Farmer City Raceway
Farmer City IL
By Dan Stewart

FARMER CITY, IL (Aug 10) - In the quest for the UMP National Championship, Dennis Erb Jr has been on a roll lately. The best way to make ground on the leaders, is to race against, and beat them. That is what Dennis Erb Jr has been doing lately. Friday night, he came to Farmer City Raceway, as did the others in the run for the championship, including points leader Wes Steidinger, third place Steve Sheppard Jr and fourth place Jason Feger. After wrestling the lead from Steve Sheppard Jr early in the race, Erb Jr went on to win, becoming the first driver to win back to back races at the historic old fairgrounds track in 2007. Last week he became the tenth different winner of the year. With 29 cars in the pits, Eric Smith started the night by turning in fast time of 12.691 seconds. The heats went to Steve Sheppard Jr over Erb, Jr, Ryan Dauber won the second heat over Donnie Walden with the third heat going to Jr Shickel over Joe Harlan. The semi feature was the closest race all evening with Tim Lance running side by side trying to pass Matt Taylor, finally getting the job done at the end of the race, with Ryan Unzicker third. The feature started off with pole sitter Steve Sheppard Jr in the lead over outside front row starter Ryan Dauber. It only took a few laps for Erb Jr to dispose of Dauber and pull alongside Sheppard. The duo raced about 8 laps side by side swapping the lead position a couple of times every lap. Erb then finally got around Sheppard and sailed off for another feature win.
unofficial finish:
28 Dennis Erb Jr
64 Ryan Dauber
J1 Wes Steidinger
5s Steve Sheppard Jr
Z Joe Harlan
9 Eric Smith
48 Tim Lance
25 Jason Feger
89 Daren Friedman
83 Scott Bull
1W Donnie Walden
3L Matt Taylor
DC3 Don Cisco III
24 Ryan Unzicker
74 Russ Adams

The modified class featured Springfield native, and a local favorite from many years past Dick Taylor setting fast time of the 35 modifieds in attendance. Taylor then won his heat over Jay Ledford and Brian Lynn. The second heat went to Randy Shuman over Cory Schwengel and the ageless Roger Drake. The third heat went to Lance Dehm over Jeb Friedman and Wes O'Dell. The final heat went to Jeffrey Curl over Roben Huffman and Randy Huffman. Newcomer Randy Shuman mastered the track in the feature taking the lead from Dick Taylor on the second lap and never looked back on his way to the checkered flag. Taylor caught Shuman near the end of the race in traffic, but could not make an attempt at a pass. Third went to Lance Dehm, followed by Jeb Friedman, Jeffrey Curl, Randy Huffman and Brian Lynn.

There was a "Save the Raceway" petition passed around and signed, with the Fariboard's lease of the grounds coming due in 2009, the future of the track is in peril. There is an open meeting of the city council at the American Legion hall Monday August 13 at 7pm. To sign the online petition, please go to www.midwestdirttrackfacts.com  and click on the link on the main page.