negated his challenge. Jacob Rexing cleared Burgtorf for second on this final restart, but Deering cruised to the win from that point. Burgtorf and Becerra both cleared Rexing at the finish, while Vance Wilson wheeled his #4 Sale ride to fifth.
Only eight Street Stocks signed in, with fifteen laps the feature distance. Rudy Zaragoza sat on the pole and powered to the first lap lead. Robert Cottom lined up outside row three, but charged to the runner up spot on lap three. The two veteran drivers ripped the top of the track as Cottom slowly cut into Rudys' advantage. A single caution with three to go closed the gap, but Zaragoza made no mistakes, notching a flag to flag win. Cottom was runner up, trailed by Jake Powers, Alan Cottom, and Troy Grotz.
Fifteen cars made the call for the regular 4 Cylinder event. The Delonjay brothers led the field to green, with Jaden topping the opening circuit. Jeffery followed in his tracks as they ran a high line around the .29 mile speedway. Meanwhile Dutlinger and Coats dueled side by side for third. The caution waved at lap six, as Kimberly Abbott stopped at the top of turns one and two, leaving on the back of the wrecker. From there, Jaden continued his charge, picking up a flag to flag win over Jeffery, Coats, Dutlinger, and Landon Neisen.
I then took my leave ahead of the A.I.R.S. twelve lap finale. Results show Domanic McNabb picked up the win over Tyler Maschmann in a battle of Ford bodied machines.
We are set to enter the summer months and racing season is kicking into high gear, so check the Positively Racing calendar and head to a track near you!
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