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.
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