Racing at Belle Clair Speedway took place on Friday night
by: Jack Pugh

BELLEVILLE, IL (Sept. 15, 2006) - Well, the last regular night of racing at Belle Clair Speedway took place on Friday night. For the next two weeks there will be season ending championship races being held. There were a lot of cars on hand for the races with a good crowd in the stands.

In the UMP Late Model division, there were 22 cars in the pits. In the first heat race, Dan Jacober took the win followed by Don Klein, Ed Dixon, Clay Baumann, Tyler Diebert, Vince Grondzki, Bob Brown and Rick Standridge. In the second heat, Dave Thornton took the checkers over Brian Wolfmeier, Billy Laycock, Dan Dondero, Mike Hammerle, Mike Jacober and Dewayne Kiefer. The third heat race saw the win go to Jim Gibson with John Beck, Brent Kreke, Aaron Kleine Mike Schulte, Bob Geaschel and Ron Jarrell in tow. The dash went to Jacober with Thornton, Klein, Gibson, Wolfmeier and Beck trailing. The semi sent Standridge, Grondzki and Geaschel to the feature.

The 25 lap feature started with Klein and Wolfmeier on the front row. When the green flag appeared, Wolfmeier took the early lead with Klein, Thornton, Beck and Gibson in tow.

Wolfmeier looked good in the early laps as he used the middle of the track to race on. Thornton got by Klein for second with seventh starting Dixon moving into the top five early.

The first caution came after lap seven when Laycock, Baumann, Hammerle and Schulte got tangled in turn three. The running order was Wolfmeier, Thornton, Beck, Dixon and Kreke in the top five.

The restart did not go well as Thornton, Kreke and Jacober got tangled up in turn two after the green light came back on. The running order on the next restart was Wolfmeier, Dixon, Kreke Gibson and Jacober in the top five.

With the green flag waving again, a good restart took place and all cars running went back to racing. Wolfmeier continued to lead, but the pressure was coming from Dixon. Dixon would take over the lead on lap nine and never looked back. However he did get a challenge from Wolfmeier and Kreke during the next few laps as Dixon was on the outside, Wolfmeier in the middle and Kreke on the bottom.

This got the attention of the crowd, but the race slowed on lap ten before that race up front got to interesting. On lap 10, Baumann and Grondzki tangled on the back straight with the nose of Baumann’s car being ripped off and debris being thrown on the track. Baumann continued despite having no nose piece. The running order now was Dixon, Wolfmeier, Kreke, Gibson and Jacober in the top five.

With the green flag back out, Dixon continued to lead with Kreke and Wolfmeier trying to catch him, but that did not happen. He car on the move was Standridge, who started 16th. Standridge moved passed car after car in the later stages of the race to get into the top five.

At the checkered flag it was Dixon with his sixth feature win of the year and first since early July. Following Dixon were Kreke, Wolfmeier, Standridge and Gibson in the top five.

In the UMP Modified class, there were 17 cars ready to race. In the first heat, Chris Gray took the victory followed by Wayne Downing, Brett Korves, David Seger, Marty Smith Sr., Jesse Carson, Paul Reinneck and Marc McClintock. In the second heat, Brian Bielong won over Bobby Bittle, Marty Smith Jr., Tom Ratajczyk, Chris Smith, Dustin McClintock, Bobby Johnson, Mark Pflueger and Tommy Seets Jr. The dash went to Gray followed by Bielong, Bittle, Korves, Smith Jr. and Downing.

The front row of the 20 lap race lined up with Smith Jr. and Gray. With the green flag waving to start the race, Gray jumped in front with Bielong, Smith Jr., Bittle and Korves in tow.

Gray was using the bottom of the track for his line. Smith Jr. went to the top to try a different line around the track while everyone else stayed low.
Bielong was challenging on the bottom of the track and overtook Gray on lap four or the lead. Bielong stayed on the bottom of the track and never went to the top, which is not normal. Smith moved into second place and tried to overtake Bielong for the lead, but could not accomplished that move.

The race’s only caution came on lap 12 when Johnson spun in turn two. The running order was Bielong, Gray, Bittle, Smith Jr. and Korves in the top five.
With the race back to green, Bielong continued to race on the bottom with Smith Jr. back to the top and moving forward. With everyone else on the bottom to middle of the track, Smith Jr.’s line was unrestricted and he found traction to move forward.

Bielong was able to hold off the challenge of Smith Jr. to win his fourth feature of the year. Smith Jr. finished second followed by Bittle, Gray and Korves to complete the top five.

In the UMP Sportsmen class, there were 14 cars ready to race. In the first heat, Denny Tribout Jr. took the win followed by Jimmy Cummins, Brian Shubirg, Mike Jones, Jim Clark, Mike Kurtz, and Lewis Haynes. The second heat went to Shawn Seymour over Mike Harris, Paul Bauman, Joe Voluz, Jason Davinroy, Bobby Teutraine and Jimmy Miller. The dash went to Tribout Jr. with Harris, S. Seymour, Bauman, Cummins, and Shubirg trailing.

The 15 lap feature started with Cummins and Shubirg on the front row. Shubirg jumped to the lead with the dropping of the green flag to start the race with Cummins, Bauman, Tribout Jr. and Harris in tow.

The first caution occurred on lap two as Hayes spun in turn four. The top five were Shubirg, Cummins, Bauman, Tribout Jr. and Harris.

With the green light back on, Shubirg continued to lead, but Bauman found a line around the track that was faster for him and he move past Cummins and then into the lead on lap five.

After several more laps were run, Hayes again spun by himself and was done for the night.

Bauman, the point leader, went on to win his ninth feature of the year. He was followed by Shubirg, Tribout Jr., Harris and Volluz to complete the top five.
Next week is the season championship races for the UMP Sportsmen and Allied Pure Stocks.

Also announced was the addition of October 6 as being fan appreciation night with admission being $7.00.