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2nd Annual Spring Fling…Macon Speedway Opening Night.
By Brett Zerfowski
MACON, IL (April 4) - It’s been 64 years in the making. Macon Speedway
reopened its gates for the first time since the 2008 season finale on
September 27th. Five divisions with drivers ready to get off to the best
possible start.
It all starts with the heat races and the Sportsman heats were certainly a
great way to start the season as Mike Pickering battled John Roedell for the
top spot in heat one and was able to hold him off for the first checkered
flag of 2009. Scott Landers, who finished second in the 2008 points, took
the second heat over Tim Beddinger.
And with that, the Spring Fling was underway.
The heats were fast all night for all classes and exciting racing paved the
way to outstanding feature races. The track was in tremendous shape for the
first show of the season.
Mike Pickering of Decatur started his quest for the track championship with
the first Sportsman’s feature win of 2009. Pickering held off Roedell for 15
laps and battled through lapped traffic to claim the first feature of the
season.
Dave Crawley, Jr. had a terrific racecar most of 2008 and the momentum
carried over as he picked up the first Modified feature of the year. Crawley
was in a battle most of the race with Steve Ewing and Jeremy Nichols but
Ewing pulled into the infield with a DNF and Nichols raced with Kenny
Morris, defending track champion Jim Leka and Joe Strawkus for the top spot.
Crawley overcame the competition and scored the first place finish.
Jayme Zidar of Greenfield, WI., had been having the perfect night. He was
the fast qualifier with a 10.451 lap (track record is 10.311) and won his
heat race. But Zidar didn’t feel as though the engine was running well and
opted to switch to his back-up car. With that, Zidar would start at the
tail-end of the Late Model feature. Zidar hadn’t had his back-up car on the
track and it wouldn’t be a great finish to his night. His car would not
allow him to compete in the feature and he would watch the 25-lap event from
the infield.
Kyle Logue, a native of Cisco, started in the front row and faced heavy
competition even without Zidar in the field. Logue battled with Deland’s
Chris Dick for most of the race and Dick eventually got past Logue on lap 20
but Logue came back to take the lead on lap 22. The evening would get worse
for Chris Dick as he lost control of his Late Model on the backstretch and
it slammed into the wall, thus ending his night and chance at taking the win
from Logue. On the restart, Logue would hold off Jim Moon and get the win.
The Pro Hornet feature was one of disbelief. Multiple cars flipped, and
luckily all drivers walked away without injury. After the drama of the
caution-filled race, Jeff Dodd emerged as the winner with his son Zach Dodd
in second place, battling with UMP National Hornet Champion Joe Reed, who
finished third.
Larry Russell, Jr. of Decatur once again found victory lane with a strong
showing, fending off challenges from Al Crawley and defending Street Stock
champion Steve Ewing. Ewing would eclipse Crawley for second place in the
race’s final lap but could not catch Russell.
Heidi Hames took the Amateur Hornet feature, leading all laps, and holding
off the fierce challenge of Donnie Rine.
The 2009 season is underway. After what was a terrific night of racing, the
future once again looks bright at Macon Speedway.
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