Memorial Day Marathon of Racing 2011

It has come and gone again.  Memorial Day is in the books again. First and foremost, Memorial Day weekend is a time for us to pay homage and give thanks to those fighting men and women who protect our freedom and give us as citizens of the United States of America the chance to go and do what we want to do.  This Memorial Day Marathon of Racing 2011 wouldn't have ever been possible without what you all do.

Friday got the weekend started for me with the Northern Allstars Late Model Series at Lincoln Speedway.

The track was in great shape.  It was plenty wet and smooth considering the amount of rain the track had received all week long.  The track was fast all night long.  During the heats, the racing was fast and fierce.  In Late Model Heat race 3, Dillan White attempted to pull a slidejob on Eric Smith, and the results were catastrophic.  The images here show the damage suffered by White in the wreck.


Heats were won by Roger Brickler (who dive bombed Michael Kloos in Turn 1 on the last lap to win), Brandon Sheppard (in dominant fashion), Steve Sheppard Jr. (also in dominant fashion) and Ryan Unzicker.

The feature was paced by polesitter Steve Sheppard Jr. and Brandon Sheppard.  When the feature went green, son Brandon checked out on father Steve Jr, who was quickly passed by Ryan Unzicker.  While those 2 dueled and the field kept racing one another, Brandon paced the field and went on to score a convincing victory.  With his feature win, night 1 of 4 of my Memorial Day Marathon of Racing was in the books.


Saturday I ventured off to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis for the Night Before the 500 featuring the USAC Midgets.

 I ended up going here thanks to a great offer made by Lucas Oil Raceway.  When we reordered our tickets for the Thursday night portion of Kroger Speedfest featuring the USAC Silver Crown and Midgets, and now this year the ARCA Re/Max Series, we recieved passes good for free admission to either the Night Before the 500 or one of their Thursday Night Thunder USAC Sprint Car Series. 

The weather at home was nasty, with lots of severe weather, and all of my local tracks were rained out, so it in the long run worked out.  It seemed like watching the weather we'd dodge the rains.  It was a wonderful day at the track with some cloud cover.  It started getting cloudy right after qualifying, and the map showed rain moving in.  We got qualifying in for the USAC Midgets, the Star Mazda Series, and the USF2000 series.  After that, the Midget heats rolled out, and were completed successfully with some fast and furious racing.  By the 3rd heat, rain could be felt hitting us, but it was nothing more than drops at that point.  The track continued keeping the show ahead of schedule as much as possible. The heats were completed successfully, and the Midget last chance race was rolled out almost immediately.  This would be the last race ran before the rains hit. At that point, the tracked had hustled and the show was an hour ahead of the schedule they handed out as we came in the gates.  The rain started falling, but that wasn't my biggest concern.  When I seen the first flash of lightning, I let people around me know it and I headed down under the stands, and many others heeded my warning.  When the next flash lit the sky up, and the large boom of thunder that followed, the stands proceeded to clear out rather quickly. 

The downpour lasted about 15 minutes, but it rained long and hard enough to require a 2.5 hour period to dry the track.  They even had their jet dryer out for about an hour to get it dry.  When it was all ready to go, the show was about 2 hours behind, but considering it was 9 PM eastern when we got things going, it wasn't too bad.  The first race was a 75 lap (with a 30 minute time limit) USF2000 event.  There was one wreck that took a good 5 minutes to clean up.  In the end, the race ran 69 laps and was won by Petri Suvanto of Nurvo, Finland won the race.  The next race was a 100 lap (with a 45 minute time limit) Star Mazda Series event.  This race went green almost throughout with one caution when the leader at the time hit a lapped car and wrecked in turn 3.  The Star Mazda race went 85 laps and was won by Connor De Phillippi of San Clemente, California.  After this was the 50 lap USAC Midget event.  Brian Clauson made an early move in turn 1 to lead the race early, but it was apparent that he would have company from Darren Hagen.  At 10 laps in, the race between the top 4 was so close you could literally throw a blanket over them.  They were slicing and dicing and moving all over the 6/10 mile pavement track.  On lap 15, Hagen tried to look inside of Clauson in turn 1 but then he got a great run into turn 3 on the low side and passed leader Clauson.  Hagen took the lead, but for a while he was far from comfortable as he couldn't build much of a lead as the top 4 remained all right together.  The first yellow of the feature would fly on lap 30 for a slowing Brian Clauson.  Hagen then proceeded to get a huge jump on the restart, but it was too large as the start was waved off.  "The Hawk" as Hagen is known, got another great start and then proceeded to pull out to a small lead.  Tanner Swanson and Tracy Hines were running together, and picking a lot of cars off. Swanson was in the top 10 from 22nd, Hines from 12th.  The second yellow flew when Mario Clauser stopped on the track on lap 35.  The next restart would be waved off for debris.  The final 15 laps went green, and Hagen would eventually cruise to The Night Before the 500 feature win. 

Sunday I headed to Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois for the Budweiser 50 UMP Late Model Special.

With this event falling right after the Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, there was good reason to expect some good cars and a good car count, and it didn't disappoint.  46 UMP Late Models were in attendance as well as 57 UMP Modifieds.  This was the hottest race I have been to this year weather wise, with temperatures during the daytime being up as high as 94.  There was a stiff wind blowing towards the frontstretch, which I knew was a bad sign knowing how things are there usually.  The track started off brutally rough.  The crew at the track worked to cut it up and smooth it out, but didn't really water it down like I had hoped.  The track did smooth out, but the heats were far from exciting, which was very disappointing to see.  The program had originally called for a Late Model Dash, but the drivers approached promoters Kevin and Tammy Gundaker to fix the track and start straight up in lieu of running the dash.  This decision would be great when the features rolled around.  The Late Model Feature was supposed to be 2nd behind the Crate Late Model Feature, but the order of events was changed and the Budweiser 50 would be the first feature ran.  This was a decision that I was glad to see as the track was coming around.  The feature went green with Brian Shirley getting the early jump, leaning on 6 time World 100 winner Billy Moyer in the process.  The car that was on the move early, however, was the 25 car of Jason Feger.  Feger, who started 9th in the feature, and was up to 4th in 3 laps on the high side, living up to his nickname of "The Highside Hustler".  The first yellow fell on lap 4 for Chad Zobrist.  Feger was doing something that he has been criticized for not doing so far, running more than just the top side of the race track.  Scott James a few laps after the restart would make a move on the 3s of Squirrel, as Shirley is also known.  He took the lead and Feger was side by side with Moyer for 3rd at the same time.  One of the big moves was in turn 2, when Feger made a ballsy move through the middle between Shirley and Moyer to take the lead, which got the capacity crowd going.  The track was really racy and was making up for being so terrible earlier in the evening.  Feger proceeded to open a large lead, but as he got into traffic, "The Silver Shark" Scott James was reeling the tumbling dice 25 of Feger in as well.  Moyer also proceeded to reel in James, and took multiple looks at him, but he wasn't able to get around the 81 of James.  At halfway, Feger had his hands full with James, and James gave him multiple challenges.  Feger fended him off, then proceeded to open a bit of a lead on the field.  With 5 to go, James was all in, and was spinning the tires, even lighting them up off of the corners.  With 2 to go, James bounced off of the lapped car of Brian Divley.  At the white, the leader Feger and James were about nose to tail, and in turn 1 James went for a banzai move in turn 1, making contact with Feger, but both soldiered on, and Feger would end up winning the thrilling Late Model Feature.    It was a fun car ride home as I had gotten a ride from Jason's mom Tracy.  The UMP Pro Late Model (Crate) feature was won by Dustin Griffin.  The UMP Modified Feature was fun watching Ken Schrader battle some of the toughest modified competition in the country.  Michael Long slipped past Schrader but then stuck it in the wall, and Schrader went on uncontested for the win.  After it was over, I went out to the pits and celebrated a bit with Feger and Schrader proceeds to roll up.  In typical Schrader fashion, Schrader yells"Hey Feger!!  When I grow up I want to be just like you!!"  That was pretty funny yet an awesome compliment from a veteran racer.  Also in the pits was Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame driver Roger Long, who was smiling ear to ear with the success Feger was having.  Definitely a cool night, but it was definitely dirty.  Below are some victory lane photos and what I looked like when we stopped for something to drink (and I wiped my face off once during the night. 

 Here is the link to the Late Model Feature video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH1exb0h7kg

 I got home, showered, and to bed from Tri-City at 5:15 that morning, and was up at 10 to do it again.  Monday night I was off to Macon Speedway for NASCAR Night I featuring Ken Schrader, Kenny Wallace, and Justin Allgaier.  Racing were the Northern Allstars Late Models, UMP Modifieds, and Street Stocks.

Here are some of my thoughts regarding NASCAR nights.  Honestly, I'm not the world's biggest fan of them as they are now.  Jacking up ticket prices even more just to see people come in isn't my thing. As for them racing, that's fine, as it can be interesting.  A show that should have been $15 and usually would be was $20 because of the NASCAR people.  The crowd was thinner too, which showed that the novelty of the NASCAR nights have worn off. 

Moving on to the show itself, the track started out okay but started getting unusually terrible track conditions.  The track, usually wet most of the night then slicking off for the features, was hard by the time heats were to run.  Overall, the heat races were a huge disappointment.  For those who might have been there for the first time and are reading this, that isn't what Macon typically looks like. 

For the features, the Street Stocks and Modifieds were both stuck around the bottom, and I had a bad feeling that the late model feature would be as well.  Schrader won his 2nd Modified feature in as many nights.  I was wrong fortunately, and the track was racy for considering the shape the track was in.  It was EXTREMELY dryslick, especially for Macon standards.  Brandon Sheppard was the first to go up top, and it looked like it could cost him, but he was able to run it.  Sheppard was able to slice and dice through traffic and keep Mark Voigt at bay the entire feature.  However, coming off of 4 on the final lap, Voigt made a move, and almost stole one.  Sheppard won his 2nd Northern Allstars Late Model Feature in a row by a nose.  In the end, it wasn't a bad race.

 The final checkered flag of my Memorial Day Marathon of Racing fell at a little after 9:30.  There was some good racing and not so good racing.  However, I most enjoyed spending my weekend doing what I love to to with people who are great friends and family who I love.  Thanks Grandpa and Tracy for being a part of it!!  I was worn out after it all, but if I had the chance to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing.