It was the “Prelude to the Race for a Cure Breast Cancer Awareness Night @ Belle-Clair Speedway and a Great Crowd many wearing Pink in Honor of friends & family taken by or fighting the disease turned out on a warm evening! The festivities started off in Grand fashion with a pre race balloon launch. Hundreds of pink balloons filled the sky. The energy level was amazing and would set the tone for an awesome night of racing!
The Special for the evening was the UMP Sportsman $500 to win “ Memorial 25”.Through qualifying races It would be Jeff Herzog from Herculaneum Mo. that would earn the pole and lead the field to the green. Herzog took the lead in turns 1&2 was followed by Joe Volluz & Brian Eaves battling for second. Herzog was setting a blistering pace extending his lead lap after lap to almost 10 car lengths. On lap 22 Caution would fly with a big wreck on the back stretch erasing all of that big lead! This set up a three lap dash with Herzog on the point, Volluz second and Mark Schaefer now third after working his way up from deep in the field. As the green waved the race was on and Volluz pulled alongside Herzog. On lap 24 they were joined by the charging Schaefer three wide crossing the line with one to go. Schaefer was able to drive it in deep and pull off the upset winning by half a car length. Herzog inched out Volluz for second. Denny “Lil Bingo” Tribout Jr had his best run of 2011 coming home fourth, Stu Springer fifth.
A tough field of UMP Modifieds Showed up to see who would be best on this night of Breast Cancer Awareness! Steve Lach and Brian Bielong scored heat race wins and Dean Hoffman from Troy IL. came out victorious in the dash event snaring the pole for the 20 lap a-main. As the green flag flew Hoffman jump to the lead on the low side with Lach tucking in right on his tail. Tommy Smallwood & Bielong slid to the cushion to mount their charge. a few laps in it remained Hoffman & Lach but Bielong had moved into third. A caution for debris on lap10 would tighten up the field. Once again Hoffman drove to the bottom while Lach took the middle of the track and Bielong back to the cushion. Just a few laps later Bielong had passed Lach and set sights on Hoffman. A couple more laps and they were side by side, with 2 to go Bielong edged to the lead and would hold on for a hard earned victory! Lach held off Chris Smith for third & Brett “The Kid” Korves was fifth!
The always exciting UMP Super Late Models were up next and they would not disappoint. Three different drivers would have a stint at leading this 25 lap Feature event. The first to lead was Mark Voigt from the outside of the front row. Voigt would do side by side battle with Mike Hammerle for the first few laps. Then it was Frankie Martin who reeled in Hammerle then Voigt taking the point with Michael Kloos following Martin through into second. Martin would lead the middle laps until Kloos would take his turn as the leader. As they closed in on lapped traffic it became an epic battle Kloos then Martin, then Martin over Kloos with Bobby Dauderman tucked in waiting for a mistake from either one of them. In the waining laps it would be Kloos who found the best way and would take a car length victory over Martin who just barely edged past Dauderman. Voigt & Hammerle rounded out the top five! TTG said I think I just witness the best feature I’ve ever seen at Belle-Clair! He has had to say that every week for ten weeks as these guys are putting on awesomely amazing feature races. It’s one of the best Super Shows in the area!
We had a first in the UMP Pure Stock division as Dustin McClintock would lead all the circuits in the feature in his Chevy s-10 pick up. The first ever feature win for a truck in this division. He was hard pressed though by Dean Branson first and then in the closing laps by Bryan Baker. Baker took second his best finish of the year. Tyler Ratajczyk was third & Randy Dietzel fourth & Jake Hewitt fifth.
In the UMP/AARA Pro 4 Stocks Travis Bittle lead the first 8 laps till the yellow flag flew for a disable car on the track. On the restart Joe Merritt would overtake Bittle whose car seemed develop a push. Ryan Emig moved into second and then ran down Merritt to take the lead and cruised home to his third feature win of the year! Merritt held off a late charge from the speedy Trevor Isaak for second, Dayton Racer was fourth and Bittle faded to fifth.
Don’t miss next week as its Snap-On Tools/ Hooters Dad’s Night! The Super Late Models, Modifieds & Sportsman will be running “TOPLESS”!