Late Model fans had it good at 34 Raceway near Burlington Saturday night as three regional touring series (MARS, ALMS and the CBC) came together to produce a solid field of forty-four cars and in the end it was the defending Corn Belt Clash champion Chad Simpson standing in victory lane.
Terry Phillips and Kevin Weaver would bring the field of twenty-seven to the green for the 40-lap main event with Weaver rocking the cushion to take the early lead. A caution on lap two for Jake Meier slowed the pace and on the restart Weaver again raced out to a comfortable lead. Third-starting Chris Simpson was battling Phillips for second and when Weaver bobbled in lapped traffic on lap eleven, both Phillips and Simpson drove by. Simpson would work his way past Phillips two laps later to take the lead while his brother Chad was methodically working his way through the field after starting twelfth.
A caution for Mark Burgtorf on lap fourteen and another for Scott Schmitt on lap seventeen kept the field tight and on lap nineteen Chad made his move to put the Simpson brothers one-two with Chris out front. Despite the hard charge through the pack Chad was not gaining any ground on Chris for the lead and in fact the gap between the two began to grow as the laps clicked away. The race to watch was the battle for third where Jesse Stovall and Brian Shirley were swapping the position back and forth several times while Tyler Reddick closed in on the two of them looking for some racing room of his own.
Chris Simpson looked like he had this one well in hand until with just two and a half laps remaining he suddenly slowed down the back stretch and pulled to the infield. Brother Chad was happy to take it from there as he would lead the final two circuits to pick up the $4,000 top prize. Stovall prevailed in what now had become the race for second while Shirley finished third. Reddick, the young native Californian, had to use a provisional to start twenty-sixth and put on quite a show to finish fourth while Terry Phillips completed the top. Tony Jackson Jr. crossed the stripe in sixth, Weaver faded to seventh, Billy Drake used an ALMS series provisional to start 22nd and finished eighth while Justin Kay came from the tenth row for ninth.
CBC/MARS/ALMS/34 Notes......As expected the field was diverse and was chock full of drivers that you knew had an opportunity to win. Tonight's format saw drivers draw for their starting spots in the five heat races with passing points determining the feature qualifiers......2012 Quincy Raceways track champion Jason Perry showed his strength edging out former UMP National Champion Ryan Unzicker for the win in heat one as Jesse Stovall started eighth and finished third.....Chris Simpson walked away with the second heat taking the checkers well ahead of Scott Schmitt while Ray Guss Jr. took third......Brandon Sheppard started on the pole of the third heat, faded to third early, but then came back to take the win. Kevin Weaver who flew to the early lead after starting sixth wound up in second while local driver Jay Johnson was third......Terry Phillips and Steve Lance Jr. were one-two in the fourth heat that was highlighted by a three-wide battle for third between Mark Burgtorf, Michigan's Brandon Thirlby and Minnesota's Nick Herrick......The fifth heat closed out in thrilling fashion as on the final lap a pair of sliders were thrown in turns three and four. Brian Shirley tried to put one on Tony Jackson Jr. only to see the southwest Missouri shoe Jackson come back under Shirley off of four to take the win. And right behind them it was Chad Simpson trying to make the same move on Denny Eckrich with Eckrich also coming back to take the third position......Two cars out of each of the two B-Mains would advance with Brian Harris winning the first one. Ray Guss Jr. tried to hold on for that final transfer only to see both Justin Kay and Tyler Reddick drive by him before he slowed on the final lap......In the second B Mark "Fluffy" Dotson would take a convincing win with Rich Bell snagging the final transfer......Provisional starters were Dustin Walker, Billy Drake, Jake Meier, Dave Eckrich, Justin Asplin and Tyler Reddick while event sponsor Denny Woodworth, Attorney at Law, was also added to the field.......Brandon Sheppard started eighth in the A-Main and was quickly into the top five before pulling to the infield just after the second lap restart......Dotson had charged from the ninth row into the top ten before his left rear tire went flat on lap 22.....The Clash for Cash combo moves south to the quarter-mile bullring in Quincy Sunday evening.
Sixteen 305 c.i. Sprint Cars were on hand for their opening points race of the season with Andy Huston starting from the pole for the 20-lap main event. On his outside was Damian Getchell, who I believe was competing in his first night ever in a winged sprint car and he looked pretty good before hooking a hole and going for a spin on lap three. Huston had lost his right side headers early in the race and sounded like a high-speed popcorn machine as he raced by the stands in the lead lap after lap. But with just two laps remaining Donnie Steward used the high line in turn two to fly by Huston for the lead, and soon the win. Huston would settle for runner-up money, Jayson Dittsworth was up to third early before spinning on the front stretch and restarting tenth, but he came right back to take the third position at the checkers. John Schulz would finish in the fourth spot followed by Ryan Jamison and central Illinois driver Andy Baugh.
The Sport Compact division was thirty cars strong with twenty-nine of them taking the green for the 12-lap main event. Michael Grossman out dragged fellow front row mate Brent Hartley to take the early lead with the race coming to an abrupt stop two laps later when Corey Sheetz rolled his car off the top of turn two. Hartley blew a tire just as the red flag came out with Dustin Ravelin now picking up the chase of Grossman in second. Eric Hood came from deep in the pack, row nine, to challenge Ravelin for second and with just two laps to go those two drivers came together as the caution waved for another skirmish just ahead of them on the front stretch. There was no stopping Grossman on this night though as he pulled away on the final restart to take the win. Steve Miedke came from row six to claim the second spot while John Whalen and the ageless veteran Wayne Noble were scored third and fourth at the finish. The driver in fifth, Dayton Racer, made the long pull down from Apple Valley, Minnesota, obviously wanting to get out of the snow so that he could racing. Just a sophomore in high school Racer recently won the Class AAA Minnesota state wrestling meet at 145 pounds and helped his team to their eighth straight state title. The youngster got a little jumpy though on that final restart as he actually crossed the finish line in third, but was docked two spots to fifth at the pay window.
Congratulations and a big note of appreciation to Jeff & Amy Laue and the entire 34 Raceway staff for somehow drying this place out enough to race tonight after getting over three inches of rain here on Wednesday and Thursday. The cold temperatures likely kept the crowd down a bit, but those who were here tonight surely enjoyed what they saw and are hopefully excited about doing it all again tomorrow night (Sunday) at the Quincy Raceways.
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