Late Cautions Lead To Big Changes At Farley's Late Model Doubleheader

If you are a fan of Late Model racing who does not like to watch "support classes" then you absolutely should have been at the Farley Speedway Tuesday night as Simmons Promotions presented the UMP Late Model Summer Nationals paying $10,000-to-win backed up by an IMCA Late Model show paying $1,000-to-win. All Late Models, all the time on a warm and sticky June night. The fact that this show was even being run at all is a tribute to the hard work of promoter Keith Simmons and his crew to get the facility into racing shape after more than three inches of rain fell overnight on Monday and while it was definitely wet around the edges, the racing surface was in prime condition for action.

I actually changed my seat when I realized that I was essentially sitting over a pond underneath the bleachers assuming that this would be the night that I would drop my phone. It was drier under the seats off the exit of turn four, plus you could hear the speakers much better there as I did not want to miss out on a night of one of my favorite announcers, Jerry Mackey.

With the heavy rains of the night before and the Armageddon-like forecast being given out by some of the area's radio and television meteorologists leaving this event somewhat uncertain, the car count was likely affected with 25 UMP and 23 IMCA Late Models in the pits. I thought that we might see more, especially in the UMP Late Models but then again the counts have been lower than expected at all four races that have been contested so far. At an average of 26.75 that might just be the slowest start that the Tour has had in some time and the weather has had a lot to do with that with either rainouts (two) or a threat of rain coming into play nearly every night. It will be interesting to see if the count jumps any when it moves into the heart of UMP country tonight at the Spoon River Speedway near Canton, Illinois. But now back to Farley.....

Two drivers appeared to have their feature race locked up until a late caution in each event led to some big changes and a different driver visiting victory lane.

The thirty-lap IMCA Late Model feature was up first with hometown driver Jason Rauen quickly pulling away from the pack using his preferred top line off the front row. As the battle raged for second Rauen opened up a full straightaway lead by lap four and he was already working traffic on the eighth circuit as Luke Goedert took over second and tried valiantly to catch up. Goedert had trimmed the advantage a little bit when the caution flag waved with nine laps remaining for a small piece of debris just below the flag stand on the exit of turn four. Only one more lap went in the book before Nick Marolf spun in turn two and on the ensuing restart Justin Kay quickly moved to second while Goedert slipped to fifth. Things got even worse a lap later for the driver who earlier appeared to have a runner-up finish well in sight when Goedert spun in turn one to cause the third caution of the event.

On the restart Rauen blocked off Kay's charge on the bottom that then allowed Jeff Aikey to sweep by on the high side to take second, but only briefly as Kay came charging back the following lap. After having his high side bid off of turn two closed off by Rauen, Kay drove deep into turn three and leaned on the leader just a bit in four only to have the caution wave again with four laps to go, this time for a spin by Becky Roth. Once back to green Kay again went to the top side of turns one and two and this time he was able to sail past Rauen before the leader could drift up and close the door. The defending IMCA Late Model National Champion then cruised the final three laps to win what I believe I heard him say was his first feature ever at the Farley Speedway. Rauen held off Aikey for second, Tyler Bruening came from tenth to finish fourth while Joel Callahan started twelfth and finished fifth.

The UMP Super Late Models were up next for fifty laps and with lightning flashing to the south it was Brian Shirley who would lead the opening lap. When Shirley slipped high off of turn two though, Billy Moyer drove under both Shirley and Ryan Unzicker to take the lead headed down the back stretch and, just like Rauen in the IMCA race, Moyer quickly put some distance between himself and the entertaining battle for second. Even a pair of cautions on laps twelve and fourteen did not keep Moyer from opening up an advantage aided by the battle between Unzicker, Shannon Babb and Rick Eckert for that second position. With ten laps remaining though the caution waved again for Shirley who had coasted to a halt with a flat right rear tire and on the restart Babb went right to work on Moyer for the lead. Those two went into turn one side-by-side on the following lap and as Moyer searched for that kick off of the turn two cushion, instead his right rear tire went flat sending him for a spin. Fortunately everybody missed him, but what had earlier looked like a sure victory was now a bitter defeat for the veteran driver originally from Des Moines, Iowa.

Unzicker made a run following the restart, but there would be no getting by him over the final laps as Shannon Babb secured the $10,000 top prize. Unzicker and Eckert were next in line and are sitting at the top of the Summer Nationals points after just four events. Bobby Pierce, sporting the look that his father Bob campaigned years ago throughout the Midwest finished in the fourth position while Brandon Sheppard was steady in fifth. Shirley came back to finish sixth with Billy Moyer Jr. in seventh while Jason Rauen made it a solid doubleheader by coming from the back of the field to finish eighth.

Bobby Pierce went "old school" with a look that his father Bob won with often

As mentioned above, the fact this show even went on was due to the stellar effort put forth by Simmons and his crew to get the place ready to race and it was good to see that the threat of more rain did not take a bite out of the crowd as the stands, and the parking lot were very well populated. And of course, no trip to an SPI track would be complete without one of the tenderloin sandwiches! The next event at Farley will be on Friday night June 27th as the track will host a "Legends Night" and I thought that it was pretty cool that just as Jerry Mackey was promoting this event during a break, both Ed Sanger and Rollie Frink walked by in front of me.

Next up for me will be a doubleheader for the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders first on Thursday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and then on Friday night at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway. Hope to see you there!