From Fourth To First In One Move, Rico Rocks 'Em at Jacksonville

Kenny Dobson is unique as a race promoter these days in that he is not afraid to throw something out there at the last minute and see if it works. Such was the case this weekend when, after Fairbury pulled the plug on their two day Sprint Mania show ten days prior to the event, Dobson stepped up and said hey, so instead of us racing on Sunday night the 7th, let's just go ahead and do it on Friday and Saturday the 5th and 6th with my own MOWA Sprint Car series as the headliner both nights. For most tracks this would not have worked, but for Dobson who is quite the conversationalist on social media, it does and add to that the announcement that Rico Abreu was to be in action and the rumor that Tony Stewart might be on hand as well and the result was a packed house at the quarter-mile bullring at the Morgan County Fairgrounds.

It didn't hurt that the weather was near perfect for the first weekend in October as after climbing into my sleeping bag to stay warm at Tipton the night before it was shirt sleeves and no coat on Friday night.

The MOWA Sprint Car feature was the final event of the night, but it climbs to the top of the list here for an obvious reason. Justin Peck and Bret Tripplett would draw the front row for the twenty-five lap feature with Peck quickly racing out to a sizable lead before catching the back of the field as he completed lap four. This allowed Tripplett and the rest of the field to quickly catch up as the traffic was thick on the tight little race track, but the caution would wave on lap six when Terry Babb slowed. It must have been a case of popping out of gear as Babb would then restart at the back of the twenty-two car field.

On the restart Bill Balog would put the slider on young Ryan Robinson in turns one and two for third and when Robinson tried to return the favor in turn three he would execute a 360 degree spin, but since the rest of the field was bearing down on him the caution would wave. The young Californian who drove the Keith Kunz Motorsports #67 to a new track record in qualifying had to be convinced that he was to restart at the rear and after the delay we were back in action.

Again Peck raced out to a big advantage before getting to traffic, but I can almost guarantee that most eyes were following the progress of fifth row starters Stewart and Abreu as they raced their way toward the front. Still it was Peck who was in control picking his way through the slower cars until lap seventeen when Babb, who let's just say had a tough night, hooked the turn three cushion and turned hard right into the turn four wall nose first. Tripplett who was riding the cushion just behind him had nowhere to go and made hard enough contact with Babb to end his night while he had still been in second.

It took quite some time for wreckers to pick up the two damaged race cars allowing the anticipation to build as the top five now looked like this with Paul Nienheiser right behind Peck, with Joey Moughan and Balog next in line and Abreu now in fifth. Peck could not get away from this new cast of characters as he had before and on lap nineteen Nienheiser dove to the inside entering turn one to put the big slider on Peck for the lead. Justin would look to execute the crossover but when Nienheiser had to hesitate for a split second coming off the cushion in turn four this caused Peck to brake as well stacking up Moughan side-by-side with Peck. You could literally hear the crowd go nuts as Abreu kicked off the cushion in the middle of one and two and dove to the bottom to drive by all three of them down the back stretch to take the lead and six laps later the win. Simply amazing!

Moughan would finish in second with Peck settling for third, Nienhesier would wind up fourth with Tony Stewart dropping Balog out of the top five in the closing laps. Making my way to my car that was parked off the back stretch I could hear the crowd roar again as Rico celebrated in victory lane.

There were thirty-three winged cars on hand while the WAR non-wing sprints topped the forty mark in what would be their final points race of the season, again scheduled with just over a week's notice after the Fairbury cancellation. Terry Babb would grab the lead from the pole positions with Landon Simon and Thomas Messeraull in hot pursuit. A caution for a slowing Mitchell Davis would bunch up the field again on lap four and on the restart Simon would drive around the outside of Babb to take the lead in turn two. Messeraull would also get a run on Babb coming off the top of turn four and as he tried to scoot to the inside of the former leader it looked like he clipped the push bar turning Babb hard right on the front stretch causing him to get upside down for a couple of tumbles.

Once back to racing Simon and Messeraull would be joined by Dave Darland in a three car chase that was slowed once on lap eight when Wesley Smith spun out while running fifth. Messeraull would stay within striking distance throughout the remainder of the race, but he could never get a good run at the leader until the final set of turns when Simon stumbled on the cushion turn three. The young driver out of Tipp City, Ohio, though quickly regained control and held off "T-Mez" to score the win. The Hall of Famer Darland was third while Mario Clouser edged out Zach Daum for fourth.

UMP Street Stocks were also in action with crowd favorite Rudy Zaragoza grabbing the lead early in the fifteen-lap main event. Decatur's Terry Reed would apply the pressure in second and on lap six Reed would drive to inside of Zaragoza in turn one and then come up the track in turn two knocking Rudy over the cushion. As Reed went to the lead Andy Zanhd would drop Zaragoza to third, but Rudy would battle back to make a final lap pass to get back to second pumping his fist in jubilation as he crossed the finish line. The top three finishers parked in front of the grandstand for the trophy presentation and the reception for Reed was already a bit cold, but when he said in the interview that he was sorry for the contact with Rudy , but that it was the track's fault, not his, the boo birds drowned out the rest of the interview and a crew member raised the arm of a smiling Zaragoza as if he were a boxer that had just been crowed the new champion. Zaragoza who is deaf was obviously not mad at Reed as the winner used hand signals to explain that he felt that the track that had been misted right before the feature contributed to the incident. Tanner Sullivan and Jeremy Madsen rounded out the top five.

Hot laps were scheduled for 6 p.m. with racing at 7 and I arrived at 7:50 only missing the first heat race, so a big thank you to Gary, Wade and Duane for saving me a seat! The final checkers waved at 11:30 so tonight (Saturday) when the MOWA Sprints return to action joined by the Modifieds and the 600cc Micros you can bet that the goal will be for the show to completed in a more neighborly fashion.

My racing plans for tonight and tomorrow are still undecided as I wait to see what the weather does. Hopefully you will find me somewhere on the Back Stretch!