Champions Crowned at Macon Speedway

By Brett Zerfowski

Macon, IL (September 17, 2011) - Three divisions crowned champions and two divisions hosted Championship Races Saturday at Macon Speedway. It’s been a wild run for the Touchstone Energy Sportsman division as Argenta’s Nick Macklin hoisted the large checkered flag following the last Touchstone Energy Sportsman feature event of the season. It was not only one of the most exciting finishes for the division this season but for all races held at Macon Speedway for the past 65 years.

With two laps left in the 15-lap event, leader Daniel Flessner of Roberts, IL, lost the top spot to Taylorville’s Scott Landers as lapped traffic started to cause confusion and difficulty among the drivers. Alan Crowder of Elwin also was in the mix for the win. As the race came to the final turn, Flessner regained the lead and the win in his first trip to Macon Speedway. Landers would finish second in both the race and the Touchstone Energy Sportsman points standings. Crowder was third. Rick Roedel, former division champion, took fourth in the race and third in the points. Macklin, the new track champion, would finish fifth.

Brian Diveley took the Chevrolet Late Model championship after the start of a successful evening. He was the fastest of 20 cars and the only driver to hit the 10-second qualifying time. He also won his heat race and started on the pole for the 25-lap feature. But he would not be a deciding factor in the win as he stopped at the top of the second turn to bring out the yellow. But the race was decided by Greg Kimmons and the bottom of the track. Kimmons passed Terry Babb early in the race and hung to the bottom of the track, picking up speed and put distance between him and the field. Joseph Hughes had his best finish of the year as he took second, passing Kyle Logue. Roger Brickler netted fourth place and Matt Taylor would take fifth.

Adam Webb won his seventh Pro Hornet feature and first Pro Hornet Championship Race as that helped lead him to the 2011 Pro Hornet points championship. Coming into the evening with a 12-point lead over Jeremy Reed, Webb made good early in the caution-filled race by passing for the lead and holding off Tony Reed and Ray Watts.

For each of those drivers, it would be their first Macon Speedway track champions. The Billingsley Towing Modifieds, Street Stocks and Amateur Hornets will have their champions crowned next week during the season finale.

As for the Street Stocks, they hosted the 7th Annual Street Stock Championship Race and it was a frantic 25 laps. It looked like an easy win for Jeremy Nichols early but a caution on lap nine closed the gap for Tyler Blankenship. On the restart, Blankenship held close to Nichols and would take the top spot five laps later. Nichols would appear to regain the lead as they made the move to lap 17 but a caution came out to revert the cars back to the last completed green flag lap, lap 16, where Blankenship was still the leader. Following another restart, Nichols and Blankenship bashed and banged one another for the right to the $600 first place prize. Nichols took over on the backstretch of the final lap and Blankenship tried to cut underneath Nichols and ended up driving through the infield to the judge’s stand and, although Blankenship beat Nichols to the line by mere inches, Nichols would be awarded the race win and Blankenship would be docked a spot and finished second. Argenta’s Kevin Crowder would finish in third.

The Billingsley Towing Modifieds put together a wild finish on their own. Guy Taylor of Springfield made the mistake of hitting the orange cone set up just outside the fourth turn. The idea of the cone is to make the racers stay single file heading to the cone. Drivers cannot pass until reaching the cone and they must race to the right of the cone. If a racer passes another racer or cuts to the left of the cone or hits the cone, the driver must then be forced to the back of the field. Taylor hit the cone. He was leading at the time of that incident on lap 12 and would be put to the tail of the 20-lap race. Norm Wood would be given the lead and he held on for the final eight laps. Dave Crawley, Jr. would finish second with Brian Diveley in third.

Derek Peters was the best of 23 Amateur Hornets and won his third feature race of the 2011 season. The win helped close the gap in the points standings as Jerad Matherly had a modest 38-point lead coming into the night’s action. Kyle Maxwell finished third ahead of Matherly to gain a few points on the leader, as well. Michael Gossett took second in the 8-lap feature evening.

And the High School Hornets was won by Dalton Jacobs, his third of the year. Dalton attends Warrensburg-Latham.

One show remains in the 2011 racing season. After two weeks of rainouts, the racers were in full force as nearly 150 flooded the gates and pits of Macon Speedway. POWRi Midgets & Micro Sprints will headlight the final show of the season. Billingsley Towing Modifieds, Street Stocks and Amateur Hornets will also be apart of the show to end the season.

Macon Speedway is located 9 miles south of Decatur, IL on US 51 then .6 miles west on Andrews Street, then south on Wiles. For information, call 217-764-3000 (track), 217-764-3220 (information hotline), or contact Macon Speedway via email at track1985@gmail.com. Also visit www.maconracing.com or www.trackenterprises.com for additional information.