With the possibility of storms around on Sunday, promoter Jim Lieurence rolled the dice, deciding to give it a go at Adams County,Il. Speedway. Hoping for some drying, gate and starting times were pushed back, with hot laps rolling one hour later at 6:30 for the five division program. The gamble paid off, as other than a few sprinkles here than there, the program was able to be completed with the final checkers falling somewhere around 9:30. At sixty two, the car count as well as the crowd was a bit less than normal, but heavy rains and tornado watches within a few miles of the track were no doubt the leading cause.
The track crew waited as long as possible to dump water on the surface, and while smooth as usual the track proved challenging throughout with more than the usual number of spin outs including drivers who normally do not have those issues.
Once again, both the Crate Late Models and UMP Modifieds had their heat race lineups determined by time trial qualifying. Interestingly, the top Modified time was turned in by visiting UMP standout racer Trevor Neville with a lap of 13.788 seconds, which was a couple of ticks quicker than the 13.948 top time by Late Model driver Jason Perry. Neville had made the two and a half hour tow from Mackinaw, Illinois presumably in search of UMP points.
Two heats in each of the five classes set the feature fields, and after a short unscheduled intermission it was main event time.
Street Stocks were up first with eight of the nine signed in going for fifteen laps. Rudy Zaragoza sat on the outside of row one and proceeded to lead the distance. He was challenged throughout by Robert Cottom. In fact Cottom had nosed ahead at the ten lap mark but the first yellow flag of the race for a Jake Powers spin sent him back to his runner up spot for the restart. One more lap was scored before the red flag was displayed when rookie Ryan Aden drove head on into the guardrail outside turn two. Ryan was held by the EMS crew and is hopefully okay. Zaragoza had Cottom lurking close by over the final four laps, but held on for the win. Powers rebounded to take third followed by Dustin Smith and in only his third night out, Rickey Frankel III.
Rick Conoyer could not answer the bell leaving us fourteen UMP Modifieds racing eighteen laps. Heat winners Neville and Dave Weitholder filled row one, with Dave leading ahead of a caution flag one lap in. Back to racing fourth starting Mark Burgtorf shot to the lead, but Weitholder moved back ahead on lap three. Weitholder, Burgtorf, and Kenny Wallace broke away from the pack, soon to be joined about lap five by Austen Becerra. Oddly, Becerra did not have a transponder in his car for qualifying, and was placed in the back of his heat race which he failed to finish, relegating him to row six on the feature grid. As the race reached the mid point, Weitholder had opened a lead while his three challengers battled side by side and nose to tail with each other. With just two laps to go, Wallace squeezed under Burgtorf for second, and on the final circuit Becerra drove around Mark for third. Neville completed the top five.
Twenty laps would be the distance for the eleven Late Models , racing for a $1,000 King of the Crates payday. Denny Woodworth and Tommy Elston, two seasoned veterans would lead the way. Elston scored the lap one lead and all nineteen that followed. Woodworth, Braden Bilger, and Jason Perry fought for second before Jason charged from fourth to the runner up spot on lap six. With eight laps down, Cody Maguire slowed in turn two, stacking up Derek Hollenstine and first time visitor Matt Jones. Hollenstine and Maguire would be unable to continue. Back under green, Elston and Perry worked the top side of the track, Bilger held third and Woodworth and his teammate Jason Oenning swapped fourth and fifth positions. With just two laps left, Bilger found extra speed and took over the second spot, but ran out of time to challenge Elston. It was the third win at the track for Tommy in the seasons' second half. Perry, Woodworth and Oenning rounded out the first five. Rookie Christian Miles was strong in sixth ahead of Darin Weisinger Jr ( in his "back up" car after hurting the engine in his "new" ride at Donnellson), Sam Halstead, and Jones. Maguire was credited with tenth.
All twelve DIRTcar 4 Cylinders came to the track for fifteen laps. Jaden Delonjay jumped to the lead by inches over his row one mate, Dyllan Bonk. As those two raced side by side for several laps, Jeffery Delonjay drove in his brothers' tire tracks. With Jeffery taking second at the halfway mark, Jaden suddenly stopped on the track, his run over. Restarting out front, Jeffery checked out while Bonk held second. Three laps from the checkers, third running Spencer Coats lost a wheel, stopping on the front stretch. As the green flagged waved, eleventh starting Joey Laws powered into second. Delonjay cruised to the checkers, his eighth win in a row at the Bullring. Laws, who pulled in all the way from Hillsboro, Missouri, ran second followed by Bonk, Kyle Weisenberger, and Kimberly Abbott. Kimberly was wheeling her IMCA car after rolling her UMP #71 last Sunday. Is it time for a bounty on Delonjay?
IMCA Northern Sport Mods would close out the program. Kyler Girard could not make the call, giving us a field of fourteen for eighteen circuits. Logan Cumby had issues early, missing his heat race and lining up in the back row. Quinton Shelton sat on the pole and led the first pair of laps before giving way to Patrick Phillips. Following a lap three caution, Dakota Girard grabbed second and tenth starting Adam Birck climbed to fourth. Two more yellows came in the next four laps, then at lap nine Birck charged to second. Also on the move, Cumby took over fourth. With six laps left Birck moved in to challenge Phillips, and he was scored in front at lap thirteen. For the final five trips around, those two ran side by side, Phillips digging around the bottom, Birck one lane higher. From my vantage point towards turn one the finish was too close to call, but the transponder said it was Birck out front by an eyelash. For Phillips it was his second runner up photo finish in recent weeks. Cumby gained eleven spots to third chased by Girard and Reed Wolfmeyer. Tanner Klingele was the series point leader going in to the night, but he was absent as he celebrated the birth of twins - one boy and one girl - over the weekend.
Thanks as always to JT Promotions for their hospitality. Be sure and check back next weekend as I am working on a road trip possibly to a new to me track and one I have not visited in several years. Maybe, we shall see!
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