2017 News Articles

Equity 55 Night at the Highland Speedway

It was Equity 55 Night at the Highland Speedway and the weatherman provided us with a Chamber of Commerce night of excellent weather. The track crew laid down a near perfect race track and the drivers, well the drivers once again put on a phenomenal show.

The BWet/BDry Late Models were the first class to attack the Highland Speedway 1/4 mile.

Heat race winners were heat one Daryn Klein driving the 10K, Heat two The Highland Bulldog Chad Zobrist in the 78 and Heat three winners from Carlyle IL., Brent McKinnion in the 26M.

Klein took the Dash for Cash honors followed by Zobrist and Jose Parga in the 6P.

The redraw lined the first four rows for the nights feature event, Jason Zobrist in the 87 was on the pole alongside him was the 26M of McKinnon, row two saw the 24 of Jeremy Sneed and last week’s feature winner the 42 of McKay Wenger. Row three sat Parga and the 22 of Dan Jacober and in the 4th row were Zobrist and Klein.

The first caution came out on lap 3 for debris; the top three on the restart were Jason Zobrist, Wenger and Parga. The field got one lap under green when the caution waved again on lap 4; it was a busy lap as Parga made his way around Jason Zobrist and using the Delaware restart to his advantage Chad Zobrist found himself sitting in the third position.

Caution on lap 13 set the field with Chad Zobrist making his way to the point with Wenger, Parga, Jason Zobrist, and Klein all in hot pursuit.

Lap 20 saw the 78 of Zobrist stumble on the back stretch and that left the door open for Wegner to take the lead. Caution flew again with only three laps remaining setting up a scramble for the finish, Wegner leading, Zobrist recovering from his late race slowdown sat second, Klein, Jason Zobrist and Sneed rounded out the top five.

On the restart Wegner who hails from Fairbury IL held on to his lead for his second win as in as many weeks at Highland, Zobrist and Klein coming from the seventh and eighth starting spots respectively  finishing second and third, Jason Zobrist and Parga rounded out the top five.

Tyler Deibert brought his broom to the Steve Schmitt Modifieds on this Saturday night. Deibert captured the checker flag in heat one, The nights sponsor, Chad Sellers in the E55, captured the other heat win.

Deibert was looking strong as he took the Dash for Cash honors with Sellers and Dennis Ponder in the 7 finishing in the money in second and third respectively.

The field lined up for the nights main event with Paul Bailey in the 81 on the pole, Rob Lee in the 88L sat alongside Bailey, the second row was made up of James Edens in the 88R and Dean Pruett in the 0P, row three was Chris Smith in the 15 and Dennis Ponder’s number 7.

The redraw for the feature wasn’t kind to the heat race winners Sellers or Deibert as both drivers ended up the 4th row. Sellers was in the seventh starting position and Deibert starting eighth.

At the drop of the green, Deibert went to work running the top side around the Highland 1/4 mile looking for the fastest way around. The track was starting to blacken up making it more of a challenge for the drivers. Deibert eventually moved to the bottom knocking off the competition one by one. Lee in the lead kept working the high side. Deibert stayed true to the bottom, made his way to the front and the former track champion took out the broom by taking the double checkered flags in a caution free green to checker finish. Lee came home second followed by Edens, Smith and Bailey.

   The Woodcrest Small Engines Street Stocks were next up. Dustin McClintock and last year’s champion Eric Harris took heat race honors.  In the night cap Willie Myers driving his wild looking station wagon bodied street stock took the feature win coming from the sixth starting position. Last week’s feature winner Trevor Isaak came up one position short and finished second, Terry McCann ran third and McClintock and Harris ended up fourth and fifth.

The final race of the evening was the Miller Lite Bmods. Michael Ripperda Jr., Rob Shaw and Marty Smith Jr. took heat wins. The big race of the night found T.J. Frazier grabbing the victory followed by Cale Hartnagel, Bret Eilermann, who started deep in the field crossing the stripe in third, Zobrist and Shaw rounded out the top five.

Next week is Dairy King Night at the Races, be sure to get there early for a good seat and an exciting night of racing at the Highland Speedway.

 

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