Indiana sprint car ace become a first time winner of the Ted Horn 100
By: Jay Hardin

DuQUOIN, IL (Sept 2) -  The traditional Labor Day auto racing weekend at the DuQuoin State Fair saw a popular Indiana sprint car ace become a first time winner of the Ted Horn 100, while the Best Western Bill Oldani Memorial had a local two-time winner and the 55th Federated Auto Parts Southern Illinois 100 went for the second time to a familiar NASCAR star.

The championship dirt cars of the K&N Engineering USAC Silver Crown Series visited the picturesque DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on Sunday, September 2 for the 57th running of the Ted Horn 100. Thirty six of the big dirt cars signed in to the pit area including ten from the state of Illinois. Current point leader and defending USAC Silver Crown champ Bud Kaeding of Campbell, California was fastest in the one hour practice session that began at 5 p.m., but in Indy Racing League qualifying it was Kokomo, Indiana's Shane Cottle who drew 35th of the 36 cars setting quick time for the evening with a second qualifying lap of 31.919 (112.750 MPH).

When the green flag dropped Cottle got the jump on Kaeding into the first corner as Springfield winner Ricky Stenhouse, Murphysboro's Randy Bateman and Aaron Pierce gave chase. Bateman brought out the first caution of the evening on lap 7 when he stalled in turn 2. Cottle kept the advantage on a lap 11 restart and was able to lead through four more caution periods and two red flags, one of the red flags for Ray Bull who flipped on the backstretch and the other for Hud Cone who hit the turn one wall very hard and turned over. Both drivers were uninjured in the accidents. Cottle got caught in lapped traffic toward the end of the 100 miles and was challenged by Stenhouse over the last ten laps but never gave up the lead and motored to his first 100-mile national championship race win. Kaeding finished third and increased his point lead over Wayne Reutimann, Dave Darland finished fourth and Jon Stanbrough finished fifth. Russ Gamester won the 10 lap last chance race that saw a stirring drive by Robinson's Mat Neely who started last after his crew changed the engine in the car. Neely finished fifth in the semi and then ran from 25th to 7th in the Ted Horn 100.

By winning the Ted Horn 100 Cottle became the 35th different winner of the Ted horn 100 and the 14th winner from the pole position as well as the ninth driver to lead all 100 miles of a championship race on the Magic Mile. Sixty three year old Johnny Parsons, a two time Ted Horn 100 winner and the oldest driver in the field, became the all-time starts leader in USAC Silver Crown Series History Sunday night as well as the all-time leader in Ted Horn 100 starts at DuQuoin. Compete results can be found at www.usacracing.com.

UMP Modifieds ran their heat races Sunday for the 20-mile Best Western Bill Oldani Memorial on labor Day with Marion's Jeff Parks, Pinckneyville's Bryan Higgerson and Jackson, Tennessee's Jonathan Rowan winning their respective heats. None of the heats were slowed by a yellow flag. On Monday Jeff Parks started from the pole position and led all 20 laps to repeat his 2005 win. Charleston, Missouri's Emmett Groves finished second with Joe Giesler of St Mary, Missouri third. Complete results will be posted at www.trackenterprises.com.

On Monday the ARCA RE/MAX Series stock cars headlined the auto racing entertainment in the grandstand for the 55th running of the Federated Auto Parts Southern Illinois 100. Forty four of the forty six entered cars made the trip to DuQuoin and two Illinois drivers sat atop the speed chart after practice with A.J. Fike of Galesburg taking top honors followed by Springfield's Justin Allgaier. In Sim Factory pole qualifying Fike was able to take the pole position with a 34.552 (104.191) lap. NASCAR's Ken Schrader, the defending race winner and a Fenton, Missouri native, qualified for the outside of the front row with Chicago's Billy Venturini and West Virginia rookie Josh Richards, driving for car owner NASCAR champ Tony Stewart in the second row.

Allgaier got the jump at the start from the sixth position and led into the first corner but dropped back to fifth as Fike led the first 19 laps. Allgaier took the lead on lap 20 during a round of pit stops and surrendered the lead to Justin marks when he pitted on lap 37. Eight time ARCA RE/MAX chap and four-time DuQuoin winner Frank Kimmel took over on lap 43 when marks pitted and appeared headed toward a fifth Federated Southern Illinois 100 win until he made a second pit stop on lap 60 giving the lead back to Schrader. California rookie Josh Wise, a Michael Waltrip development driver and the winner of the USAC Silver Crown Hoosier Hundred in 2006, passed Schrader on lap 66 and led until the veteran repassed him on lap 85. A late race caution, one of seven on the day, bunched the field once again but Schrader held off the rookie and took his second consecutive Federated Southern Illinois 100 win. Richards, with team owner Stewart in attendance, finished third with Fike fourth and Kimmel fifth.

Schrader, who made his USAC Stock Car debut at DuQuoin in 1979, had never won a race on the Magic Mile until last year, joins Butch Hartman, Bob Keselowski, Fred Lorenzen, Paul Goldsmith, Bob Hill, Billy Thomas, Kimmel and the late Dean Roper (a Schrader friend and mentor) as the only back to back winners since stock car racing was introduced at DuQuoin in 1950. The six different race leaders matches a record set first in 2000 and matched again in 2005. Compete results can be found at www.arcaracing.com.