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Darren Miller becomes first repeat winner on 2008 Summernationals tour, and wins his first ever Farmer City Raceway feature event, worth $10,000!!! by: Dan Stewart FARMER CITY, IL (June 20) - Farmer City Raceway played host to the 2008 version of the UMP DIRTcar Summernationals. This was the twentieth year for Farmer City to host the Summernationals tour, and no other track has held more of the tour races. As one of the lucky few, I personally have been to all twenty of these shows. With fifty late models signed in, the current track record holder Billy Moyer turned in fast time of the evening at 12.846 seconds, about nine tenths of a second off his record set in April of this year. There were five heats with the top three finishers from each heat advancing to the feature. All five heats were a bit of a runaway by the winner, but there was some absolutely great racing going on behind them for second through fifth in each race. The first heat went to Moyer, but the show of the evening was Dennis Erb Jr starting ninth and powerhousing his way to third in the first three laps. Jimmy Mars would finish second, but had Erb Jr beside him most of the race. The second heat went to Brian Birkhofer, with Steve Sheppard Jr holding off Eric Smith for second. The third heat had Darren Miller doing a bit of a runaway with Wes Steidinger and Kyle Logue battling it out for second and third. The third heat went to Brian Shirley by a long way over Scott Bull, who narrowly held off Jeep VanWormer. The fifth and final heat went to Randy Korte, with Brian Diveley side by side at the finish line holding off Jordan Bland. There were two C mains, with the to two advancing to the B main. The first C main went to Patrick Sheltra over Chris Simpson and Dewayne Kiefer. The second C main went to Ryan Unzicker over Rocky Griffin, who ran most of the distance next to Derek Chandler. The semi feature, B main, was a very good race, with Kevin Weaver outrunning Matt Taylor and Ryan Dauber. These three would advance to the feature. Finishing fourth was Darren Friedman, followed Don O'Neal, Frank Heckenast Jr, Mike Mataragas, Ryan Unzicker and Terry English. The feature event started out with Randy Korte on the pole next to Darren Miller, the result of a blind draw by the heat winners. The second row had Brian Shirley and Billy Moyer, with the third row being Brian Birkhofer and Jimmy Mars. Needless to say, there was a lot of talent in the starting line up. Thirteen of the twenty one starters had previously visited victory lane at this historic old fairgrounds track. Randy Korte led the first four laps, side by side with Darren Miller. Miller worked his way in front and stayed there to collect the checkers. Forty Lap, $10,000 to win feature....official results (starting position) 32D Darren Miller(2) 28M Jimmy Mars(6) 3S Brian Shirley(3) 21 Billy Moyer(4) 15B Brian Birkhofer(5) 00 Randy Korte(1) J1 Wes Steidinger(8) 83 Scott Bull(9) 28E Dennis Erb Jr(11) 55 Jeep VanWormer(14) 5S Steve Sheppard Jr(7) 11D Brian Diveley(10) B12 Kevin Weaver(16) 9 Eric Smith(12) 7L Kyle Logue(13) 25 Jason Feger(20) 39 laps 12Jordan Bland(15) 1 Will Vaught(19) DNF 89 Darren Friedman(21) 64 Ryan Dauber(18) 3L Matt Taylor(17) Time Trials Fast Time Group 1....Billy Moyer Jr 12.846 Group 2....Brian Birkhofer 13.102 Group 3....Donny Walden 13.041 Group 4....Brian Shirley 13.171 Group 5....Jordan Bland 13.632 Heat #1...top 3 advance to Feature Billy Moyer, Jimmy Mars, Dennis Erb Jr, Ryan Dauber, Tim Lance, Mike Mataragas, Nick Vandenburg, Ryan Unzicker, Travis Wallbaum, Cody Watters Heat #2 Brian Birkhofer, Steve Sheppard Jr, Eric Smith, Kevin Weaver, Matt Taylor, Will Vaught, George Scheffler, Jimmy Felker Jr, Russ Adams, Toby Hallett Heat #3 Darren Miller, Wes Steidinger, Kyle Logue, Terry English, Brady Smith, Donny Walden, Patrick Sheltra, Aaron Ricketts, Joe Harlan, Rich Bell Heat #4 Brian Shirley, Scott Bull, Jeep VanWormer, Darren Friedman, Jason Feger, Jason McBride, Rocky Griffin, Dewayne Kiefer, Roger Brickler, Butch Smith Heat #5 Randy Korte, Brian Diveley, Jordan Bland, Frank Heckenast Jr, Don O'Neal, Scott Schmitt, Chad Simpson, Derek Chandler, Jimmy Dehm, Brandon Sheppard C main #1....top 2 advance to B main Patrick Sheltra, Chris Simpson, Dewayne Kiefer, Joe Harlan, Jimmy Dehm, Jimmy Felker Jr, Nick Vanderburg C main # 2.... Ryan Unzicker, Rocky Griffin, Derek Chandler, George Sheffler, Aaron Ricketts Provisionals went to Will Vaught, Jason Feger and Darren Friedman. Those not making the feature included former winners Don O'Neal and Brady Smith and this year's Highland Speedway winner Terry English The modified class had 32 cars on hand with Jeff Leka picking up yet another feature win over Denny Schwartz, followed by Gary Cook Jr, Jeb Friedman, Lance Dehm, Chad Osterhoff, Danny Schwartz, Cory Schwengel, and Jay Ledford. Modified heats went to Jeff Leka, Rob Fuqua, Jeb Friedman and Jay Ledford. The semi feature went to Jeff Curl over Danny Schwartz. The Street Stocks were also in action with 18 cars present. Jim Quinn and Terry Miller won the heat races. Terry Miller held off Jim Quinn for the feature win over Jeremy Nichols, Steve Maisel and Chris Tackett. The racing program was complete at 10:45 pm with a total of 100 cars on hand. |