Even though the virus delayed the 12th Annual Slocum 50 by eleven weeks it still had the same festive atmosphere with many friends and fans of the late Brent Slocum coming together to enjoy a night of racing in his memory. They have their favorites, you can hear them cheer over the roar of the engine as drivers such as Brian Shirley, Brian Birkhofer, Shannon Babb and Bobby Pierce take to the track during qualifying, and they respect the others. But if not for some late race bad luck, all of the favorites would have been shut out and it would have been interesting to see how the reception would have been for a driver that some would not have been familiar with.
Thirty-five Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models attempted to qualify for the fifty lap $10,555-to-win headliner with twenty-six of them on the starting grid with two of those favorites, Birkhofer and Babb in the front row. Shannon would use the momentum off the cushion to take the lead down the back stretch and Brian would soon lose the second spot to Tony Jackson Jr. who was digging around the bottom of the 3/8th-mile oval. Jackson would then continue that charge driving to the inside of Babb in turn four to take the lead as lap number four went into the books.
Jackson then started to pull away before the caution waved on lap eight when Chad Holladay spun in turn four and on the restart T.J. Jr. again pulled away from the competition putting a full straightaway between himself and Babb. Pierce had now dropped Birkhofer to fourth and he was closing in on Babb, especially when Shannon could not find away around the lapped car of Tony Toste for several laps.
Pierce would take the second spot from Babb on lap thirty and it would even take him three laps to finally get around Toste and now, with just seventeen laps remaining, Bobby had a daunting task in front of him as Jackson was still way out front. That started to change three laps later though as the leader closed in on a pack of eight cars and the crowd was cheering him on as Pierce steadily cut into the gap. On lap forty-one, when one of that pack of eight Brian Shirley slowed down the front stretch the caution waved as he continued around the inside of turn one and the fans went nuts as now Pierce, Babb and Birkhofer would line up directly behind Jackson with just nine laps to go.
On the restart Babb again found the speed up high to take back the second spot and as he tried to keep pace with Jackson, he jumped the cushion in turn three allowing Pierce to get back around him. That also allowed Jackson to get away once again and this one looked like it was his to win. But as he exited turn four on lap forty-six, Jackson's car suddenly slowed and drifted to the right as Pierce sped by and the caution waved as Jackson's once dominant mount now limped around the track.
The crowd gave Jackson a big round of applause as his car was pushed back to the pits and hopefully if any of those fans didn't know who Tony Jackson Jr. was before this performance, they will know him now as the driver that would have won on this night if not for his bad luck at the end.
This one would now be decided by the fan favorites and many of them were on their feet over the final four laps as Babb again tried to get a run around the top to get around Pierce. Shannon was there and had the run coming to the white, but he had to jab the brakes when Pierce closed the door and both drivers raced each other clean into turn one. Pierce maintained the lead down the back stretch and Babb could not mount the same kind of run out of turn four as Bobby scored his fourth Slocum 50 win much to the joy of the large crowd. Babb and Birkhofer joined him on the front stretch for a star-studded victory lane while Jeremiah Hurst and Chris Simpson filled out the top five. Simpson had started eleventh. Johnny Scott finished sixth, Mike Spatola was seventh, current MLRA point leader Chad Simpson was eighth, Hurst's teammate Garrett Alberson finished ninth and B-Main transfer Tim Manville was tenth.
The MLRA continues a three race weekend tonight at the 300 Raceway in Farley and then on Sunday the series makes its debut at the Bullring at the Rock Island County Fairgrounds in East Moline.
Features for the IMCA Stock Cars and the 305 Sprint Cars framed the Late Model feature and, well let's just say that the Stock Cars struggled. Seven cautions over the first eight laps of racing made for a lot of frustration and rather than give you a blow-by-blow description of each incident, let's just move on to protect the innocent, I will say though that the first incident involved contact between between Matt Picray and Abe Huls with Huls having to go to the back of the sixteen car field for the restart. By the time that we were restarting again with four laps in the books Huls was up to third and would join Chad Krogmeier, Jeremy Pundt and David Brandies for a great battle for the lead once the race was able to put some consecutive laps in.
Krogmeier was the leader for the first four laps. Pundt took the point on lap five and Brandies sailed around the outside of Pundt in turn four to take the lead mid-race. One more caution waved for debris on lap fifteen and the drivers were told they would now either race to the checkers, or the next caution whichever came first. Jason Cook now joined the lead group and while the drivers shuffled for position behind him, Brandies would hold the lead to the checkers to take the win. Cook made his way into second, Pundt finished third, Huls fourth and Krogmeier was fifth. Pre-race favorite John Oliver Jr. who won his heat race earlier in the night was scheduled to start outside of the front row for the feature, but did not make the call.
Most of the crowd stayed in place for the twenty-lap Sprint Car feature that closed out the night with Nathan Murders leading the way on the opening lap. Cody Wehrle is driving the Grant Racing #27 this year and he put it out front on lap two and had built up a nice lead before caution waved on lap seven when Wyatt Wilkerson executed a 360 degree spin in turn three. When the green flag returned Wehrle again pulled away from the field and on lap eleven after contact between Matt Krieger and Devon Rouse, two more cars became involved and while all of them continued on, three of them Rouse, Krieger and Blaine Jamison slowed with damage or a flat tire causing the caution to wave.
Once back to green it was all Wehrle as he drove away to the convincing victory over front row starters Murders and Dan Keltner. Dugan Thye finished fourth on the race track, but he would be scored fifth in the final rundown as officials ruled that he had passed Nick Guernsey before the green flag waved on the final restart.
A nice fireworks display closed out the evening and while the show was a little late to get started due to some extra moisture on the speedway, that proved to be well worth it as I don't think that I saw a speck of dust all night long. And that, my friends, is how you make for a fan friendly dirt track environment! A big thanks to Brad Stevens, Jessi Mynatt and all of the 34 Raceway team for putting on another fantastic show to honor Brent Slocum.
I will take tonight off for the Fourth to enjoy some fireworks with my beautiful bride and then on Sunday night it will be back down to the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly for the Sprint Invaders who will be battling for a $2,000 winner's check.
Be safe and stay healthy!
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