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Dan Stewart
FARMER CITY, Ill. (August 8) - A three car battle for twenty five laps Friday at Farmer City Raceway ends with Steve Sheppard Jr in victory lane.
Beautiful weather brought out thirty of the Midwest Stars of UMP Late Model racing to Farmer City Friday night. If you are a real race fan, this was one night you will be sorry you missed. Jason Feger turned in fast time at 12.667 seconds. Feger also won his heat going away, turning laps in the 12.5 second range. A distant second was Daren Friedman, followed by Richie Hedrick, and Ryan Unzicker. The second heat went to Steve Sheppard Jr over Frank Heckenast Jr, Brandon Sheppard, and Rich Bell. The third heat went to Kevin Weaver over Joe Harlan, Scott Bull, and Kyle Logue. The fourth and final heat started out with Eric Smith and UMP National Points leader Dennis Erb, Jr battling it out for the first half.
Finally, Erb Jr got the advantage going on for the win over Smith, Donny Walden, and Don Cisco. The semi feature went to Terry Babb over Matt Taylor. The feature event started out with Jason Feger and Steve Sheppard Jr on the front row. It took two laps for Sheppard Jr to get in front of Feger. From that point on, the duo, with Dennis Erb Jr in tow, while surviving three cautions, decided to run almost the entire race two and three cars wide. Sheppard led almost all the laps, but there were times when the lead trio were three wide, swapping grooves and running positions several times a lap. The few folks in the grandstands that were not standing before the white flag, all stood up and the whole place was cheering as they came down for the checkers. There was a backmarker turning sideways right in front of them, and Sheppard Jr had to do some maneuvering to avoid a crash at the checkers. When Sheppard Jr steered to avoid the car in front of him, Feger also had to change his line a bit, as he was right next to Sheppard. And, Erb Jr was right on their tails trying to make one last ditch effort for the win. Final top five was Steve Sheppard Jr, Jason Feger, Dennis Erb Jr, Kevin Weaver and Frank Heckenast Jr.
Eighteen of the twenty starters finished on the lead lap, there were three cautions, and the late model feature was finished at 10:20 pm
In the Modified division, Mckay Wenger turned in fast time of the twenty six cars present. Wenger then won his heat over Chad Evans, Jeff Leka and Denny Schwartz. The seond heat went to Ben Hulse over Jay Ledford, Justin DeLong and Dean Rhodens. This was an exciting race, as Hulse and Ledford race most of the race side by side. The third heat went to Cory Schwengel over Justin McCoy, Chad Osterhoff and Darcey Wey. The semi feature went to Jeff Curl over Danny O'Dell. The feature started out with Mckay Wenger on the pole and the early lead. Even though Jeff Leka started seventh, about half way through the event, he got around Wenger and sailed off in the distance to yet another feature win. Rounding out the top seven, within three car lengths of each other, were Chad Osterhoff, unofficially Mckay Wenger, Chad Evans, Cory Schwengel, Justin DeLong, and Denny Schwartz. Leka is not only the current UMP modified track points leader and multi-time defending champion, but is also leading the UMP National points as well.
The sportsmen heat went to Jason Unzicker over Joel Funk. In the feature, however, Funk would get around Unzicker and park himself in victory lane. The points leader Funk was followed by Unzicker and Chris Anderson.
The street stock heats went to Jim Quinn over a hard charging Chris Tackett, but the race in this one was for second and at one point there were five cars racing for second. The second heat went to Terry Miller over Josh Griffith. The feature went to Terry Miller with Chris Tackett second.
The hornet heats went to UMP National points leader Joe Reed over David Reed, and to Jason Maier over Larry Hawk. And once again the feature went to Joe Reed followed closely by David Reed.
There were 102 cars in the pits.
Feature
1 2 5S Steve Sheppard Jr New Berlin, Il 60 2 1 25F Jason Feger Bloomington , Il 55 3 4 28 Dennis Erb Jr. Carpentersville , Il 50 4 3 B12 Kevin Weaver Gibson City, Il 45 5 6 99 Frank Heckenhast Jr Orland Park, Il 40 6 5 89 Daren Friedman Forrest , Il 38 7 10 5B Brandon Sheppard New Berlin, Il 36 8 7 Z Joe Harlan El Paso, Il 34 9 8 9 Eric Smith Shirley , Il 32 10 9 0H Richie Hedrick Urbana , Il 30 11 19 30 Mike Glascock Leroy , Il 29 12 17 88 Terry Babb Decatur , Il 28 13 15 7L Kyle Logue Decatur , Il 27 14 12 1W Donny Walden Towanda , Il 26 15 13 24 Ryan Unzicker El Paso, Il 25 16 20 10S Scott Schmitt - 24 17 14 21B Rich Bell - 23 18 16 DC3 Don Cisco Iii Oreana , Il 22 19 11 83 Scott Bull Fairbury , Il 21 20 18 3L Matt Taylor Springfield , Il 20
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