Sparks flies to victory at Fairbury Speedway
FAIRBURY — There was the thrill of victory, agony of defeat and a few feel-good stories Saturday night at the Fairbury Speedway. The FALS Cup/Alkota weekly program was Championship Night with the crowning of track champions in four of the DIRTcar classes.
The program was presented by Daikin Air Intelligence and it featured Mike Spatola (late model), Michael Ledford (modified), Tommy Duncan (CR Towing Sportsman) and Ian Keller (stock car) earning track championships in their respective divisions.
In the feature races on the night, Jay Sparks (late model), Mike McKinney (modified), Tommy Duncan (CR Towing Sportsman), Jarrad Krick (stock car), Jason Vandermeir (hobby-modified) and Ryan Kohler (hobby-modified second race) went home as victors.
Metamora’s Jay Sparks has shown signs of a fast race car only to be snake bitten come feature time in his late model. Things were different on this night, however.
Sparks was running the bottom of the track when he saw race leader and track champion Mike Spatola, also racing on the bottom, slip up enough to allow Sparks to slide by on the final lap and take his first-ever Fairbury feature win.
“I have been waiting for this for a long time,” Sparks, also the race's hard-charger winner, said. “We have had a good car all year. Ray Nelter has gotten us running pretty good. I probably laid on Spatola too hard, but I haven’t had a win and I wanted one.”
Spatola would finish in second position, followed by contender Ryan Unzicker. Friday night’s Farmer City winner, Myles Moos took fourth and early race leader, Kevin Weaver was fifth.
There were 23 late models making qualifying attempts that saw Spatola’s time of 12.549 seconds leading the way. Spatola, Derek Chandler and Unzicker took heat race wins. Bob Thoennes was the semi feature winner.
With next weekend’s $10,000-to-win race next, 21 competitors fine tuned their modified cars for their special event. Forrest’s Austin Friedman set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 13.680 ticks. Friedman, Mike McKinney and Caden McWhorter won heat races.
Friedman checked out on the field at the wave of the green flag as McKinney and track champion Michael Ledford raced for second. McKinney tried the top and bottom groove after a lap five yellow flag, but Friedman was able to prevail. The caution came out on the eighth circuit and on the restart, Friedman took a five-car length lead over McKinney.
Ledford had his hands full with Jared Thomas, Alan Stipp and Brandon Bollinger in contention. McKinney got by Friedman after a caution came out on the 10th lap, and Ledford moved into second.
Bad luck struck Friedman on the 15th lap as his night came to an end. McKinney led the field to the green as Steven Brooks got by Ledford for second. Brooks cut into McKinney’s lead late in the race but the laps ran out and McKinney took his fourth Fairbury win of the season.
“I kind of played it patient,” McKinney said. “The top was a pretty far way around. The bottom had moisture left, so I let it run in and let it come to me.”
Brooks finished in second, followed closely by Jason Hastings. Thomas took fourth, and Ledford slipped to fifth.
Looking to avenge his loss two weeks ago, four-time CR Towing Sportsman track champion Tommy Duncan of Metamora went the distance in taking his eighth win of the year in the caution-marred 15-lap race.
“I kept looking at the scoreboard and saw (Landen) Miller and (Steve) Mattingly were right there,” said Duncan. “I figured that I had to play defense on both.”
Miller turned back Tyler Roth for second, followed by newcomer Ron Wilkes and Jim Farley lll was fifth.
Miller set the pace in qualifying with a time of 14.774 seconds with 13 cars taking to the quarter-mile dirt track. Duncan and Mattingly won the heat races.
In the 15-lap stock car feature, Cody Clubb looked to be on his way to the win before misfortune struck. Contact with a slower car in turn four abruptly brought his night to an end. Former UMP national champion Jarrad Krick inherited the lead with four laps to go and held off Tim Loomis for the win.
“I hated to see that happen to Cody,” Krick said. “He definitely had the best car tonight. I will take it any way I can get it. This place is never usually that good to me. I won the 2016 Hubert Memorial race once and haven’t been able to get back to victory lane. This feels pretty good.”
Loomis had to settle for second. Early race leader Megan Erwin was third followed by Andy Thompson and Jordan Smith.
Eighteen drivers were on hand tuning up for the upcoming Hubert Memorial race with Krick’s time of 15.164 seconds leading the way. Two heat races were held with Erwin and Clubb taking the wins.
With the growing popularity in the hobby-modified class and a new record of 28 cars in attendance, it was decided to hold two feature races. In the first race Pontiac’s Trevor Ringle, a successful Kart racer, led flag to flag for a seemingly convincing win. In a post race inspection, however, Ringle’s car was deemed illegal and he was disqualified.
The victory was awarded to Ryan Kohler, son of 2008 street stock track champion Darrin Kohler. Fans that know the tragedy the Kohler family has experienced makes the win a feel good story.
“It was definitely a stacked field,” the Chebanse native said. “I kept the car steady. This is really awesome. I have always dreamed of this.”
Scott McDonald took the runner up spot. Rick Thomas was third, followed by Dalton Deavers and Clay Wisher.
In the second race, Jason Vandermeir had to hold off Luke Gebhardt in taking his first win of the year.
“The car didn’t run that good in the heat race,” Vandermeir said. “We worked on it and it came back to life.”
Dylan Turpin finished in third, with Payton Semmens and Graham Jackson completing the top five. Ringle, Deavers and Kohler were heat race winners.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Jay Sparks flies to victory at Fairbury Speedway in late model
