With rain on the way 34 Raceway promoters Jeff and Amy Laue and their entire crew set out to beat the approaching storms Saturday night. And, with a huge dose of cooperation from the drivers in all three divisions the full program featuring the UMP Summer Nationals was run off in record time as Billy Moyer picked up the $10,000 top prize.
When hot laps got underway at 6:24 p.m. the sun was out and the air was steamy, but all it took was one glance at the radar to see that storms were developing to the north and west as a Tornado Watch was issued for the area. A solid field of twenty-six Late Models each took their two laps of qualifying and then two heats for the IMCA Sport Mods were contested. The three qualifying heats for the UMP Late Models were up next lined straight up by qualifying times, but on this night it was better to be starting on the outside of the front row as that driver would jump to the lead at the start of each Late Model heat.
Chris Simpson would go the distance to win the opening heat as pole-sitter Shannon Babb had to fight back the challenges of Brian Birkhofer late to finish second. And Jason Rauen would give a preview of things to come by moving from ninth to sixth just missing a the fifth and final transfer position when he could not get past Todd Frank.
Justin Reed surprised the crowd when he outran pole-sitter Billy Moyer to lead the second heat. Moyer applied the pressure though and on lap six Reed stumbled on the cushion in turn one allowing Moyer to drive by on the bottom of turn two. Reed's night went downhill fast on the following lap when he blew a tire in turn one and then limped to the pit area. Justin would later start the B-Main from the rear but retire from that event early as well to not qualify for the night's main event. Moyer would go on to win heat two easily over Kentucky's Tanner English.
Brian Shirley outdragged Bobby Pierce at the start of the third heat and that would be how they would finish after ten laps with Brandon Sheppard and Jason Feger third and fourth.
Two IMRA Midget Lite heat races would be quickly run off next and while it took a couple of minutes for the entire B-Main starting field of eleven to report to staging it was soon on the track as the skies beyond the pit area continued to darken.
Jason Rauen would run away with the win in the B-Main that saw a fantastic three-car battle for the final two qualifying spots over the final two laps. Skip Frey had been running second the entire race and with two laps to go Denny Woodworth challenged him on the inside. Dustin Griffin closed quickly on that duo and as they entered turn three side-by-side coming to the white flag, Griffin made a nifty high to low move out of turn four that saw him go from being out of the feature in fourth to now in the show in second. Woodworth and Frey continued to go wheel to wheel on the final lap and at the checkers it was Woodworth by a nose to send Frey to the trailer for the rest of the night. Apparently UMP has a "free restart" rule on the opening lap as Frey had caused a caution on the original start of the race by spinning in turn one, but he was allowed to restart from his original position on the outside of the front row.
The Midget Lites then pushed off and ran a non-stop and very entertaining ten lap feature with Johnny Murdock, Brayden Gaylord and Mitchell Davis waging a three-car battle for the win. Davis found the high line to his liking to secure the lead with two laps remaining and he would take the win over Gaylord and Murdock. Aaron Schuck would finish in the fourth spot while Jeff Mallonee took fifth.
As a stoke of lightning could be seen over the horizon the twenty-two car Late Model feature field was hustled onto the race track at 8:05 p.m. and after a four-wide parade lap Billy Moyer and Chris Simpson brought the field to green for forty laps or rain, whichever would come first. Simpson would hold the lead entering turn one and when Moyer slipped too high in two, he would fall back to fourth going down the back stretch. Shannon Babb would take up the chase of Simpson and on the seventh lap Brian Shirley slowed suddenly and pulled into the infield giving up the fourth position. The caution waved on the tenth lap when Jay Johnson slowed in turn one and as he limped to the pits you could see the lightning once again over the horizon. The officials and the drivers worked together to quickly go back to green, but the caution was needed again a lap later when one of the infield tires was booted out onto the speedway in turn two.
Again the restart was quick and Shannon Babb looked like he might mount a challenge for the lead but then he suddenly slowed in turn two and made the hard right turn up the track and toward the pit area. On the following lap that scenario repeated as the fourth-place car of Bobby Pierce headed pitside and it was now Simpson leading Moyer and Brian Birkhofer. The gap was about eight car-lengths between first and second and about ten car-lengths from second to third at that point and those distances stayed pretty much the same over the next eight laps. As Simpson approached traffic though, Moyer soon closed and once they started to work traffic he was right on the leader's rear bumper. This allowed Birkhofer to close quickly as well and the crowd cheered on their favorites as the lightning strikes grew even closer.
Simpson was the first to clear the traffic, even opening up a bit of a lead once again before Moyer and Birkhofer had clear racing room ahead of them again, but it didn't take long for Moyer to reel in the leader. On lap twenty-eight Moyer pulled to the inside of Simpson down the back stretch and dove hard to the bottom of turn three. Simpson went to the top to try to maintain the lead, but when he hopped the cushion he had to hit the brakes hard to stay out of the wall and his chance for the win went by the wayside as he was now well back in third.
Birkhofer looked like he might have something for the new leader, but Moyer never allowed him to get close enough to make a run over the final twelve laps as "Mr. Smooth" secured the win. Yes, he had started from the pole position, but he had to come back and earn this victory after making the early mistake. Birkhofer and Simpson were next in line, Brandon Sheppard was the top finishing Tour regular in fourth while Tanner English finished in the fifth spot. With both Babb and Shirley dropping out early, Ryan Unzicker's sixth-place finish will help his bid for the Hell Tour's points championship and even though he was one-lap down at the checkers, Jason Rauen's run from sixteenth to seventh was impressive.
The checkered flag waved over Moyer at an absolutely amazing time of 8:24 p.m. and with the storms approaching we scurried for the parking lot. It was reported that the Sport Mod feature then went green to checkers as well to allow the entire program to beat the rain at 8:45 p.m. and the place surely got wet soon after as we were driving through rain just ten miles west of the track.
Talk about about rising to the occasion! Everybody involved in presenting tonight's program, starting with the realization that the weather was developing in the first place should be commended. Promoters, track officials, UMP officials and especially the drivers for being prepared and for racing clean with very few cautions. This was not only a quick show, but it was darn good one as well!
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