Shannon Babb dominated the second night of UMP Late Model racing at Volusia County Speedway in Florida Wednesday night running away with the first heat win, starting on the pole of the main event and walking away with that as well for the $7,000 top prize. Young Jordan Bland out of Kentucky looked like he might earn a runner-up finish before he spun in lapped traffic handing over the second spot to Dale McDowell in the Cheerios sponsored #17m. Looks like the track dried out in the cool and windy conditions following Tuesday's rainout and was much more one-grooved than on Monday night.
Brian Birkhofer qualified fifth quick in the second group of twelve cars, but was disqualified after not scaling the car. Iowa drivers Joel Callahan and Tyler Bruening finished fifth and seventh respectively in the third consolation race.
Thursday's event will be the season opener for the World of Outlaw Late Model Series.
We have lost several friends of racing here in the Midwest over the last two weeks. My favorite driver of all time Mel Morris passed away last week. While Stacy Ervin remembers him in a #39 car he was always #32 to me and that was the reason that I wore the number in basketball as did both of my boys. They of course had no idea who Mel Morris was though, but the tradition lived on.
I have a great old black & white photo of Mel standing next to his #32 convertible sponsored by Rohner Machine, but I am still not computer savvy enough to get it scanned and on to here. Looks like I'll have to see if Barry can do that for me the next time that I am up in Pella.
This past week we lost former Late Model driver and recent owner of Race Mart Art Jeffries, former promoter at Donnellson and a fixture at many area racetracks Deo Loney, and former ARTGO series owner John McKarns. May all all of them rest in peace and have a bird's eye view of any race they want to see from now on.
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