Ansar Shrine 50 Recap

I am going to start this recap off by first recapping my radio experience.  I was fortunate, being a long time fan who went weekly to Macon as a kid, to be selected to go on Macon Speedway Live with Brett Zerfowski to kind of share where my love for the sport was born.  I literally didn't have enough time to name all of the drivers who I have seen race there in 15 years, locals and stars.  From what I have gotten in the way of feedback of those who listened, it went well.  I want to thank you all for your support.  As long as I have followers, I will give updates and keep doing the blog.  I do it for the love of the sport and I just want to share the passion I have for it with others who love it as well.  Now, on to the race recap.

The night began with qualifying for the UMP Late Models.  There were 24 UMP Late Models in attendance at Macon Speedway tonight.  Roger Brickler was the fastest of those 24 with a lap of 10.868.  The street stock heats were the first group of events.  Those heats would be won by Mike Pickering and Blake Shelly.  The racing in both gave a pretty good indication of the carnage and insanity that would ensue as the night went on, for all classes.  The UMP Modified heats were next up.  The heat winners were Dave Crawley Jr., Jeremy Nichols in a barn burner of a heat with a ton of side by side racing, and Aaron Burcham.  The Pro Hornet heats followed.  John Lewis and Eric Wilson scored heat wins.  Then it was on to the UMP Late Model Heats for the Ansar Shrine 50.  Heat 1 would see Roger Brickler win, with John Beck, Dick Taylor, Kerby Damery, and Zach Bunning rounding out the top 5.  Racing was all around the bottom in the 1st and the 2nd heat as well.  The 2nd heat was won by Richie Hedrick.  The rest of the top 5 for heat 2 was Brandon Sheppard, Rick Standridge, Rodney Standerfer, and Chris Dick.  Heat 3 saw some multi-groove racing.  Corey Daugherty was the first driver in the late model class to make the top side work, and boy did he ever in the heat.  He won the heat, and was followed by Steve Lance Jr., Brian Divley, Terry Reed, and Ryan Little.  The final heats were the amateur hornet heats.  Those were won by Adam Webb and Jared Matherly.  Semi features followed the final heat.

The first semi was the UMP Modified semi feature.  It was won by Roger Drake, with Danny Maguire, Jeff Wallace, Clark Robertson, and Dave Echols advancing to the Modified feature.  Before the Late Model semi was ran, there was an intermission and the Ansar Shriners came out to the track and we got to see a parade right there at the track. Here are some photos from the parade.

It was wonderful to see all of the Shriners out on the track.  I want to thank them all right now for coming out like they did.   Everyone in the stands appreciated it. The Late Model semi feature was the last semi feature of the night.  Kyle Logue's bad luck continued as he ended up hitting the wall after John Graham got into him, bumming his ankle in the process.  The top 5 that advanced to the Ansar 50 were Mike Hammerlee, Kevin Moffett, Jim Moon, Jospeh Hughes, and Ethan Schnapp.

The first feature of the evening was the street stock feature.  Just like the heats, there was some insane racing throughout the field.  Plenty of side by side racing, contact too.  When it was all said and done, Mike "Jimbo" Pickering won the feature.  Next up was the UMP Modified feature.  This one was absolutely filled with side by side racing   Jeremy Nichols led it wire to wire, although he was lucky to even take the green as he looped it on the initial start.  It was a hornet's nest behind him.  Dave Crawley Jr., Aaron Burcham, Randy Huffman (who started close to 10th), and Mark Tullis rounded out the top 5.  That group of 2-5 ran side by side quite a bit with Tullis and Huffman making the top side work for them.  Next up was the Pro Hornet Feature.  Michael Webb ended up winning that feature.

Next up was the show everyone had came to see, the UMP Late Model Ansar Shrine 50.  Roger Brickler and Ritchie Hedrick led the field to the green flag.  Ritchie would jump up top and take the lead.  Behind him, an all out war was being waged.  The first yellow would fly on lap 4 when Kevin Moffett pinched Ryan Little into the wall.  To put it as it was, Little was pissed.  He actually punched Moffett's car twice when it came by  on one pass.  Every time Moffett went by, Ryan showed him his displeasure with him.  The top 10 at this point of the race was Ritchie Hedrick, John Beck, Roger Brickler, Cory Daugherty, Steve Lance Jr., Rick Standridge, Kerby Damery, Brandon Sheppard, Dick Taylor, and Brian Divley   The green flag waved over the field again, with the battles behind the leader picking right back up where they had ended when the yellow waved.  Greg Kimmons spun out on lap 7 to bring out the 2nd caution of the event.  The top 10 was the same except that Chris Dick had gotten around Brian Divley for 10th.  The green flag flew again and, just like before, the insanity resumed.  John Beck was cranking up the pressure on Hedrick, and the 2 actually made contact coming off of turn 4 when Ritchie came up to block and Beck had a pretty good run going.  The yellow flew for the 3rd time on lap 10 for Jim Moon.  The top 10 with 1/5 of the race in was Hedrick, Beck, Brickler, Daugherty, Lance Jr., Standridge, Damery, Sheppard, Dick, and Taylor.  The green flag and racing resumed again.  The yellow would fly on lap 15 for the 4th time when Chris Dick looped it.  Brandon Sheppard was put to the back for making contact, which I didn't see.  They were close, but didn't see any contact.  Sheppard wasn't happy and plead his case to no avail.  He would rejoin at the tail of the field.  The green flag waved again and would stay out for a while.  Hedrick built at one point a half a track lead over the field.  The top 5 at halfway was Ritchie Hedrick, John Beck, Roger Brickler, Steve Lance Jr., and Rick Standridge, who was on the move on the low side.  The yellow would fly for the 5th time on lap 31 when Roger Brickler finally drove over his head in turn 3, bounced off of the wall, and eventually spun in turn 4, lighting the tires up.  The top 10 with 19 laps to go was Hedrick, Beck, Lance Jr., Daugherty, Standridge, Damery, Dick, Divley, Taylor, and Terry Reed.  The green flag flew, but yellow would fly 4 laps later for the 6th time on lap 35 when Terry Reed spun.  Roger Brickler, trying to avoid, cut too hard right and ended up on the turn 4 wall.  The yellow was for the 11k of Terry Reed.

The top 10 with 35 laps in and 15 laps remaining was Hedrick, Beck, Lance Jr., Daugherty, Standridge, Damery, Dick, Divley, Sheppard, Taylor.  Damery was showing that he had tires left, and Sheppard had charged from the tail up to 9th.  The green flag waved again, but didn't even last a lap as Cory Daugherty lost the center out of his right rear wheel, bringing out the caution for the 7th time and final time.  The top 10 on the final restart was Hedrick, Beck, Lance Jr., Standridge, Damery (showing muscle as he had saved his tires), Dick, Divley, Sheppard, Taylor, Hughes.  The green flag flew again, and John Beck had found a 2nd wind.  He was all over Hedrick for the lead for a few laps, but when the tires got hot Hedrick cruised away to the win.

The top 10 in the Ansar Shrine 50 was Richie Hedrick, John Beck, Kerby Damery, Rick Standridge, Chris Dick, Brian Divley, Brandon Sheppard, Dick Taylor, Steve Lance Jr., and Mike Hammerlee.  The final feature of the evening was the amateur hornet feature.  Jared Matherly won the Amateur Hornet feature.  The evening was done at 10:03 PM.  It was a wild and crazy night at the races.  The Shriners raised a lot of money.  Raised $1,100 in the 50/50 drawing, and the racing was entertaining.  All in all, a pretty good night from the fan's perspective.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this night a success!!