There was plenty of action at the Belle-Clair Speedway Wednesday night as the 1/5-mile bullring hosted the UMP Summer Nationals for both the Late Models and Modifieds. It was a long trip in for the Hell Tour regulars as they raced the night before in Putnamville, Indiana, and as I am typing this they are loading up and heading for Tennessee.
Current Late Model point leader Brian Shirley raced to the lead at the drop of the green for the 40-lap main event with pole-sitter Jason Feger in hot pursuit. It did not take long for the leaders to catch the back of the field on the short track and the show was on as Shirley picked his way through traffic with Feger ready to pounce on any mistake. Just behind them the race for third was equally exciting as Shannon Babb worked the low side and Brandon Sheppard rode the cushion. The caution waved on lap 18 when track provisional Brent Kreke slowed on the back stretch and the field was lined up for a single file restart. Coming to the green Feger dove low and was the first to the line while Shirley slowed suddenly on the cushion in turn one. The drivers who running that high-line had no place to go with Sheppard being the first to make contact with Kevin Weaver, Ryan Unzicker and Mark Voigt piling in as well. When it finally ended Weaver's car was perched on the driver side in the middle of the five-car pile up.
During the clean up process Shirley ducked to the pits to change two flat tires and he would restart at the rear while Sheppard and Unzicker would put their battered rides back into their previous racing positions. Feger assumed the lead on the restart, the race for second between Babb and Sheppard resumed and as the laps wound down the battle for fourth heated up as Billy Moyer Jr., Unzicker and Rodney Melvin raced three-wide along with the lapped car of Jon Henry. With four laps to go Melvin pinched Unzicker into the front stretch wall and just as the white flag was to be given to Feger the caution waved as Unzicker coasted to a halt with a flat right front tire. Unzicker waited for Melvin to drive by him and then drove the nose of his car into Melvin's right rear quarter panel as the crowd buzzed. A track official repaired the damage on Melvin's car and the race went back to green for the final two laps. Babb found the bite on the bottom and slid up to shut the door on Sheppard before making a last ditch run on the leader through the final two turns. But Feger was solid on the tricky cushion and he held off Babb by a car-length to take the $5,000 victory. Sheppard would hold down third followed by Moyer Jr. and Melvin.
Late Model Notes......Rodney Melvin's night started out bad when he pounded the wall in turn three on his first lap of qualifying. He started ninth in the second heat and raced up to fourth to earn the fourteenth starting spot in the feature.....It was not announced why he was late, but Bobby Pierce's rig pulled into the fairgrounds at 8:30 p.m. just a few minutes before he tagged the tail of the fourth qualifying heat. Pierce would later start the feature as a provisional.
The Summit UMP Modified National main event drew the most noise from the crowd due to a thrilling late run by one of their local favorites. A driver who they were not familiar with, Ray Bollinger of Kewanee would race to the lead in the thirty-lapper with Matt Mevert all over him. Mevert pulled even with Bollinger several times, but Ray kept holding him off until lap 22 when it looked like Mevert might have nipped him at the line. The caution waved later that lap and Bollinger would again start as the leader. On the restart Bollinger stayed glued to the bottom which seemed to take some steam out of Mevert as he fell back a bit while Dean Hoffman pounded the cushion racing in third. With four laps to go Hoffman took second from Mevert and the crowd cheered him on as he quickly closed in on Bollinger. As the white flag waved Hoffman sped past Bollinger coming off turn four on the outside and even though he stumbled a bit on the cushion in turn two on the final lap Hoffman held on and took the win to a huge round of applause. Bollinger would have to settle for second in a rare visit to Belleville, Mevert was third followed by Tim Hancock and Aaron Draege.
The UMP Summer Nationals gets close to home a couple of more times with events at Peoria on Monday July 2nd and at Quincy on Friday July 6th.
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