Sunday afternoon we called an audible and took the two lane tour through small town America to the Spoon River Speedway near Banner, Illinois. The card for the holiday weekend race would feature the MARS late models vying for a $5,000 top prize and UMP modifieds racing for $2,564 in the annual Gary Cook Jr. Memorial. D II midgets and hornets would round out the program, with over one hundred cars on hand to compete in front of two sets of packed grandstands.
Following hot laps for the midgets and late models, the thirty eight modifieds hot lap/qualified four at a time, with veteran Kelly Kovski pacing the field with a lap of 15.221 seconds around the high banked 3/8 mile track. The super late models then ran a pair of group qualifying laps and Ryan Unzicker topped the board at 14.032 seconds.
Heat races clicked off in a timely fashion, with Brian Shirley, Tanner English, and Dennis Erb Jr. recording late model wins. Only heat one saw the winner not start on the pole, as Shirley scooted past Unzicker in turn four on the final lap as lapped traffic held up the leader.
The top five in each of the three late model heats moved on to the forty lap feature, and all but one of the remaining thirteen lined up for a ten lap B main which would qualify another five. Bob Gardner charged from the pole to take the checkers. One series and one track provisional would round out the twenty two car starting field. A pair of B's filled out the twenty four starters in the mods, and after about a twenty minute intermission, it was feature time.
As promised, the late models lined up first, with Shirley and English in row one. Joined by Unzicker, they made up the top three as lap one was scored. English moved to the front on lap two just ahead of a multi car scrum that saw Dewayne Kiefer and the track provisional, Logan Moody call it a night. Two laps after the Delaware restart, Unzicker powered around the top of the track to clear Shirley for second, and two more circuits found fifth starting Brandon Sheppard in third. The top three then gained separation from the pack and around lap ten Sheppard charged to the lead. As he began to put distance on the pack, Unzicker moved past English and took up the chase. Sheppard, driving his family owned #B5 was working in heavy lapped traffic when the caution came with seventeen laps in the books. With clear track ahead on the restart and Unzicker and English in a dog fight for second, Brandon opened a commanding lead. The race stayed green for the remaining laps, and Sheppard cruised to the win. Unzicker eventually took charge of the runner up spot and English filled out the podium. Erb Jr. hung around in fourth while Gordy Gundaker wrapped up a solid weekend in fifth. Kolby Vandenbergh was the hard charger, starting in seventeenth and climbing all the way to sixth. Shirley faded to seventh, with Saturday series winner Jason Feger in eighth. Gardner moved up seven positions to ninth while Jordon Bauer started and finished in tenth.
With post race interviews in the books, the mods pulled to the oval for thirty laps in honor of the man who successfully wheeled the #64 around central Illinois for many years. Third starting Dave Weitholder quickly moved up to lead lap one on what was now a very black, slick racing surface. By the time the second of five cautions came at lap nine, Weitholder had led the distance, chased by Mike McKinney, Kovski, and Brandon Bollinger. Allen Weisser had timed in third and was due to start on the pole of heat three when his #25W would not fire, sending him to a B main. He quickly came through the pack to get the win, started row nine in the feature, and was now up to fifth and coming fast. He was however the victim of contact with another car and finished the night as a spectator. Two more yellow flags came in the next nine circuits, but each time Weitholder and McKinney would pull away from the pack. Weitholder was hitting his marks each lap, diving low in turn one before sliding to the top at the exit of turn two. McKinney meanwhile was rolling through the middle line, keeping pace but trailing by a couple car lengths. A final caution came with just four laps remaining and the field now fired off single file. McKinney briefly changed his line looking for a way around the leader, but to no avail. Weitholder led all thirty laps to score the biggest of his many career victories. McKinney was second, followed by Josh Harris, and the Bollingers, Brandon and Ray.
Although it was now just shy of 10:00 a mad dash ensued for the parking lot, with two features still to be run. I need to take this opportunity to compliment the staff at Spoon River , the MARS officials and all the drivers on hand for a well run program. Although I am not a big fan of time trials, they were run in an efficient manner, although I wish the electronic scoreboard could have been synced to the late models as well as the other classes. Heat races were condensed to offer full fields and thus were entertaining. Late models ran a ten and two nine car qualifiers, while mods ran two heats of ten and cars two of nine. Midgets contested two heats of eight, and most importantly, the twenty hornets qualified in two heats of ten cars each. The two headline features ran first offering travelers the chance for an earlier exit, which we took advantage of, plus the added bonus of helping with traffic congestion at a facility with one way in and one way out! One suggestion I would make is that the track could really use an upgrade on their menu offerings. Nitpicking? Maybe...Still a fun night of racing at the "Spoon!"
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