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Points leaders in all five classes win feature events under full moon at Farmer City Raceway Friday July 18. by: Dan Stewart FARMER CITY (July 18) - With the full moon shining down, it was an eerie night, as the feature winners in all five classes are the current points leaders. In the Late Model class, Scott Schmitt turned in fast time of the 23 cars at 12.781 seconds. Schmitt would also put on quite a performance in the first heat by passing Daren Friedman at the checkered flag for the win. Derek Chandler and Jimmy Dehm followed them to the line. The second heat was another exciting race as Donny Walden and Scott Bull raced the entire distance side by side, with Walden holding off Bull for the win, followed by Bill Gianetti and Joe Harlan. The third heat was a Dennis Erb Jr show, leaving no doubt why he is the defending National UMP Champ and two time UMP Summernationals Champ. Erb took off at the green and never looked back as he took the win over Eric Smith, Tim Lance and Richie Hedrick. The semi feature went to Mike Provenzano over Cody Watters, Rocky Griffin and Jimmy Felker Jr. Come feature time, with Scott Schmitt and Donny Walden on the front row, last week's winner Walden took off to an immediate lead. Erb, Schmitt, Friedman, Smith and Bull were battling for second place. Halfway through the feature, Walden got caught up lapping a car, and after a quick bump to the wall, retired for the evening. This put Eric Smith in the lead, but he had to fight Dennis Erb Jr for the position, as the duo swapped the lead a few times. Eventually, Smith would pull away a bit, and after surviving a couple more cautions, would lead Erb Jr to the checkers. The duo was followed by Tim Lance, Scott Schmitt and Derek Chandler. final rundown: 9 Eric Smith (second night in new car)(first repeat winner in 2008 for late models) 28 Dennis Erb Jr (hot off UMP Summernationals championship) 48 Tim Lance 10s Scott Schmitt 35 Derek Chandler 0 Richie Hedrick 99J Jimmy Dehm 43 Jimmy Felker Jr 95 Aaron Ricketts 74 Russ Adams 30 Mike Glasscock dnf Daren Friedman 83 Scott Bull 1W Donny Walden 38 Cody Watters 1G Rocky Griffin M27 Mike Provenzano 17G Bill Gianetti 22 Chris Dick Z Joe Harlan This night was also a benefit night for Circles of Hope, a foundation devoted to helping children of racing families who have challenging health issues. There were several raffle items including a ride in the track's two seater which was donated by Joe Reed. The ride was won by Mrs Rocky Griffin of Bloomington. Chuck Flynn from muddbossvideos also donated a stingray orange county choppers bicycle that went to David Ellison of Urbana, who also won the tracks 50/50 drawing. Several drivers willingly came to the grandstand to have kids throw pies in their faces. Thanks to Chad Evans, Chris Burton, David Reed, Joe Reed and Steve Brandt Sr as the kids (and others) ended up as messy as the drivers. Thanks go out to all that helped with this benefit, Lois, Roger, Sherrie, Dean, Steve, and others, including the track promoters TruSpeed, and Mike the announcer for all the extra hard work. In the modified class, Denny Schwartz set fast time of the 23 cars present. The first heat went to Danny Schwartz over Denny Schwartz and Mckay Wenger. The second heat went to Rob Fuqua over Jeff Leka and Cory Schwengel. The third heat went to Jeb Friedman over Chad Osterhoff and Jeff Curl. Derrick Doerr won the semi feature over Josh Beebe. The feature event was an exciting race, as Danny Schwartz and Rob Fuqua put on a show with Denny Schwartz, Jeff Leka and Jeb Friedman all trying to get to the front. Midway through the feature, Fuqua and Danny Schwartz seemed to have settled for first and second, but Jeff Leka went by both of them and went on to yet another feature win, this time over Danny Schwartz, Cory Schwengel, Jeb Friedman, Mckay Wenger and Chad Evans. The rest of the top twelve were Chad Osterhoff, Kevin Hastings, Jeff Curl, Kelly Simmons, Derrick Doerr, and Justin Delong. The website MidwestDirtTrackFacts.com had put up a $50 hard charger award in conjunction with Circles of Hope, which was won by Chad Evans. The hornet feature was an exciting barn-burner as Joe Reed took the checkers after starting third. Second went to Bob Zbinden over Eric Wilson, Larry Hawk, Matt Musgrave, John Jones, Jim Wilson, Cook Crawford, Kyle Henegar and Stacy Whitehouse. Henegar unofficially won the MidwestDirtTrackFacts.com hard charger award after starting 18th and working his way to ninth. The street stock feature once again went to Terry Miller over Jim Quinn and Greg Rubenacker, Jonah Buyno, Chris Tackett, Hugh Johns, Bob Simmons, Steve Brandt Sr, Scott Thrasher and Greg Brewer. Miller and Bob Simmons had earlier won the exciting heats. The sportsman feature went to Joel Funk over Gary Turpin, Billy Nail and Jason Unzicker. Heats went to John Barnard and Joel Funk. Bobby Pierce beat Justin Leka and Kyle Hammer to the checkers in the KidModz feature. |