By BZ

(Macon, IL) Zach Daum raced away from the 22-car field and scored the second Midwest Open Wheel Association feature win of the 2020 campaign. The MOWA season opener was the previous night at Lincoln Speedway where a 30-car field saw Rico Abreu take the first checkered flag of the year. Abreu did not make the trip to Macon Speedway and that gave the opportunity for 23 other drivers to earn a win. Daum, who has raced POWRi Midgets and MOWA Sprints at Macon in the past, was familar with the track and it showed as he weaved his way through the lapped traffic and dominated the field. 2019 MOWA feature winner at Macon Speedway Terry Babb finished third as Kameron Key was able to finish in the runner-up position.

After the Built Ford Tough MOWA Sprint Cars finished their feature, the Archer’s Alley Street Stocks took to the track and Nick Macklin was in a fight with Terry Reed, Bobby Beiler and Darrell Dick for the win. Dick would take the lead with a run on the top but was caught with lapped traffic and suffered a hit and a flat tire which took him off the track to get a tire change. He would return but would start from the back. Macklin resumed the lead and had Beiler and Reed breathing down his neck for the remainder of the race.  Beiler came close to taking the lead from him but couldn’t make up the difference with the laps remaining and would take second place.

Dalton Ewing has watched his twin brother Dakota Ewing take checkered flag after checkered flag year after year and after finally getting behind the wheel of his Pro Modified, Dalton had shown his ability behind the wheel. Saturday night, Dalton seized an opportunity from the fifth starting position to the lead all thanks to the top groove and he got locked in. Passing Kevin Crowder and Nick Justice for the lead, Dalton Ewing got through the variety of caution flags and would find victory lane with his first Macon Speedway feature win and second career feature. Crowder would take a top five finish while Billy Knebel, who had a rough heat race finish, would start dead last of the 15-car field and take home third place on the night.

Jose Parga and Dakota Ewing battled for the checkered flag in the Pro Late Model division. After Jake Little smacked into the concrete on the backstretch and was helped off the track with a tow truck, the race was down to the two teammates and friends and with solid and clean turns and straightaways, Parga carried his car to the finish line before Ewing.

Trevin Littleton always finds a way to succeed when he visits Macon Speedway and Saturday was no different when he arrived with his family to compete in the Micro Sprints division Presented by Bailey Chassis. The race to win was over early as Littleton pulled away to make the closest race between Molly Day and Daryn Stark in the battle for second. Day would use the bottom of the track to pass Stark and take the runner-up spot.

The Hornets were bonused a feature Saturday night because of last week’s rainout during the feature program. The Hornets were also bonused $100 to each feature winner from former Hornet driver Vernon Carlow. Erik Vanappeldoorn was the first winner of the bonus cash as he claimed the make-up Hornet feature. The second feature would be won by Brady Reed, who had to fend off Mike Eskew and a bunch of lapped traffic to take the checkered flag, a familar sight for the Reed Racecars clan.

The evening started with a tribute by Art Fehrman and Terry Young from the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame as they honored Butch Garner, long time racer and driver at Macon Speedway. The driver is most talked about with his win in the inaugural Herald & Review 100 event in 1981 and his battles with some of the fiercest drivers in central Illinois from Dick Taylor to Jim Leka, among others. The crowd gave Garner a terrific ovation before the evening’s racing program.

Another solid night of racing brought in over 100 racecars again to the grounds of Macon Speedway on a night sponsored by Ripple’s Auto Body on Route 121 in Mt. Zion. Macon Speedway thanks Ripple’s Auto Body for their sponsorship of the night’s event.

Next Saturday Night will feature the make-up of the other two divisions’ features that were washed away by rain on July 11th. The Pro Modifieds and Pro Late Models will run double features. There will also be action from the BillingsleyRewards.com Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks and Hornets. Spectator gates open at 5pm with hot laps at 6pm, qualifying at 6:30pm and racing by 7pm.

 FEATURE RESULTS (Top 10’s)

Built Ford Tough MOWA Sprint Cars

1) #31 Zach Daum 2) Kameron Key 3) #47 Terry Babb 4) Dustin Barks 5) #99w Korey Weyant 6) #4 Garrett Duff 7) #9k Kyle Shuett 8) #79j Jacob Patton 9) #8s Steve Short 10) #77u Chris Urish

DIRTcar Pro Late Models

1) 3 +2 Jose Parga New Berlin, IL 6P 2) 4 +2 Dakota Ewing Warrensburg, IL 25 3) 1 -2 Cody Maguire Carlinville, IL 32M 4) 6 +2 Chuck Mitchell Jacksonville, IL 75 5) 7 +2 Blake Damery Blue Mound, IL 10 6) 8 +2 Dustin Wiltermood Windsor, IL 7W 7) 9 +2 JR Wiltermood Windsor, IL 93J 8) 5 -3 Brady Lynch Hillsboro, IL 14B 9) (DNF) 2 -7 Jake Little Springfield, IL 38J

DIRTcar Pro Mods

1) 5 +4 Dalton Ewing Decatur, IL 27 2) 1 -1 Kevin Crowder Argenta, IL 15C 3) 3 – Kyle Helmick Smithton, IL 27X 4) 15 +11 Billy Knebel Pocahontas, IL 52 5) 2 -3 Nick Justice Decatur, IL 85 6) 10 +4 Brian Burns Bethany, IL 7B 7) 4 -3 Billy Justice Jr Cerro Gordo, IL 43  8) 7 – Adam Rhoades Clinton, IL 10 9) 8 – Kevin Rench Hillsboro, IL 116 10) 11 +2 Evan Lynch Hillsboro, IL 14E 10)

Archers Alley Street Stocks

1) 2 +1 Nick Macklin Argenta, IL 16 2) 1 -1 Bobby Beiler Blue Mound, IL B26 3) 6 +3 Terry Reed Cerro Gordo, IL T5 4) 3 -1 Andy Zahnd White Heath, IL 2Z 5) 5 – Jaret Duff Maroa, IL 21 6) 7 +1 Guy Taylor Springfield, IL X7 7) 8 +1 Zach Clark Illiopolis, IL 4 8) 10 +2 Shawn Ziemer Boody, IL 23Z 9) 9 – Rudy Zaragoza Jacksonville, IL 67Z 10) 16 +6 Brian Dasenbrock Jr Decatur, IL 80

DIRTcar Hornets

1) 2 +1 Brady Reed Decatur, IL 32B 2) 1 -1 Mike Eskew Springfield, IL 21 3) 3 – Billy Mason Brownstown, IL 357 4) 4 – Dallas Strauch East Peoria, IL 24D 5) 5 – Jimmy Dutlinger Hanna City, IL 28 6) 8 +2 Bill Basso Athens, IL 44 7) 7 – Marty Sullivan Decatur, IL 39M 8) 6 -2 Ray Goodall Springfield, IL 14 9) 9 – Casey Eskew Springfield, IL 20 10) 16 +6 Cook Crawford Lincoln, IL 64CK

Micros By Bailey Chassis

1) 1 – Trevin Littleton Jacksonville, IL 44 2) 5 +3 Molly Day Allerton, IL 84 3) 4 +1 Hayden Harvey Warrensburg, IL 55 4) 2 -2 Daryn Stark Springfield, IL 55S 5) 7 +2 John Barnard Sherman, IL 8B 6) 11 +5 Jacob Tipton Decatur, IL 10 7) 3 -4 Kyle Barker Cooksville, IL 27 8) 9 +1 Larry Drake Terre Haute, IN 97D 9) 6 -3 Jeff Beasley Urbana, IL 83 10) 10 – J.B. Gilbert Monticello, IL 1X