Last October the UMP Fall Nationals at the Lincoln Speedway in central Illinois battled inclement weather and eventually the Saturday night program was postponed to the Spring of 2021, Friday April 9th. And as it turned out this rescheduled event would wind up being one of the only events to escape inclement weather this weekend as nearly every other track was too wet from mid-week rains, or were looking at dire forecasts for Friday night and Saturday.
Frankly, this show was fortunate that those other races were canceled in a timely manner as the field of fifteen Super Late Models included at least four drivers who were originally headed to the Lucas Oil Raceway in Wheatland, Missouri, for the MLRA Spring Nationals and there were two of the track's best Pro/Crate Late Model cars on hand to boost the count.
I am assuming that it rained here during the week as well, but on Friday you could not ask for better weather for early April with sunny skies and a mild wind despite temperatures climbing into the 70's. It was a twelve degree increase from the start of my my two hour and forty-five minute trip to the east. The track was not rough, but I would describe it as "grabby" meaning that we saw several cars get on the bicycle entering the turns and it would send three of the four cylinder Hornet cars up and over, two of them in spectacular fashion. This was not caused by a lack of effort by the track crew though as they often took to the surface between races to keep it packed down smooth and wide and after the heat races an efficient run by the grader kept the surface smooth, but quite tacky.
"Grabby"
The thirty lap Super Late Model feature was third on the card, but since they were the headliners I will start there and this one would be a battle between front row starters Tanner English and Brian Shirley. Shirley would lead by a nose at the line for lap one and as their battle continued into turn one Dustin Vandermeier would somehow spin sideways down the front stretch. Jeb Simmons would take evasive action to keep from drilling Vandermeier, but his hard turn to the right would take him head on into the outside wall going into turn one and he would then roll over onto his top. Simmons would climb out uninjured, but he would be taking a destroyed race car back to his Wentzville, Missouri home.
Once back to green the battle between Shirley and English continued until lap ten when hometown favorite Myles Moos coasted to a halt with rear end damage. The final twenty laps would run under green flag conditions and with ten laps remaining English poked a nose under Shirley entering turn three. When the leader slammed the door English had to check up and that bobble would allow Shirley to get away to a half straightaway advantage, a lead that he would maintain to the checkers and a $3,000 top prize. English would finish in the second spot with Ryan Unzicker a distant third.
It was an odd night for Bobby Pierce. Coming off his first career World of Outlaws win last week at Farmer City, Pierce qualified seventh in his group of eight with Crate racer Jake Little even timing in faster than Pierce. He ran one lap of his heat race before pulling into the infield lining him up fifteenth in the main event and while he raced his way up to fourth at the checkers, it just didn't seem like a normal "Smooth Operator" performance. Jake Timm would round out the top five.
Ashton Winger was one of the last Late Models to arrive at the track and the young Georgian was running second in his heat race before spinning in turn four on the final lap collecting Timm. Winger would come out for the feature and take a few laps at the back before calling it a night.
The $1,500-to-win Modified feature was shaping up to be quite a battle before a couple of incidents eliminated some of the top contenders. The first two cautions were for debris as the twenty-one car field rocketed around the quick quarter-mile. On a lap four restart the third-place car of Allen Weisser bicycled entering turn one and after successfully bringing the car back down on all fours Weisser pulled off the back stretch and into the pit area.
Ray Bollinger was the leader at this point with Michael Long in hot pursuit and at the mid-race point of the twenty-five lap distance Long made a dive at Bollinger into turn three. The leader would have to move up a line to avoid contact, but he would maintain the point and on the following lap Ohio visitor Tim Monroe would spin in turn four right in front of the lead duo. Both Bollinger and Long were able to miss the stalled car and it would be the ensuing restart that would decide this one.
As the field raced off of turn two in tight formation, Long would slow suddenly causing both Kenny Wallace and Jeff Leka to crash hard into him midway down the back stretch. The right front would be sheared off of the #36 of Wallace and Leka's car would have to be taken off the fence before it could be towed back to the pit area, but both drivers were okay.
With Long, Wallace and Leka all out of the race, Bollinger would dominate the second half to take the win while Rick Conoyer and Tommy Sheppard Jr. traded the second spot over the final three laps and had a few words for each other after the entertaining battle that saw Conoyer take the runner-up cash. Defending track champion Brandon Roberts would finish fourth while Chris Morefield came from the tenth row to take fifth.
I would describe the twenty-lap Pro Modified feature as a victim of the UMP lineup format with the fast cars starting up front as the only change for position in the top five after the opening laps came when James Hileman jumped the cushion with four laps to go and dropped from third to fifth. Kevin Crowder would lead the entire distance that was stopped just once for debris on lap nine to take the win ahead of Kyle Helmick, Ryan Hamilton, Billy Knebel and Hileman.
With this event being one of the only ones to be able to go tonight there were several of our traveling friends there including my Positively Racing colleagues Danny Rosencrans and Ed Reichert so make sure that you check out their thoughts as well by clicking on their names. My favorite retired postal worker David Schlise and his crew from Wisconsin were also on hand and he convinced me to stay for the final race of the night, the fifteen lap Hornet feature rather than fighting much of the large crowd that had headed for the parking lot after the Late Models and David was right, it would be the best race of the night.
Tipton, Iowa's Josh Starr, the last driver to check in on the night, would lead the race throughout most of the distance with Kenny Butterfield and Erik Vanapledoorn in hot pursuit. As that lead trio worked traffic going down the back stretch on lap thirteen, Vanapledoorn was able to slip under Starr entering turn three but when he pushed up a bit in turn four, Butterfield seized the opportunity and took the lead under the waving green. That three car battle would continue over the final two laps with Butterfield taking the win over Vanapledoorn and Starr, but after the checkers Vanapledoorn would take a hard rollover in turn two. Thankfully he climbed out of the car unscathed, but I am sure that this just added to his frustration of coming up just shy of a victory on opening night.
Jay Mariuzza who we have seen a couple of times at East Moline finished in the fourth spot and Michael McKay was fifth. Earlier in the night Billy Mason launched his Hornet as high as I have ever seen one of these cars get as the track grabbed him entering turn one, but the safety equipment did its job and Mason waved to the crowd after getting out of the crumpled car.
I have been to the Lincoln Speedway before, but I did not remember a roof over two thirds of the large seating area and you just have to love the fairgrounds atmosphere where you pay from your car as you enter the facility. I will look forward to another trip here in the near future!
As we said our goodbyes many of the travelers were trying to figure out their destination for Saturday night and as I write this now it looks like Boone is their only remaining option. My next targets will be four nights of MLRA action in the state of Iowa next week with Wednesday at the Stuart Speedway, Thursday at the Davenport Speedway and Friday and Saturday at 34 Raceway for a two-day version of the Slocum 50. Hope to see you there!
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