Erb Victorious at VCS
by: Jeffrey A. Bayless

DANVILLE, IL (April 23, 2006) The Northern Allstar Late Model Series (NALMS) capped off a double header weekend with a stop at the Bill and Jean Nelson promoted Vermillion County Speedway located at the Vermillion County Fairgrounds just outside of Danville, IL. In addition to having the NALMS drivers present NASCAR stars Kenny Schrader and Kenny Wallace came calling with Schrader competing in the Late Model Division and Wallace trying his hand at the UMP Modified division. 34 Late Models signed in with Carpentersville, IL native Dennis Erb Jr. driving his Petroff Towing, Thomason Transportation, B&K Sportswear #28 Rayburn Malcuit Engines powered Monte Carlo to victory lane, his first feature win of the 2006 season.

Erb began his night by powering from the third starting spot in his heat to take the lead coming out of 4 on the initial lap of the contest to take the win over Kenny Schrader, fast qualifier Frank Heckenast Jr., and Brian Shirley. Joe Harlan fought off an early challenge from Ryan Dauber and then held off a late challenge by Wes Steidinger to claim the second heat with Steidinger, Dauber and Jason Feger grabbing the other transfer spots. Randy Korte kept the frisky Rohn Moon at bay in the third heat with Kevin Weaver and Richie Hedrick coming home 3rd and 4th. In the final heat Chuck Haga made the winning pass on lap 6 of the 10 lap event with Tim Lance following him around the early leader Eric Smith with Steve Hillard grabbing the final transfer spot. Donnie Walden grabbed the point at the close of the first lap of the first semi and never looked back with Russ Scheffler grabbing the second transfer spot. In the second semi it was Kerby Damery leading flag to flag with Chris Dick in tow. Dan Walden and Jason Beier were added to the field as series provisionals to complete the 22 car starting grid.

Erb converted his outside front row starting spot into the early lead with Korte, Harlan, Haga, and Schrader rounding out the top 5. Erb quickly set sell as he had his Rayburn hooked up and by the 5th lap was leading by 8 car lengths as Harlan was working hard to wrestle the second spot from Korte. Three car lengths back of this battle Steidinger had managed to work his way into 4th with Kevin Weaver and Chuck Haga battling it out for the 5th spot. Erb continued to stretch his lead until he reached the back markers on the 11th circuit at which point the field began to close. By the half way point Erb found himself in heavy traffic with Korte, Steidinger, Weaver, and Harlan battling amongst themselves 5 car lengths back. Four laps from checkers the 4 way battle for second got a shake-up as the third running Steidinger tangled with the slower car of Dan Walden bringing out the races only caution and ending both driver’s nights. With the lapped car of Steve Hillard serving as a buffer, Erb sped away at the restart winning with an 8 car length advantage over Korte, Weaver, Harlan, and Haga. Shirley, Schrader, Heckenast, Hedrick, and Lance rounded out the top 10. Dennis remarked on his victory in the pits afterward stating “We had a great run at Eastbay in Florida but we got back up here and everything’s been slick and we’ve been struggling. We’re usually good in the slick, but this car hasn’t been liking it. But we changed a bunch of stuff on the car tonight and it worked. We got out front and kept it there.”

Next up for the NALMS tour is the Indiana Speedweek, a 5 night 5 race extravaganza through the Hoosier state set to kick off with a stop at Thunder Valley Raceway in Salem on Tuesday night May 9th. From there the series will travel to North Vernon and Twin Cities Raceway Park, Lawrenceburg Speedway in Lawrenceburg, Bloomington Speedway in Bloomington, and Brownstown Speedway in Brownstown.

NALMS is brought to you by Hoosier Tire Midwest, Bell, Petersen Aluminum, K-Motion Valve Springs, Mastersbilt Race Cars, Competition Graphics, Kinsers Custom Printing, Hypercoils, PPM Racing Products, Champ Pans, Scott Performance Wire, Sunoco Race Fuels, Intercomp, and 3 Shamrocks Web Design.

RESULTS

NALMS LATE MODELS
34 entries
Fast Time: 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. 14.083


Heat 1 (10 laps 4 transfer)
1. 28 Dennis Erb Jr. (3)
2. 99 Kenny Schrader (4)
3. 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. (1)
4. 3S Brian Shirley (2)
5. 89 Daren Freidman (5)
6. 51J Jason Beier (6)
7. 74 Russ Scheffler (8)
8. 33 Tim Manville (7)
9. 25W Dan Walden (9) DNF

Heat 2
1. Z Joe Harlan (1)
2. 1S Wes Steidinger (4)
3. 64 Ryan Dauber (2)
4. 25 Jason Feger (6)
5. 1W Donnie Walden (3)
6. 16 Justin Ratliff (5)
7. 43 Jim Felker Jr. (7)
8. 1G Rocky Griffin (8)
9. 87 Scott DuVall (9)

Heat 3
1. 00 Randy Korte (1)
2. 56 Rohn Moon (3)
3. B12 Kevin Weaver (4)
4. 0 Richie Hedrick (2)
5. 10 Kerby Damery (6)
6. 14 Kerry Mathew (7)
7. 22 Cory Rolfe (8)
8. 36 Roger Long (5) DNF

Heat 4
1. 1H Chuck Haga (2)
2. 48 Tim Lance (3)
3. 9 Eric Smith (1)
4. 34 Steve Hillard (5)
5. 22 Chris Dick (4)
6. JP7 Mike Petersak (7)
7. 74 Russ Adams (6)
8. 93 Roy Mitchell (8)

Conci 1 (10 laps 2 transfer)
1. 1W Donnie Walden (2)
2. 74 Russ Scheffler (5)
3. 16 Justin Ratliff (4)
4. 89 Daren Freidman (1)
5. 43 Jim Felker Jr. (6)
6. 1G Rocky Griffin (8)
7. 51J Jason Beier (3)
8. 25W Dan Walden (9)
9. 87 Scott DuVall (10)
10. 33 Tim Manville (7) DNF

Conci 2
1. 10 Kerby Damery (1)
2. 22 Chris Dick (2)
3. 14 Kerry Mathew (3)
4. 22 Cory Rolfe (5)
5. 74 Russ Adams (6)
6. 93 Roy Mitchell (8)
7. JP7 Mike Petersak (4)
8. 36 Roger Long (7) DNF

Feature (30 laps $2000 to win)
1. 28 Dennis Erb Jr. (2)
2. 00 Randy Korte (4)
3. B12 Kevin Weaver (11)
4. Z Joe Harlan (1)
5. 1H Chuck Haga (3)
6. 3S Brian Shirley (13)
7. 99 Kenny Schrader (5)
8. 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. (9)
9. 0 Richie Hedrick (15)
10. 48 Tim Lance (8)
11. 9 Eric Smith (12)
12. 22 Chris Dick (20)
13. 25 Jason Feger (14)
14. 56 Rohn Moon (7)
15. 34 Steve Hillard (16) -1 lap
16. 1S Wes Steidinger (6) DNF
17. 25W Dan Walden (21)
18. 64 Ryan Dauber (10)
19. 74 Russ Scheffler (18)
20. 1W Donnie Walden (17)
21. 10 Kerby Damery (19)
22. 51J Jason Beier (22)

Lap Leaders:
1-30 28 Erb
Cautions: 1