English Tames Fairbury Field
Fairbury,Ill. (6/11/22) Race fans were treated to a diverse group of racecars Saturday night at the Fairbury Speedway. Making their lone appearance of the year, the 410 Winged Sprint Car feature went to Millersville, Missouri driver Joe B. Miller. Taking the checker in the late Model race was World of Outlaw Rookie of the Year contender Tanner English from Benton, Kentucky.
Making his first appearance of the year to victory lane in the Modified was defending track champion, Plainfield’s Mike McKinney.
The Interstate Racing Association teamed up with the Midwest Open Wheel Association in presenting the 10th Annual Bill Waite Jr. Memorial race. A field of 36 racers were on hand for their 30 lap, $6000 to win race.
A time of 11.586 gave Apollo Beach, Florida’s Anthony D’Alessio fast time. Blake Nimee (Oswego), Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Al.), Scotty Thiel (Sheboygan, Wi.), and Ryan Bunton (Morton) took the four heat race wins. Joe B. Miller was the winner of the B-main. Jake Blackhurst (Hanna City) and Thomas Jr. claimed the Dash wins.
Starting in the 21st position, Miller found something running the Fairbury cushion. Miller was able to wrestle the lead from Ryan Bunton with five laps remaining and pulled away to earn his first ever IRA feature race win in the caution plagued event.
“ The cautions fell our way”, commented Miller. “ Those guys were committed to running the bottom. I thought it was slowing down. I started ripping it around the fence and it got pretty good up there”.
Thiel finished in second, followed by Zane Devault, Jake Neuman, and Bunton. The remainder of the top ten had Russel Borland, Scott Neitzel, D’Alessio, Jordan Goldesberry, and Dave Uttech finish in that order.
The Fairbury Speedway continued their tradition of remembering the legacy of Pappy and Bob Allen in the 26th Annual Allen Memorial race for the DIRTcar Late Models.
Mike Spatola timed in with a lap of 13.049 for quick time as 19 drivers looked to add the name to the list of Allen Memorial race winners.
Two heat races saw Kevin Weaver and Derek Chandler coming out on top.
As the green flag waved, Weaver took the lead with English moving into the second spot. After two lap four caution periods, English overtook Weaver for the lead and was able to open up a straight away lead over the competition. Spatola moved into second and quickly cut into English’s lead. Spatola got within a car length of the Bluegrass chauffeur, as a caution fell with five laps to go. Ryan Unzicker took over the second position on the restart and looked under English to take the lead. English flexed his muscle and pulled out to a ten car length lead as the checkered flag waved, giving English the $5000 first prize.
Electing not to run Eldora’s Million and Dream races, English chose to prepare for upcoming Summer Nationals and Prairie Dirt Classic.
“ We had a free weekend and I wanted to race at Fairbury”, English said. “ The track was fast, which was expected with the rain we got tonight. This is usually a track that I am not good at. It’s a track that Mike Spatola or someone that likes to bang the cushion. I figured out a line where I could stay off the cushion and still take advantage of it”.
Unzicker, started in 10th, settled for second. Spatola finished in third, Weaver was fourth, followed by Tommy Sheppard Jr. Richie Bell claimed sixth, with Justin Reed, Scott Schmitt, Jake Little, and Glen Thompson completing the top ten.
18 DIRTcar Modified drivers were featured in their 20 lap, $1500 to win race. A time of 14.020 gave Mike McKinney fast time. McKiney and first year Modified racer Lyndon Whitfill won their respective heat races.
McKinney took the lead on the start, as Michael Ledford overtook Mason Duncan for second on the fourth lap. After two cautions on lap nine, McKinney raced out to the lead, as Ledford had to contend with Kyle Steffens and Trevor Neville in a battle for second. Ledford was able to break away from the duo, and worked into McKinney’s lead. A yellow flag was displayed several times in the final five laps, but McKinney turned back the challenge from Ledford to record his first Fairbury feature win of the season.
“ First hats off to the Fairbury staff for getting the track back into racing shape after that rain”, said McKinney. “ Our car was a little tight in the feature. I changed my line in the bottom of turns one, two and ran the top in turns three-four. It allowed me to carry more speed in turn one and it allowed me to free up my entry”.
Ledford made a run at McKinney, but just fell short and finished second. Steffens finished in third, Alan Stipp took the fourth spot with two laps to go and Trevor Neville was fifth. The rest of the top ten saw Matt Mitchell, Whitfill, Jared Thomas, Eric Vaughan, and Dawson Cook finish in that order.
DIRTCAR LATE MODELS
A Feature 1: 1. 96-Tanner English[3]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[9]; 3. 89-Mike Spatola[5]; 4. B12-Kevin Weaver[1]; 5. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[4]; 6. 21B-Rich Bell[6]; 7. 1ST-Justin Reed[7]; 8. 10-Scott Schmitt[8]; 9. 38J-Jake Little[10]; 10. 14-Glen Thompson[13]; 11. 76-Titus Sneed[11]; 12. 80-Rich Dawson[14]; 13. 33-Billy Hough[17]; 14. 2M-Matt Mickelson[15]; 15. 35-Derek Chandler[2]; 16. 42-Mckay Wenger[16]; 17. 98-Cole Swibold[12]; 18. M27-Mike Provenzano[19]; 19. (DNS) 9Z-Jayme Zidar
Heat 1: 1. B12-Kevin Weaver[2]; 2. 96-Tanner English[4]; 3. 89-Mike Spatola[1]; 4. 1ST-Justin Reed[6]; 5. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 6. 76-Titus Sneed[8]; 7. 14-Glen Thompson[3]; 8. 2M-Matt Mickelson[10]; 9. 33-Billy Hough[9]; 10. M27-Mike Provenzano[5]
Heat 2: 1. 35-Derek Chandler[1]; 2. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[4]; 3. 21B-Rich Bell[5]; 4. 10-Scott Schmitt[6]; 5. 38J-Jake Little[8]; 6. 98-Cole Swibold[7]; 7. 80-Rich Dawson[9]; 8. 42-Mckay Wenger[3]; 9. 9Z-Jayme Zidar[2]
Qualifying 1: 1. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:13.049[16]; 2. 35-Derek Chandler, 00:13.053[12]; 3. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.147[15]; 4. 9Z-Jayme Zidar, 00:13.162[6]; 5. 14-Glen Thompson, 00:13.209[9]; 6. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:13.210[1]; 7. 96-Tanner English, 00:13.286[5]; 8. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr, 00:13.301[11]; 9. M27-Mike Provenzano, 00:13.305[19]; 10. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:13.309[8]; 11. 1ST-Justin Reed, 00:13.316[10]; 12. 10-Scott Schmitt, 00:13.403[14]; 13. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.485[4]; 14. 98-Cole Swibold, 00:13.553[18]; 15. 76-Titus Sneed, 00:13.619[2]; 16. 38J-Jake Little, 00:13.680[17]; 17. 33-Billy Hough, 00:13.727[7]; 18. 80-Rich Dawson, 00:13.983[13]; 19. 2M-Matt Mickelson, 00:14.793[3]
DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIEDS
A Feature 1: 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 2. 37-Michael Ledford[3]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens[6]; 4. 88S-Alan Stipp[5]; 5. 777-Trevor Neville[8]; 6. 2M-Matt Mitchell[7]; 7. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[2]; 8. 43-Jared Thomas[18]; 9. 36-Eric Vaughan[12]; 10. 64-Dawson Cook[15]; 11. 73-Mark Rhoades[17]; 12. 17H-Scott Hauge[13]; 13. 11-Mark Brucker[14]; 14. 32-Mason Duncan[4]; 15. 89-Austin Friedman[10]; 16. 69JR-Jimmy Farris Jr[11]; 17. 14-Caden McWhorter[9]; 18. 33-Jason Brandt[16]
Heat 1: 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 2. 37-Michael Ledford[6]; 3. 88S-Alan Stipp[2]; 4. 2M-Matt Mitchell[3]; 5. 14-Caden McWhorter[4]; 6. 69JR-Jimmy Farris Jr[5]; 7. 17H-Scott Hauge[7]; 8. 64-Dawson Cook[8]; 9. 73-Mark Rhoades[9]
Heat 2: 1. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[2]; 2. 32-Mason Duncan[1]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens[3]; 4. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 5. 89-Austin Friedman[6]; 6. 36-Eric Vaughan[7]; 7. 11-Mark Brucker[8]; 8. 33-Jason Brandt[9]; 9. 43-Jared Thomas[4]
Qualifying 1: 1. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:14.020[6]; 2. 32-Mason Duncan, 00:14.135[14]; 3. 88S-Alan Stipp, 00:14.168[13]; 4. 21-Lyndon Whitfill, 00:14.239[5]; 5. 2M-Matt Mitchell, 00:14.347[11]; 6. 8-Kyle Steffens, 00:14.364[12]; 7. 14-Caden McWhorter, 00:14.372[18]; 8. 43-Jared Thomas, 00:14.457[3]; 9. 69JR-Jimmy Farris Jr, 00:14.458[9]; 10. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:14.487[2]; 11. 37-Michael Ledford, 00:14.507[4]; 12. 89-Austin Friedman, 00:14.639[1]; 13. 17H-Scott Hauge, 00:14.648[8]; 14. 36-Eric Vaughan, 00:14.686[16]; 15. 64-Dawson Cook, 00:14.707[17]; 16. 11-Mark Brucker, 00:15.066[10]; 17. 73-Mark Rhoades, 00:15.143[7]; 18. 33-Jason Brandt, 00:15.399[15]
410 WINGED SPRINTS
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 51B-Joe B Miller[21]; 2. 73-Scotty Thiel[10]; 3. 14H-Zane Devault[18]; 4. 3N-Jake Neuman[13]; 5. 6R-Ryan Bunton[7]; 6. 23-Russel Borland[12]; 7. 2W-Scott Neitzel[17]; 8. 01-Anthony D’Alessio[6]; 9. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[15]; 10. 68-Dave Uttech[24]; 11. 39-Jake Blackhurst[1]; 12. 71M-Caden Englehart[20]; 13. 1-Trevin Littleton[19]; 14. (DNF) 7A-Will Armitage[23]; 15. (DNF) 5J-Jeremy Schultz[16]; 16. (DNF) 3B-Shelby Bosie[11]; 17. (DNF) 29L-Brayton Lynch[9]; 18. (DNF) 71-Kevin Thomas Jr[2]; 19. (DNF) 9X-Paul Nienhiser[3]; 20. (DNF) 9K-Kyle Schuett[8]; 21. (DNF) 79-Blake Nimee[4]; 22. (DNF) 10S-Jeremy Standridge[14]; 23. (DNF) 14-Jack Routson[22]; 24. (DNF) 25-Danny Schlafer[5]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 51B-Joe B Miller[5]; 2. 14-Jack Routson[1]; 3. 7A-Will Armitage[3]; 4. 68-Dave Uttech[10]; 5. 87A-Austin Hartmann[4]; 6. 2A-Austin Archdale[9]; 7. 4K-Kris Spitz[14]; 8. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[7]; 9. 29-Hunter Custer[8]; 10. 24-Scott Conger[11]; 11. 28-Luke Verardi[6]; 12. 79J-Jacob Patton[12]; 13. 1T-Tyler Shoemaker[15]; 14. 97-Scotty Milan[2]; 15. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[13]; 16. 42-Cory Bruns[16]
Dash 1 (4 Laps): 1. 39-Jake Blackhurst[1]; 2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[5]; 3. 25-Danny Schlafer[3]; 4. 6R-Ryan Bunton[4]; 5. 29L-Brayton Lynch[2]
Dash 2 (4 Laps): 1. 71-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]; 2. 79-Blake Nimee[1]; 3. 01-Anthony D’Alessio[2]; 4. 9K-Kyle Schuett[4]; 5. 73-Scotty Thiel[5]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 79-Blake Nimee[2]; 2. 23-Russel Borland[1]; 3. 25-Danny Schlafer[3]; 4. 01-Anthony D’Alessio[4]; 5. 2W-Scott Neitzel[5]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller[7]; 7. 29-Hunter Custer[8]; 8. 68-Dave Uttech[6]; 9. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[9]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]; 2. 9K-Kyle Schuett[2]; 3. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[4]; 4. 10S-Jeremy Standridge[1]; 5. 14H-Zane Devault[5]; 6. 87A-Austin Hartmann[6]; 7. 26-Tyler Tischendorf[7]; 8. 79J-Jacob Patton[8]; 9. 4K-Kris Spitz[9]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 73-Scotty Thiel[4]; 2. 3B-Shelby Bosie[2]; 3. 39-Jake Blackhurst[3]; 4. 5J-Jeremy Schultz[8]; 5. 71M-Caden Englehart[6]; 6. 7A-Will Armitage[5]; 7. 28-Luke Verardi[1]; 8. 24-Scott Conger[7]; 9. 1T-Tyler Shoemaker[9]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 6R-Ryan Bunton[1]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[6]; 3. 29L-Brayton Lynch[4]; 4. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[7]; 5. 1-Trevin Littleton[5]; 6. 14-Jack Routson[3]; 7. 2A-Austin Archdale[8]; 8. (DNF) 97-Scotty Milan[2]; 9. (DNS) 42-Cory Bruns
Qualifying 1: 1. 01-Anthony D’Alessio, 00:11.586[11]; 2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 00:11.593[31]; 3. 73-Scotty Thiel, 00:11.595[1]; 4. 29L-Brayton Lynch, 00:11.644[33]; 5. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:11.651[29]; 6. 71-Kevin Thomas Jr, 00:11.665[4]; 7. 39-Jake Blackhurst, 00:11.675[5]; 8. 14-Jack Routson, 00:11.686[32]; 9. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:11.704[20]; 10. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:11.725[16]; 11. 3B-Shelby Bosie, 00:11.730[24]; 12. 97-Scotty Milan, 00:11.751[2]; 13. 23-Russel Borland, 00:11.773[23]; 14. 10S-Jeremy Standridge, 00:11.787[35]; 15. 28-Luke Verardi, 00:11.793[18]; 16. 6R-Ryan Bunton, 00:11.794[14]; 17. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:11.838[22]; 18. 14H-Zane Devault, 00:11.865[19]; 19. 7A-Will Armitage, 00:11.906[26]; 20. 1-Trevin Littleton, 00:11.964[30]; 21. 68-Dave Uttech, 00:11.976[13]; 22. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:11.976[27]; 23. 71M-Caden Englehart, 00:11.986[12]; 24. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:12.020[6]; 25. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:12.079[25]; 26. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:12.094[3]; 27. 24-Scott Conger, 00:12.101[21]; 28. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:12.105[7]; 29. 29-Hunter Custer, 00:12.189[8]; 30. 79J-Jacob Patton, 00:12.237[15]; 31. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 00:12.258[10]; 32. 2A-Austin Archdale, 00:12.283[9]; 33. 42P-Preston Perlmutter, 00:12.326[34]; 34. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:12.636[28]; 35. 42-Cory Bruns[36]; 36. 1T-Tyler Shoemaker[17]
Hot Laps 1: 1. 29L-Brayton Lynch, 00:11.967[33]; 2. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 00:11.988[31]; 3. 14-Jack Routson, 00:12.077[32]; 4. 25-Danny Schlafer, 00:12.100[29]; 5. 1-Trevin Littleton, 00:12.156[30]; 6. 10S-Jeremy Standridge, 00:12.260[35]; 7. 79-Blake Nimee, 00:12.481[20]; 8. 3B-Shelby Bosie, 00:12.634[24]; 9. 7A-Will Armitage, 00:12.686[26]; 10. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:12.688[25]; 11. 14H-Zane Devault, 00:12.708[19]; 12. 23-Russel Borland, 00:12.760[23]; 13. 6R-Ryan Bunton, 00:12.816[14]; 14. 24-Scott Conger, 00:12.825[21]; 15. 01-Anthony D’Alessio, 00:12.904[11]; 16. 26-Tyler Tischendorf, 00:13.075[3]; 17. 4K-Kris Spitz, 00:13.143[28]; 18. 28-Luke Verardi, 00:13.171[18]; 19. 2W-Scott Neitzel, 00:13.179[22]; 20. 68-Dave Uttech, 00:13.249[13]; 21. 71M-Caden Englehart, 00:13.291[12]; 22. 3N-Jake Neuman, 00:13.397[6]; 23. 9K-Kyle Schuett, 00:13.480[16]; 24. 79J-Jacob Patton, 00:13.494[15]; 25. 71-Kevin Thomas Jr, 00:13.541[4]; 26. 87A-Austin Hartmann, 00:13.601[27]; 27. 73-Scotty Thiel, 00:13.610[1]; 28. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 00:13.613[7]; 29. 97-Scotty Milan, 00:13.626[2]; 30. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 00:13.660[10]; 31. 39-Jake Blackhurst, 00:13.932[5]; 32. 29-Hunter Custer, 00:14.056[8]; 33. 2A-Austin Archdale, 00:14.056[9]; 34. 42-Cory Bruns, 00:14.056[36]; 35. 42P-Preston Perlmutter, 00:14.056[34]; 36. 1T-Tyler Shoemaker, 00:14.056[17]