My 2010 UMP Summernationals Review

Well, that time of year has come and gone again. The time of year where UMP Late Model drivers can go 29 races in 31 days. I always jokingly call it the traveling circus. I am referring to the UMP Summernationals, aka The Hell Tour. The UMP Summernationals is one of my favorite times of the year. So much racing back to back. I ended up hitting 12 tracks on this year's tour, 2 of which I had never been to. Since it has ended, it is time for me to give an overall review of the Summernationals.
The tour started this year at Brownstown Speedway in Brownstown, Indiana on Wednesday June 16th. Billy Moyer, who just won the $100,000 to win Dirt Late Model Dream that Sunday, continued rolling by winning stop 1 on The Hell Tour. My first night was night 2 of the tour when it rolled into Kankakee County Speedway in Kankakee, Illinois. That night saw Billy Moyer overtake Frank Heckenast Jr. and Jason Feger to win 2 in a row. My next stop was night 7, Tuesday July 22nd at Highland Speedway. This night would see Shannon Babb win a thriller over Jason Feger. Plenty of side by side, multi-grooved racing was seen that night. It was Shannon's first win of the tour. Night 8 took the tour and myself to Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois. This one saw Dennis Erb Jr. outlast a barrage from Shannon Babb. Those 2 ran side-by-side for the first 25 laps of the feature. This was Erb Jr's first win of the 2010 campaign. Night 9 almost didn't happen for me. I had a presentation I had to attend for a summer class. I ended up getting out right around 7 and booked from Springfield to Alexander, Illinois to Shepp's Speedway. Made it there in less than 30 minutes, and didn't miss the heats. Shannon Babb would claim his second win of the week and of the tour. The following night, night 10, took The Hell Tour to Farmer City Raceway in Farmer City, Illinois. Don O'Neal rolled in driving for Larry Moring. At the end of the night, he lived up to his nickname of The Real Deal. He blew the field away and won. That was his first Summernationals race of this tour, and first win. My next night was Sunday, July 4th at Lincoln Speedway. This night was the first to have the racing be claimed by Mother Nature. Next up for me was the Thursday, July 8th event at Macon Speedway. This was the 30th Annual Herald & Review 100. The feature was probably one of if not the best I have seen this year, and in a while for that matter. It was a slugfest. It came down to 3 drivers in the end after Brian Shirley dominated the 1st half of the 100 lapper. Babb led a good portion. Jason Feger led a good chunk as well. But in the end, on lap 97, Babb went too high and Dennis Erb Jr. snuck by and led the rest of the race and took his first ever Herald & Review 100 win, which was win 2 of this year's tour. The next night took me to Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. This night was made possible thanks to Tracy Feger, Jason's mom. This night was a good one for the Feger group as Jason scored his first ever $10,000 victory. He won it in dominating fashion, running his traditional high line. This was Jason's first win on the 2010 Hell Tour. The next night took The Hell Tour to Fairbury American Legion Speedway in Fairbury, Illinois. This is probably the most festive date on the whole tour. People come out in droves in campers and motorhomes to tailgate, have fun, and enjoy racing. The racing wasn't bad before the track locked down. In the end, Shannon Babb won his 3rd feature of the 2010 edition of the Summernationals. My next night was Monday, July 12th. This was originally an open date, but since Spoon River Speedway was rained out on Wednesday, July 7, the series decided to schedule the make up for this date. The racing this night was pretty good. This night saw Ryan Unzicker finally break through for his first ever UMP Summernationals win. The next night took the tour not too far, to Peoria Speedway in Peoria, Illinois. The racing wasn't too bad. This night saw Jack Sullivan survive a siege by Jason Feger. Jason was tough, and at one point passed Jack, but a yellow flag negated that pass. After that, Jack held on to win his 2nd win of the tour. My last of 12 races was the Saturday, July 17th date at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio. This trip was also made possible thanks to Tracy Feger. This was my first ever trip there. I loved the place. The racing was pretty good. Rusty Schlenk slipped by Dennis Erb Jr. on lap 17 and never looked back in the 60 lapper. This was Rusty's biggest win of his career, and his 2nd UMP Summernationals win of his career and of the week.
My overall thoughts of the tour this year was that it was a good one. The points weren't decided until the next to last night. There were 4 drivers in the running for a large portion of the tour for the championship. The tour saw 12 different drivers (Billy Moyer, Brian Birkhofer, Rodney Melvin, Jeep Van Wormer, Shannon Babb, Dennis Erb Jr., Don O'Neal, Jack Sullivan, Brian Shirley, Jason Feger, Ryan Unzicker, and Rusty Schlenk) capture feature wins on this year's campaign. Billy Moyer led the way with 6 feature wins. In the end, Dennis Erb Jr's stranglehold on the points championship was broken. Jason Feger was crowned the 2010 UMP Summernationals Champion.


This ended Erb Jr's streak of winning the points at 3 years in a row. There were some surprise drivers who followed the tour for part of if not the whole tour. Those drivers were Bub McCool, Wendall Wallace, Jack Sullivan, Richie Hedrick, and Jim Moon. Only Sullivan followed the tour for every event. I am glad, as the drivers are as well, that the UMP Summernationals is done for this year. It was fun, but now it is back to a state of relative normalcy here in the Midwest.

2010 UMP Summernationals WINS (per driver):
Billy Moyer-6
Jeep Van Wormer-4
Don O'Neal, Shannon Babb-3
Dennis Erb Jr., Jack Sullivan, Jason Feger, Rusty Schlenk-2
Brian Birkhofer, Rodney Melvin, Brian Shirley, Ryan Unzicker-1

To see pictures from the Hell Tour, just visit my Facebook album titled 2010 UMP Summernationals. The link is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=188264&id=503429247&l=5662abba64


Before I end this, I have to thank numerous people. First I have to thank my Mom. Without her, most if not all of my tour wouldn't have happened. The same goes to my Grandpa as well. I would like to thank Tony Hubert as well. He did Twitter updates every night and I was able to follow when I couldn't be there. I'd also like to thank Tracy Feger for the rides to Granite City and Oakshade. To anyone else I missed, THANK YOU!! It was a good tour. Look forward to what the rest of 2010 has in store.

2010 Mid-Season Recap/Analysis

Wow, this season has really flown by. We are already to the midpoint of the 2010 racing season. That means it is time for my mid season review of the racing I have seen so far. On to the grades for the tracks I have been to:

Farmer City: C. What has happened with Farmer City Raceway this season has been a travesty. It is a shame to see such a racy facility sit idle like it has this year. The racing action, the nights I have been and they raced, have been pretty good. The Illini 100 was a decent race. The weekly racing, when they ran, was ok. Crowds were scarce. When they race, the racing isn't too bad.

Macon: C-. Macon Speedway has definitely had an off year, even for it's standards. This year started out with some great car counts in all classes. The track conditions haven't been as good. There were 3 nights early in the season where the track ate tires up on the cars. FOr a month, between rain and scheduling, there were no late model races for a month and 2 weeks, which sucks for myself as a fan. There has been some good racing there this year as well. Last week was a very off night with the fireworks malfunction and dryslick, hard, one grooved race track. The biggest race of the year is Thursday night with the UMP Summernationals Late Model 30th Annual running of the Herald & Review 100.

Shepp's: B-. I have been to about a handful of shows at Shepp's Speedway this year. Only once did I see a bad night. THat was the first night they had ever run the POWRi Midgets there. There was weather threatening earlier and that may have been to blame. Opening night was one of the best nights of racing I have seen all year long. Brian Divley, Dick Taykor, Jeremy Nichols, and Mike Hammerlee were all in the mix and running multiple grooves late in the race. Divley went for broke on the last lap into turn 2 and stuck it into the outside wall. Nichols ended up winning this free for all event.

Kankakee: B. I have attempted to make 2 shows there this year. The first was leg one of their late model triple crown. It got rained out as we rolled into town. I did make the UMP Summernationals race there, They ran just late models and modifieds. The track wasn't as racy as it usually is, but wasn't terrible. They did run quite late that night, the first time I had that problem there. Look forward to hitting more shows later on.

Fairbury: B. The environment there is by far the best there is locally. I always enjoy my trips to Fairbury. There had been a lot of rain leading up to the Bob and Pappy Allen Memorial. The track was rougher than usual> They worked to do what they could but it was choppy all night. It was still very racy however.

Lincoln: D. This grade isn't totally based on the racing. This has to do with how the show is ran. Both trips this year there was a threat of rain. It rained before the main event, the UMP Late Model features, had been ran. Last night's UMP Summernationals event was one that has me quite irritated. You could see there was rain in the area. Yet they ran the Crate Late Model and Modified features before the Late Model feature. Nothing against those classes, but when weather is a threat, you change the order of events to make sure the show that the people paid their money to see is ran. Pure and simple. Racing last night was blah but they kept working on the track and it did get better.

Highland: A. This was my first ever visit to the Highland Speedway located on the Madison County Fairgrounds. It is a unique little track. The racing I seen there was fantastic. They even went out after the semi's, cut the track up all the way around, and watered it. The results was fantastic feature racing in all classes. I had heard they had been doing this, and to see it with my own eyes was a good thing. Definitely will go back there again.

Belleville: B+ Belle-Clair Speedway was eventful as usual. The gates opened 20 minutes late due to their people not being there on time, which wasn't a good thing. The racing was pretty good. Dennis Erb Jr. and Shannon Babb ran side by side for 25 laps in the late model feature. The modified feature, even though it had 10 cars, produced a photo finish with Tyler Dibert winning his first ever feature. Another good night overall.

Brownstown (IN): C+. This is where I kicked my season off this year. I went there for the Indiana Icebreaker Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event. The weather for late March was beautiful and warm. The week before they had a lot of rain fall there. The track showed it as it was quite choppy in turns 1 and 2. The racing wasn't too bad. Definitely a racy track when right.

Eldora: A. I went to Eldora for the 16th Annual Dirt Late Model Dream, my 4th Dream event I have attended. The heats were some of the best I have seen at Eldora before. It rained during the 5th heat, but we got the heats in. After that the bottom fell out of the sky. Then it quit. It stunk, but it happens. The racing resumed 12:30 PM EDT with the C-Main. Don O'Neal actually made it from the C to the B, to the Dream. The race started with Ray Cook, who had just won the Show-Me 100 earlier on Memorial Day weekend, jumped out the the early lead. Moyer made his move on a restart on lap 20. After that he lived up to his moniker or Mr. Smooth. The racing behind him was pretty good for a day race. In the end only 13 cars finished but overall the racing wasn't too bad.

All in all, it has been a somewhat rainy season. The racing has been decent overall. Looking forward to what the second half of the season has in store.

Happy 4th of July

Hello everyone!! If you have seen the calender, it is July 4th. Happy Birthday America!! Today is the day we celebrate our freedom and independence. We have that freedom thanks to our fighting men and women, from the Revolutionary War days until now. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every soldier who has served. Some made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom. I know for sure I have enjoyed every bit of my freedom. Hope everyone celebrates responsibly and has a good time!! I am going to enjoy it the way I love to, going to the races!! However you celebrate, I hope it's both fun and safe!!