It has been at least ten years since I last attended a race at the Farmer City Raceway and when an event that had been rained out on September 4th was rescheduled for a Thursday night in mid-September it was the perfect evening to return to the eastern Illinois oval. The track's five weekly divisions would be in action highlighted by a $5,000-to-win Late Model feature, a $3,000 top prize in the Modifieds and even a $1,000 winner's check in the Crate Late Models.
The Crates were the first feature to take to the track come feature time and on the opening lap twelfth starting Chris Reynolds went too high into turn one and then just slowed to a stop to take advantage of one of the worst rules in racing as Reynolds would be given his starting spot back for the "original" restart. Shawn Diggs would race to the early lead with point leader Dakota Ewing in hot pursuit and as the lead duo pulled away I found my attention on the three-car battle for third. With four laps remaining Ewing made a run at Diggs off of turn four, but contact would send the leader spinning down the front stretch where he then collected the lapped car of Reynolds as well as Ewing's challenger for the track championship Russ Adams.
Diggs, who experienced some damage on the right front of his car, would be placed back at the front of the field for the restart while both Ewing and Adams would start from the rear. Ewing for his spin of the leader and Adams for having to go to the pits to change a flat tire.
Once back to action Diggs would lead a lap before yielding to Nick Bauman and it would be Bauman who would celebrate the $1,000 win. Diggs would hold on for second ahead of the Taylor brothers, Matt and Guy, while Jose Parga filled out the top five. Ewing would finish ahead of Adams and would claim the track championship in his first year of racing.
The Summit American Modified Series main event would be up next with 22 of the 33 car field that signed in ready to go green for 35-laps. Devin Gilpin would lead the first two laps, but when he slowed in turn four it would be Allen Weisser who would be scored as the leader of lap three before the caution waved for Gilpin. Kevin Weaver would put Bobby Allen's #292 out front on the restart and on the following lap Weisser, Ray Bollinger and Weaver would go three-wide for the lead in turn four. The battle would have to be put on pause though when North Carolina's Nick Hoffman and local driver Zach Oedewaldt tangled in turn three on lap six.
The field would then have trouble getting restarted as Kentucky's Josh Harris spun in turn one collecting four other cars on the first try and then on the second attempt at a restart Steven Brooks would spin in turn one. Once back to green the race would stay that way the rest of the way as Bollinger applied the pressure to Weaver for the lead. The national UMP Modified point leader Mike Harrison joined the battle with ten laps to go and when Weaver dropped the right rear tire over the top of the front stretch on lap 26 Bollinger would take the lead. It was short-lived though as Harrison would take it away on lap twenty-eight and Harrison would pull away over the final seven laps to secure the win. Weaver would prevail in a thrilling three-wide battle for second while Paris, Tennessee driver Lucas Lee nipped Bollinger at the line for third. Brian Lynn finish in the fifth position.
It was now 10:38 and rain started to fall as Harrison was interviewed in victory lane, but the sprinkles subsided long enough to get the 22-car Late Model field to the speedway for their 35-lap finale. Bobby Pierce had earned the pole position, but the outside row would have the advantage all night on the starts and this one was no different as Brian Shirley raced to the early lead. The caution waved for local driver Curtis Hobbs on lap two and on the restart Shannon Babb shuffled Pierce back to third.
Lapped traffic, especially three much slower cars that created some tense moments as the leaders had to dodge them kept the fans on the edge of their seats as the top three held their positions and when the caution waved again with fifteen laps remaining it put the leaders back in clear space. Pierce would take second away from Babb on the restart and would then go to work on Shirley for the lead. On lap 26 Pierce threw a slider at Shirley in turn three only to have "The Squirrel" come back with one of his own in the next pair of turns. Pierce would come right back on the following lap though and take the lead away from Shirley. That would prove to be the winning pass as Bobby would pull away over the closing laps to take the win. Shirley would have to settle for the runner-up prize on this night while Babb, Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker would come off of turn four three-wide to the checkers crossing the line in that same order.
With the Street Stocks and Hornets still in staging at 11:05 I headed for my car as the announcer interviewed Pierce and the rain started to fall again as I pulled out of the parking lot. Despite being three hours from home I still ran into several friends and acquaintances as we waited for the show to start first talking with Larry Bontz and Mike Sunken before spotting Kevin Babcock, Jack Miles and Gary Lee up in the stands. I think that the four of us were very happy to be staying the night within thirty miles of the track as qualifying got underway more than a half hour after the scheduled starting time.
The racing was good though and how could you not love being at the track on a Thursday night in mid-September!
Here's hoping that the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley can avoid the rain the next two nights. Last year I had the honor of joining Jerry Mackey on the microphone at the Yankee and the offer was there again this year, however I will be with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders as they run their Season Championship Saturday night at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Tony Shilling holds a one point advantage over Jon Agan going into the finale so it will be an exciting night of Sprint Car action at the three-eighths mile high banks!
Get out and enjoy a special event of your choice this weekend!
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