It has come and gone again. Racing at the Illinois State Fair is done again. Friday night before Saturday' scheduled USAC Silver Crown 50th Annual Tony Bettnhausen Memorial 100 and UMP Modified 1st Annual Illini Dash, heavy rains bombarded the Springfield area, including the Illinois State Fairgrounds. It was bad enough that USAC and Track Enterprises both agreed to cancel the show.
Sunday was a different story for the ARCA Re/Max Series Allen Crowe Memorial 100 and 17th Annual Sportsman Nationals. Steve Arpin was fast in practice, and won the pole for the ARCA race. He established early he was going to be a contender. The Sportsman Nationals race was the 1st event. Four time champion Dennis Vandermeersch started on the pole with 5 time champion Wes O'Dell right behind him. Three time champion Jeff Leka started deep in the field, while one time winner Timmy Dick was right behind O'Dell. Only 4 time champion Steve Sheppard Jr. was the only previous winner not in attendance. The green flag dropped and early on Vandermeersch made it well known he was the car to beat. Jeff Leka marched up through the field as well. For over half of the race, the 4 previous winners ran 1-4, with Vandermeersch leading O'Dell, Leka, and Dick. Trouble would strike Leka late when Dick went into 1 too hard and make contact with Leka causing him to wreck. It was obvious Jeff was upset. This happened at the same time that Ethan Schnapp lost a motor. The only way I knew there was contact between the 2 was that there was right rear quarter panel damage that wasn't there before. Vandermeersch went on to tie Wes O'Dell's record of 5 Sportsman Nationals titles. This was his 3rd in a row.
Next was the 48th Annual Allen Crowe 100 ARCA Re/Max Series event. It is always awesome to see NASCAR style stock cars race on the dirt. The race took the green with Steve Arpin leading lap 1. He would lead the first 7 laps before Soddy Daisy, Tennessee's Ron Cox, a mason and substitute high school teacher by profession and racer at heart, took the lead. He would lead a large portion of the race. Arpin found the backstreth wall on lap 14 and did damage to the right rear. He had a tire rub after that. This would come back to bite him later in the race. The first yellow would fly on lap 27 for debris. West Lake, Louisiana driver Mikey Kile and Venturini Motorsports teammate Steve Arpin were the only 2 to stay out and were running 1st and 2nd on the restart. The race went back to green on lap 33. Kile slipped coming off of 2 and Arpin blew by him to retake the lead while Frank Kimmel, 9 time ARCA Re/Max Series champion and 7 time Allen Crowe 100 winner, was in 3rd not even 7 laps into the restart. He was showing that he was going to be there in the end, no surprise to me as he runs extremely well on the dirt. The yellow flag would fly again on lap 37 for Tim George Jr of New York. He backed his Richard Childress Development #31 Chevy into the turn 4 wall. He would be able to drive away and keep racing. The race went back to green with 40 laps in the books. Arpin got heavy pressure from Kile as Kile while Kile felt Frank Kimmel breathing down his neck. They ran this way until the yellow came out on lap 57 for Patrick Sheltra, who went outside a lap car and lost it and backed into the turn 3 wall, causing pretty heavy left rear damage. Mikey Kile came in when the pits opened on lap 60 but Arpin ended up staying out. This decision would come back to haunt Arpin not too far after this. Robb Brent also had a brake fire during the pit stops as well. He reported early to his Allgaier Motorsports crew that he was losing them. You could see extinguisher material go up in the air from the stands and seen it on his wheels when he pulled back out. The race would go back to green on lap 63 and King Kimmel as he is known to some, was all over the Fort Frances, Ontario native Arpin. Arpin ended up losing a tire on lap 64 as Kimmel was able to blow by. Arpin drove around for a couple laps until the yellow flew on lap 65 for him slowing. He stayed on the lead lap. He stopped to get fresh right side tires. The green flag came back out with 70 of the scheduled 100 laps in the books. Cox would pressure Frank Kimmel heavily. Meanwhile, Arpin was slicing his way up through the field. Disaster struck as Kimmell lost the car coming off of 2 while leading and he hit the wall causing significant front end damage to his Menards/Ansell #44 Ford Fusion. He would pit, take 4 tires and make repairs, but not before losing a lap to the field. The green flag came back out on lap 76. Will Kimmel, son of Frank Kimmel's brother Bill, had problems while running in the top 5 and ended up dropping out. With 20 to go Arpin had come back from around 23rd to 6th. Right behind him was Patrick Sheltra, who had worked his way up from back in the field as well after his earlier accident. Frank Kimmel lost some debris RIGHT in front of the flagstand and race control, but it sat there for 2 laps before the yellow finally waved on lap 86. Ironically, Kimmel was the 1st car one lap down and got the Lucky Dog award, which put him back on the lead lap. Sheltra was running 7th at this point. Cox was leading. The race restarted on lap 91 and Sheltra made one hell of a ballsy move by going up top and passing everyone by the time the field got to turn 1. He was very close to jumping the start, which I honestly think after seeing what I did and seeing the video he did as he wasn't quite side by side with Cox as they passed the start/finish line. He would feel the pressure from Cox. The top 3 of Sheltra, Cox, and Kile ran close together. Going into turn 1 of the last lap Mikey Kile bored it in deep and ended up making contact with Ron Cox to the point it sent Cox up the hill and into the wall. He just was making a hard move and overdid it. He wasn't trying to wreck Cox. Cox would hit the turn 1 wall and his day was over after a fantastic run. Since the leaders had taken the white flag and ARCA doesn't end races under yellow, there would be a one lap suicide shootout to the finish. The green came back out on lap 105 with Sheltra getting a good start. Kile stayed close, and for a second looked like he might have a run coming to the line. Coming out of 4 he was a car length behind and that is how Sheltra and Kile took the checkers.
Sheltra obviously did the best of the drivers who came from the dirt. He is a veteran of UMP Late Model competition with 1 World of Outlaws Late Model feature win to his credit. Tom Hessert, a long time east coast midget driver, was 3rd. USAC racing veteran A.J. Fike, who won his first USAC Silver Crown feature at Iowa Speedway this year, was 5th. Local driver and regular car chief on the Allgaier Motorsports #36 of Robb Brent, Kelly Kovski came home 6th. Steve Arpin, the Canadian UMP Modified ace, rebounded to finish 7th in his Mike's Hard Lemonade, Venturini Motorsports #55 Toyota Camry. Robb Brent, driving the Orchard Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Allgaier Motorsports #36 Dodge was 8th. Dakoda Armstrong, USAC hotshoe from New Castle, Indiana, was 9th. Four time UMP Late Model National Champion Rodney Melvin finished 16th. UMP Sportsman veteran and one of the crowd favorites, Mark Littleton, was 17th. Ron Cox ended up finishing 20th after his great run came to an end. Local UMP Late Model and Modified veteran Kyle Logue came home 23rd.
There you have it folks. That is the recap of racing during the 2010 Illinois State Fair. When there is any info about a makeup date for the USAC Silver Crown event, I will let you know for sure. I want to send out my thanks to Track Enterprises for another exciting day of racing at the Illinois State Fair. I am sure Saturday would have been good if it had been suitable to run.
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