The End of the Regular Season At Farmer City Raceway
by Racenut

FARMER CITY, IL (Aug 31) - The end of the regular season was Friday night with a special $5,000 to win 40 lap late model feature. Thirty three cars took time trials, with Wes Steidinger leading the way at 12.619 seconds. The perfectly groomed track provided for some excellent three wide heat races, with the first heat going to Wes Steidinger followed by Dennis Erb Jr, with Joe Harlan and Rocky Griffin alongside. The second heat had Jr Shickel taking the win followed closely by Jason Feger, with Shannon Babb and Donnie Walden alongside at the checkers. The third heat went to Billy Moyer over Darren Miller, barely holding off Brady Smith and Ryan Dauber. The final heat went to Scott Bull over Daren Friedman, who had Richie Hedrick and Chris Dick next to him at the checkers. The first semi feature went to Lisa Shickel, in her first Farmer City win, over Russ Adams. The second semi feature went to Tim Lance over Eric Smith.

The feature event, shortened to 40 laps from 50 laps due to time constraints was a real barn-burner of a race. Wes Steidinger and Jr Shickel started on the front row, and Steidinger bolted off to the early lead. By the 23rd lap, Moyer had caught up to Steidinger and attempted to pass, but the UMP National points leader held him off. On lap 27, however, Dennis Erb Jr joined the fun up front, and Erb, Moyer and Steidinger were three wide for the lead. The following lap, Erb secured sole ownership of second place behind Steidinger. On lap 30, Erb pulled alonside Steidinger, but it took him two more laps to get the move to first place completed. The next few laps, Steidinger could only race alongside Erb, but the final five laps were all Erb. Erb won the feature with Steidinger holding off Moyer at the end, but all eyes were on Brady Smith the last five laps. With five to go, Smith was in fourth place more than a straightaway behind Moyer, but caught up with the lead trio on the white flag lap, making for an exciting finish.

Official finish:
28 Dennis Erb Jr
J1 Wes Steidinger
21 Billy Moyer
2 Brady Smith
S10 Jr Shickel
25 Jason Feger
32D Darren Miller
18 Shannon Babb
0 Richie Hedrick
89 Daren Friedman
83 Scott Bull
22 Chris Dick
49 Tim Lance
1G Rocky Griffin
35 Derek Chandler
74 Russ Adams
1w Donnie Walden
Z Joe Harlan
64 Ryan Dauber
15 Lisa Shickel
9 Eric Smith

By virtue of his 11th place finish, Rookie Scott Bull, driving the Roger Long Racing #83 won the track points championship.

There were a total of 115 cars in the pits.

The modified class once again went to veteran driver Jeff Leka, this time outrunning Lance Dehm, Jeb Friedman, Danny Schwartz, Jeffrey Curl, Gary Cook Jr, Wes O'Dell, and Randy Huffman. Leka was also once again the track champion. Heat races had gone to Leka, Dehm, and Curl with Matt Barker taking the semi feature.

The Sportsman feature went to Wes O'Dell, followed by Joel Funk Jr and Greg Kimmons. The track championship went to Greg Kimmons.

The Streetstock feature went to Greg Rubenacker over Terry Miller, Josh Griffith and Timothy Feldhake with Jim Quinn winning the track championship.

The hornet championship went to Joe Reed. The last race of the season will be a hornet $1500 to win feature on Sept. 14.