Lincoln Loggie After Washout

 The third leg of the opening week of FLO/Racing Night in America was scheduled for Thursday night, May 7th at the Lincoln Speedway located on the grounds of the Logan County Fairgrounds in Lincoln Illinois. 

An excellent field of thirty seven Late Models signed in for racing along with twenty seven UMP Modifieds for their own program. Five additional Late Models that hadn't been seen in Spoon, along with nearly a dozen different Modifieds were in the pits and ready to race on Thursday. 

Unfortunately, weather conditions started to  come unraveled as the afternoon progressed. What had been only a slight chance of a passing shower turned into much more and at about 5 pm a wave of rain came through. 
However it then cleared back up and using some of the most impressive track prep equipment seen lately, the track crew was able to get the track back into racing shape and the program proceeded, if not on schedule any more. 

In fact, the track was blistering fast and Hudson O'Neal's quick lap was at 12.748 seconds for what is probably an undersized quarter mile oval. Brandon Sheppard topped group two with a lap at 12.750 for the second wave so the track wasn't slowing down a bit. 

Something that we don't see at all at home but something that is actually quite common for these Illinois bullrings is the flagman working from the middle of the track and Lincoln is one of several in this area where that is the setup. 

Previously, as the last car out for Modified hot laps/qualifying, Michael Ledford's best lap was at 14. 239 seconds. 

Lincoln Speedway is located right in the middle of Lincoln Illinois and was likely on the edge of town when the Fairgrounds was started but now the city has grown up around it and noise and time restraints are a part of racing there. By the time the track was worked back into shape and qualifying quickly completed, the first Late Model took to the track shortly after 8 pm. 

Now the FLO Series and the officials that were working for them this week are among the best at running off a quick show, and it was still feasible to get it completed under the time lines they were dealing with. 

Unfortunately, just as the second Late Model heat took to the track, it started to rain once again. They were just small showers and were mostly concentrated right over Lincoln but they were enough to quickly get the track too slippery to race on once again. 

The heavy equipment came back on to the track and once again they tried to get the track back into racing shape. The rain just wouldn't stop and while it was light, it was enough so that the track crew was making no progress. It was even announced that if the track could be made ready to race on, they would run the Late Model show straight through and the Modified would only get to race if there was time after the Late Models were done. The curfew here, by the way, is 10:30 pm. 

Things were looking grim and with the rain starting and stopping and the track crew not making progress and the hour glass running down toward curfew time, the program was finally axed around 9 pm.

Despite the crummy weather, a great crowd was on hand and they will wait, along with the racers to see if an appropriate rain date can be found. The FLO Series is off to a shaky start this year, with only one of three races completed so far. The rest of Illinois Speedway sees the Lucas Oil Late Model Series replace them for the next two nights but the forecast for Friday is not promising either. 

Thanks to Bob Sargent and Adam Mackey and the crew at Lincoln for doing the best they could, dealing with unexpected and unpredictable Spring weather and trying to get the races run off. More tracks need to start catching a break here soon. 

Sheppard and Neville Top FLO Opener at Spoon River

 The FLO/Racing Night in America 2026 series started on Wednesday night, May 6th at the Spoon River Speedway in Lewiston Illinois. Originally scheduled to begin on Tuesday night at LaSalle Speedway, that event was rained out and rescheduled for September 15th, thus allowing Spoon River to host the 2026 opener. 

The FLO/Racing Night series has been an immediate hit since some clever minded folks at FLO came up with the concept of creating a largely midweek series of high paying events, scheduled so that the biggest names in dirt Late Model racing would be in attendance and provide spectacular shows for both the audience in attendance and more importantly, all those folks sitting at home and watching on FLO which they presumably had bought a subscription to, at least in some measure because of this series. 

The FLO/Racing Night has also been able to bring the series to some deserving tracks that otherwise probably couldn't or wouldn't dare to get on a national series schedule but have shown their tracks to more than worthy of such competition. 

Using the FLO/Racing Series as a baseline, other special events such at Illinois Speed Weeks, which this race is a part of, have been able to be organized. 

These lucrative midweek races, running when otherwise teams would be idling away time between events, have been an excellent source of extra income for them and with a point fund from a short eleven race series that offers $50,000 to the winner and seventy five if they run all races, a great additional source of income while also bringing their product to some places that otherwise would never see them race. 

Wednesday's event at Spoon River produced a power packed lineup of Late Model drivers with most of the best in the entire country on hand. Not only were the Lucas and WoO drivers on hand but a lot of independent racers that just hit the big shows across the country. Thirty nine of them signed in to race on Wednesday in a quick series of events that offers no provisional starters for the first race so if you don't race your way in, you watch from the sidelines which in a perfect world should be the way it is for every race, extenuating circumstances disregarded. 

Along with the Late Models, UMP Modifieds were also on the card but with just the two divisions racing, these shows are almost always very quick running events, packaged for the tv audience but also great for the fans on hand who mostly have to work the following morning. Back in the day, these races were almost entirely for the tv audiences with the live crowd secondary. Many times the cost to get into the races was very cheap as they just wanted to fill seats and make it look better for the tv audience. That has changed over the years with ticket prices comparable to other specials but with more fans on board, race teams can do better with things such as apparel sales etc. 

The standard big show format was used for the Late Models with qualifying setting the running order for heats and the heats setting the field for the main events and B Features. Bobby Pierce was quickest overall at 13.100 seconds while Brandon Overton topped the second group with the track slowing a bit and he turning a lap of 13.480. 

The Spoon River Speedway has been a "hit or miss" preposition  for me over the years with some nights being good and some nights were everyone was hugging the bottom and the passing was at a premium. Well, on Wednesday night we saw the Spoon at its best as it provided excellent racing all night with the heat races probably as entertaining events as seen all year. There was much passing and multiple grooves as drivers were passing and then being repassed as they jockeyed to get into the top five spots and make the mains. 

Two B Features set the rest of the field with just twenty four drivers starting the main and many very fast teams just watching from the sidelines where they make no money. 

And while the box score will show that Brandon Sheppard led all fifty laps to score the twenty grand victory, the actual race itself was much better and more exciting than that. While Sheppard took the lead right from the start, there was quite a battle for position behind him. Overton faded back quickly while Pierce and Hudson O'Neal moved to the front. An early yellow with seven laps complete when Dan Ebert and Ricky Thornton Jr got together found those two aleady behind Sheppard for the restart as Tyler Erb also moved into contention. 

Only one other yellow, with fifteen laps completed, slowed the action as Devin Moran showed in the top five for the first time. The last thirty five laps went green to checkers. Sheppard continued to run up front, running a line that was just a bit higher than most but he was fast right through the middle of the track. 

Pierce and O'Neal continued to trade the second and third spots before Hudson claimed the spot for good. With somewhere less than twenty laps to go, Sheppard finally hit lapped traffic for the first time and this allowed O'Neal to close in on him some. O'Neal was running lower in the corners and he seemed to be getting a better run off the turns than Sheppard. It got down to just a few cars length difference as Sheppard battled with traffic while still a bit higher up the track.

Perhaps the winning move was made when Sheppard, with just over ten laps to go, split a pair of slower cars while at the same time seemingly finding that low line which did have more speed and following that, he quickly expanded his lead once again. 

O'Neal experimented with the top side for one lap but it nearly cost him second spot before he dove back low to block off Pierce's charge. Sheppard crossed the line with room to spare while O'Neal and Pierce followed. 

Tyler Erb and Moran completed the top five with nineteen drivers still on the track at the finish, four of them a lap behind. It was a clean run event with no drivers suffering any major issues that shouldn't be able to be repaired for Thursday night's event at Lincoln Speedway. 

Nick Neville was quick qualifier for the Modified drivers, running a lap at 13.976 seconds or nearly as fast as the Late Models. However, it should be pointed out that the Mods qualified first with the track still in prime speed shape. 

Three heats and a B Feature set the twenty car field for the Modified main which also featured a star studded field with drivers on hand from as far away as North Carolina and Florida to run this event and presumably, other Midwestern events in the days to come. 

Their twenty five lap feature, run last and after the Late Models, saw the track with plenty of rubber from those Late Model tires and the low side of the track was the place to be. Drivers quickly lined up in the low groove and raced off the bottom, hoping to slip under other drivers as their best passing opportunities. 

Neville led early and indeed, did lead all twenty five laps. He did get a major scare though, near the midway point of the race when Blake Brown put on a serious challenge for his top spot. Brown was coming off the corners at speed just a little lower than Neville and after starting outside of Neville, he  began to close up on him. 

Just past the halfway point of the race, he made his most serious attempt to get under Neville and take over the lead. Coming off turn four, he got a good run to the inside of Neville and they squeezed into turn one. However, Brown didn't have enough room to execute the pass down low and he smashed hard into the ute tire marking the inside of the track which caused him to spin. 

This triggered the lone yellow of the race and Brown departed with serious front end damage. This restored Neville to the lead and he wouldn't fail, as he pulled away over the final ten laps to record the win. Michael Ledford chased Neville the last ten laps but couldn't catch him and settled for second. Drake Troutman, racing just Modifieds on this night, finished third with Cole Falloway and Mike McKinney next in line as area drivers more than held their own against the visiting stars. 

As is the expectation with FLO Midweek events, it was a quick racing program with the final checkers waving just after 9:30 pm. Lucas Oil officials were on hand to help the MARS Series officials run the program as an all star cast was assembled for this week. 

FLO debuted their new big video board for live timing and scoring and also for showing replays to the live audience, a group often forgotten these days but still desperately needed. This board will also be used at Lucas Oil races the rest of the year. FLO/Racing also uses the Choose Cone for restarts, a system I still really like even though it seems that not a lot of groups have adopted for whatever reason. 

Thanks to Matt Curl and Kari Perkins for their help and as always, Dustin Jarrett and Ben Shelton, both always willing to help out. If a FLO/Racing Nigh in America event comes to your area and you want to see the best Late Model drivers in a quick and entertaining program, make sure you attend.  

Pierce Dazzles at MTS, Chisholm Steals a Modified Victory

 Bobby Pierce and Joe Chisholm were opening night winners as the three evening Dairyland Showdown for World of Outlaws Late Models and Northern Lights Modified Series drivers began on Thursday night, April 30th at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway North of Fountain City Wisconsin. 

Both series will run three full shows, culminating in a forty thousand dollar to win Late Model event on Saturday night along with a three grand to win Modified series event also. 

Thirty seven Late Model drivers, most of whom were the same drivers that raced at Independence Iowa two nights earlier along with twenty USRA Modifieds made up the field on Thursday night. Both series would use the identical format with qualifying setting the running order for the heats, the two two in each heat redrawing for the main event and then everyone else lining straight up off heat race finishes. The B Feature drivers plus series provisional starters would tag the back of the field while the Modifieds allowed everyone to start their main. 

Nick Hoffman was quickest overall at 13.599 seconds while Michael Leach was fastest in group B at 13.956. The Mods qualifying as one group with Jacob Bleess fastest at 15.857 seconds. Track officials did a good job of running off the time trials in rather quick order so that the qualifying didn't drag on forever, a common occurrence at time trial shows with multiple divisions going "under the clock", and especially so on what would be an uncharacteristically cold last day of April in the Coulee region of Wisconsin. 

Probably the biggest shocker during the qualifying events was the "clunker" pulled by "Superman" Jonathan Davenport who for the second straight Outlaw event, performed at a less than spectacular pace, and actually worse than he did in Independence where he had trouble even staying on the track. 

At MTS, he only qualified for the third row in his heat race and then on the opening lap slammed the third turn wall so hard that he did damage not quickly able to repair. He was done for his heat, started tenth in a B Feature in a back up car and only made it up to fifth, thus failing to even qualify for the show as provisional rights to the main are granted on series loyalty, not speed and thus Dennis Erb Jr, Tristan Chamberlain, Logan Zarin and Brent Larson made the show, not Davenport.  

Twenty six drivers started the quick thirty lapper and while most lauded over the passing job put on by Pierce, most missed what was probably the key moment of the night and that was on the opening lap of the race. Pierce jumped the cushion and lost at least three spots immediately but his "bacon" was saved when Chris Simpson ground to a halt on the front chute with his car making some bad sounds indeed. The first lap was not then completed, so a complete restart was called for and Pierce was saved. 

The second attempt saw Drake Troutman jump into the top spot, a position that he would hold for the first eighteen laps. Ryan Gustin and Nick Hoffman raced hard for the second spot as Troutman put some distance on the field. 

Pierce, meanwhile, was running a line that no one else seemed to want to try, up high against  the wall while most of the drivers hugged the low side. For a number of laps Pierce didn't seem to be gaining but then slowly and then  more quickly, he began to put up the pace. 

Near the halfway point of the race, he caught the battle for second and on his second attempt, he was able to split Gustin and Hoffman on the front chute and drive into second. 

He then began to reel in Troutman who was having some problems at this point as he had caught the back of the pack. Pierce quickly reeled in the leader and with a slider on lap nineteen, he took over the top spot. 

And while he did put some distance, he wasn't able to completely shake Troutman as he also seemed to bog down a bit, as he related in his post race interview. Nevertheless, he continued to have the field covered and drove home the winner without a serious challenge. 

Troutman settled for second with Gustin edging out Hoffman for third. Time McCreadie ran fifth for most of the race and that's where he ended up. 

After the opening lap slowdown, the race went thirty laps nonstop and Simpson was the only driver not to finish. Seven were a lap behind at the checkers but all others finished. 

The Modified main saw a late race pass by Joe Chisholm steal away the win after Alex Williamson led the first twenty one laps. Williamson started on the pole and was in control for most of the race, an event that was stopped twice in the first six laps, the most serious of which saw Zach Brom and Darwin Karau involved in a grinding collision on the back chute that eliminated both. 

Williamson continued to lead by Kyle Brown slowly began to cut into his advantage as the race moved past the halfway point. Brown was able to get within striking distance as the top two drivers struggled with the slower traffic with neither of  them able to make a move to clear themselves. 

This opened the door for Chisholm who was running third and was some distance back from the top two. However, as their pace got slowed, he quickly caught the leaders and suddenly, with less than five laps to go, it became a three car battle for the top spot. 

Williamson and Brown continued to be befuddled by the slower cars, still now able to find and opening but when the door opened down the back chute for an inside charge, Chisholm was right there to find the seas parting and he went from third to the lead, just that fast. 

With only three laps remaining, he then pulled away with Brown left to salvage second while Williamson dropped all the way to third. Quick qualifier Bleess settled for fourth ahead of Parker Hale and all but three drivers finished this event. 

It was a cold night at MTS with temperatures dipping into the thirties before the final checkered flag waved. For this reason, plus it being a Thursday, while a good crowd was on hand, the stands will likely be much more crowded in the coming two nights. 

Recognizing that it indeed was nippy, Outlaw officials did an excellent job of moving the show along, with their ten minute horn going off nearly as the preceding race cars hit the scales. Discarding the extra glitz, it was just hardcore racing on Thursday with the complete show being done in two hours and two minutes with the final checkers waving at 9:30 pm. This was the Outlaws show this weekend as for the first time the Dairyland Showdown was an Outlaws race as they rented the track, rather than just being the sanctioning body on hand for the promoters. 

Full programs in both classes are upcoming the next two nights with the weather promised to gradually warm up as Saturday approaches.