MACON, Ill. – The veterans, the ones who got race fans and drivers into the action, still got it. Of the seven division night on Saturday at Macon Speedway, three drivers claimed themselves as “old guys on the senior citizens tour” and took the checkered flag during the feature races.
Starting from the front row outside position in the Weddle Performance Engines Sportsman class, Phil Moreland raced ahead of Wes O’Dell and Dennis Vandermeersch and ran great laps to make sure he would hold the lead. He was flawless in his 15 laps and won the feature race.
Darrell Dick has his 51 Bistro Street Stock for sale. The price went up on the car after winning a Jayne Excavating & Welding 30-lap special. Dick led from the second lap of the race and stopped Nick Macklin, Terry Reed and company from taking the lead. Macklin challenged for the majority of the race and nearly took the lead from Dick, but neither groove would work for the pass. A caution flag with two laps to go gave Macklin one more chance for the lead but Dick was quick on the restart and pulled away for the finish. In the 30-lap special, Dick won the $750 first place prize. All 15 cars in the field received $75 to start the A-Main event.
The third “old timer” to claim the checkered flag was Rodney Standerfer in the BillingsleyRewards.com Modifieds. Standerfer started fifth and by the midway part of the race was in the lead and then the final ten laps were spent pulling away from the rest of the group. Danny Smith and Jarrett Stryker exchanged the lead and bumped a few times in the first ten laps, but Smith started to assume control under Standerfer started to get hooked up with the track and then took off.Â
The Decatur Building Trades Pro Late Models was filled with excitement from the drop of the green flag. Four drivers with feature wins already this season filled the 13-car field. The top rows featured serious competition with Colby Sheppard, Dakota Ewing, Jose Parga and Timmy Dick. As the race put together green flag laps, Sheppard ran the top of the track and looked solid doing it.
Parga was closing in from the same like while Dick and Ewing chose the bottom of the track. Braden Johnson started ninth and got past traffic to get hooked up on the top and move up to third place ahead of Ewing and Dick.
As the race was coming to the closing flags, Sheppard closed in on the top of the turn four wall and then Parga came down on him for the pass and contact was made between the two which led to Sheppard getting wiped out. Race officials discussed the decision for the caution and placed Parga to the back of the field for taking out Sheppard.
On the restart, Sheppard started to pull away while the action for second place was full of excitement with Ewing, Dick, Johnson and an emerging Blake Damery. Coming to the finish, Sheppard claimed his second feature win in the Decatur Building Trades Pro Late Models, while Dick scored second. Damery, who started last in 13th place, took home third.
Guy Taylor finished second last week in the Pro Modified feature but took care of business on Saturday. Getting ahead of the pack and keeping Austin Seets at reach, Taylor powered ahead for his third feature win of the year.
Aarik Andruskevitch looked like a second place micro sprint during his heat race but then fortune found him for the pass at the end of that 8-lap heat race to move past Austin Schaeffer for the win.
After that, Andruskevitch got a pole position starting assignment in the 15-lap feature race and put any doubt to bed with a dominate performance. For Andruskevitch, he won his second feature race of the 2022 Macon Speedway season in the Micro Sprints Presented by Bailey Chassis.
The night was capped off with a 15-lap feature race for the 4-cylinder hornets. Jeremy Reed looked like the car to beat until blasting into the wall in turn three early on. Michael Gossett pushed to the lead and led until Brady Reed took the pass for the lead and put it away for his second win of the season at Macon.Â