Belle Clair Speedway comes to a season end Friday night

BELLEVILLE, ILL (Sept. 29, 2006) - Well, the 2006 points season has come to a close at Belle Clair Speedway on Friday night. The champions were crowned and the races were run on the same night due the Mother Nature’s canceling last week’s program. There were still new cars in the pits and a long distance haul for one.

In the UMP Late Model division, there were 23 cars ready to race. Four new cars were on hand, Rylan Dagg, Rodney Standerfer, Chris Shelton and Republic, MO’s Brad Looney. In the first heat, Rylan Dagg took the checkered flag over Ron Jarrell, Jim Gibson, Bob Brown, Rodney Standerfer, Don Klein, Lenny Garson and Vince Grondzki. In the second heat, Clay Baumann took the win followed by Mike Jacober, Brad Looney, Dan Dondero, Mike Schulte, Bob Geaschel, and Rick Standridge. In the third heat, the victory went to Tyler Diebert over Dan Jacober, Dave Thornton, Mike Hammerle, Bruce Unterbrink, Chris Shelton and Ed Dixon. The dash was run with the six top point leaders in inverted order. Standridge took the win followed by Kreke, Dixon, Hammerle, Klein and Schulte. The semi had 11 cars in the race to add six cars to the field. The cars that went to the feature were Baumann, Looney, Dagg, Standerfer, Diebert, Unterbrink and Jarrell.
The 25 lap feature started with Dixon and Kreke on the front row.With the dropping of the green flag the lead went to Dixon with Schulte, Kreke, Standridge and Klein in pursuit. Schulte would grab the lead on lap two while running in the middle of the track.

The first slowdown came on lap 3 as Geaschel spun on the front straight away. The running order was Schulte, Dixon, Kreke, Standridge and Klein in the top five.
With the green flag back out, Schulte continued to lead with Dixon trailing. The next caution came on lap later as Kreke, Standridge and Dondero got together going down the back straight. This is where things got ugly. Kreke and Standridge then had a few words on the track and the two drivers were given the black flag and sent to the pits and to cool off. This changed the to five as Schulte, Dixon, Klein, Jacober and Hammerle now were the top five.

With that mess cleared up, the race went back to green flag racing. Schulte continued to have command of the race with Dixon still trying to catch Schulte. Schulte would pull away from Dixon by as much as a half straight away.

The next slowdown occurred when Geaschel spun again in turn two and was done after the two spin rule was used to eliminated Geaschel. The running order was Schulte, Dixon, Klein, Jacober and Hammerle running in the top five.

With the green light on, Schulte went to work again to hold the lead. With green light racing going on, Schulte used the middle of the track to do his racing and it was working for him as again he would pull ahead and make Dixon try harder to catch him. The car on the move was 13th starting Baumann as he was using the outside line and moving forward car after car.

As the laps click off, Schulte continued to lead easily with Dixon and Klein having battle for second, but it was Baumann that was the car to watch as he made it into the top five before the end of the race.

With the checkered flag waving, Schulte took his third feature of the year and finish in the top five in points. Ed Dixon would get his second consecutive track championship and finish the race in second place. Rounding out the top five were Klein, Baumann and Hammerle.

In the UMP Modified class, there were 19 cars on hand. In the first heat race, Marty Smith took the win followed by Paul Reinneck, David Seger, Chad Sellers, Brett Korves and Dave Sandage. In the second heat, Tom Ratajczyk took the checkered flag over Brian Bielong, Mark Pflueger, Dave Thornton, Jesse Carson and Matt Koesterer. The third heat produced Jimmy Cummins as the winner with Chris Smith, Marty Smith Sr., Bobby Bittle, Chris Gray and Lenny Bryant trailing. The dash was set up the same way as the Late Model dash. Korves took that victory followed by Carson, Gray, Smith Jr., Bittle and Bielong in pursuit.

The 20 lap feature lined up with Bittle and Bielong on the front row. With the dropping of the green flag, it was Bittle to the early lead with Bielong, Carson, Gray and Smith Jr. in tow. Bittle and Bielong ran side by side for the first few laps, but Bielong would nose ahead before the first caution of the race.

The first slow down occurred on lap three when Smith Sr. had problems going down the back straight and was out for the night. The running order was Bielong, Bittle, Carson, Gray and Smith Jr. in the top five.

With the green light back on, Bielong and Bittle continued their race up front with Bielong holding off Bittle while running the low side of the track. The next caution came on lap five when Pflueger spun in turn four. The running order was Bielong, Bittle, Carson, Gray and Korves in the top five.

Back to racing, the race up front continued to remain the same, but the racing further back was changing. There was movement from the cars that started in the middle of the pack. Drivers like Ratajczyk and C. Smith moved up a few spots.

The top five did not change though the remaining laps and Bielong went on to win his sixth feature of the year. Bittle finished second and won the track championship. It was Bittle’s first track championship since 2003. Rounding out the top five were Carson, Gray and Korves.

In the UMP Sportsmen class, there were 15 cars ready to race. In the first heat, Troy Neager beat Jason Davinroy, Denny Tribout Jr., Kyle Stolzer, Adam Haas, Mike Harris, Shawn Seymour and Bob Casey. In the second heat, Brian Shubirg took the checkered flag first followed by Mike Jones, Joe Volluz, Paul Bauman, Lonnie Casey, Mike Kurtz and Scott Blaveschunas. The dash was the same order as the previous classes. Shubirg took the win over S. Seymour, Volluz, Tribout, Harris and Bauman.

The 15 lap feature lined up by points and had Bauman and Tribout Jr. on the front row. With the dropping of the green flag, Bauman jumped to the lead that was about the end of that. Bauman had leads of ½ the track at periods during the race. He was fast during the feature and could not be touched by anyone.
The racing was coming on behind Bauman and some of it was not good. The racing was going on between second to fifth. Volluz and Tribout had a battle going on for second While Shubirg had fourth most of the race.

The race ended with Bauman winning his 10th feature of the year and also his second consecutive track championship. Volluz, Tribout Jr., Shubirg and Haas rounded out the top five. Haas started tenth and avoided the spins in front of him to finish in the top five.

Next week is the last night of racing at Belle Clair Speedway and it is fan appreciate night. Admission will be $7.00 and you can vote for your favorite driver and that driver will receive $1.00 of your admission.