Billy Moyer closes out 2008 Farmer
City Raceway season with a win in the Farmer City 50
By: Racenut
(Dan Stewart)
FARMER CITY, IL – August 29, 2008 – The 2008
regular season came to a close Friday night with the fourth annual
Farmer City 50, a 50 lap race for the late models paying $5,000
to win. Batesville, Arkansas' Billy Moyer came to town and once
again wound up in victory lane. The first event of the evening
was time trials, with Mr. Smooth reeling off a lap of 12.464
seconds, the fastest of the 36 late models on hand. Moyer went
on to win his heat in convincing style, easily winning over the
2008 track champion Eric Smith, followed by Kevin Weaver and
Ryan Unzicker. The second heat went to Steve Sheppard Jr over
a hard charging Frank Heckenast Jr, followed by Rich Bell and
Ryan Little. The third heat had a little trouble getting started
due to third place starter Ted Loomis twice making a pass on
the polesitter Jimmy Mars before the green flag would wave. Eventually,
Brian Shirley would get the win, with Mars finally getting around
Loomis in turn four of the final lap for second, with Loomis
third and Kyle Logue fourth. The fourth heat was the most exciting
as polesitter Don O'Neal jumped to the early lead, only to be
run down on lap four and passed by Jason Feger, who went on to
the win over O'Neal with Daren Friedman and Donny Walden rounding
out the top four spots. The first semi feature went to Kevin
Claycomb over Kerry Matthew, Joe Harlan and Mike Glasscock. The
second semi went to Scott Bull. The next three finishers put
on a show for the fans running three wide most of the race, with
Jimmy Dehm finishing second over Terry Babb and Rick Scheffler.
Come feature time, the heat winners started up front, meaning
Moyer and Sheppard Jr were the front row. Moyer took off to the
early lead, followed closely by Sheppard, and Shirley. The first
of two cautions came for Sheppard Jr as the right rear of his
car had serious problems while he was running second. The second
caution was for a spinning Rich Bell with eighteen laps to go.
Up until that point in the race, Brian Shirley, Jimmy Mars and
Jason Feger had been trading positions almost every lap. When
the green flag flew again, however, third place Feger got around
Shirley on the restart and set sail to try and catch Moyer. With
about 10 laps to go, Feger caught Moyer and over the next six
laps would try to pull alongside, and a couple of times almost
made the pass complete. The fans in the stands were on their
feet in amazement as Feger just would not give up. But all was
in vain, as Moyer would turn up the wick and slide past some
backmarkers and go on to victory lane.
unofficial finish
21 Billy Moyer
25 Jason Feger
3s Brian Shirley
28 Jimmy Mars
9 Eric Smith
71 Don O'Neal
89 Daren Friedman
24 Ryan Unzicker
21 Rich Bell
1W Donny Walden
99 Frank Heckenast Jr
Z Joe Harlan
38L Ryan Little
99J Jimmy Dehm
The modified class saw a new track record in time trials,
as Danny Schwartz would blister off a lap of 13.883 seconds in
his father Denny's car. There were 34 modifieds on hand, and
the first heat went to Kent Robinson over Danny Schwartz and
Jeb Friedman. The second heat went to a very fast Jeremy Nichols
over Lane Dehm and Kevin Hastings. The third heat went to Jeff
Leka over Mckay Wenger and Terry Barker. The final heat went
to Gary Cook Jr over Chad Evans and Cory Schwengel. Brian Lynn
won the semi feature. In the feature, Kent Robinson would lead
the opening laps, but Jeff Leka would overpower him and run on
to the checkers, followed by a hard charging Gary Cook Jr. Danny
Schwartz, Mckay Wenger, Kent Robinson Chad Evans, Jeb Friedman,
Mike Spatola, Cory Schwengel and Kevin Hastings rounded out the
top ten finishers.
The streetstock class saw the first heat go to Jim Quinn over
Greg Rubenacker and Scott Thrasher. The second heat went to Al
Crawley over Terry Miller and Jesse Simmons. The feature went
to Al Crawley over Jim Quinn, Terry Miller, Chris Tackett, Josh
Griffith, Darrell Lehigh, Scott Thrasher and Greg Rubenacker.
The hornet class had David Reed win the first heat over Cook
Crawford and David Lorenzen. The second heat went to Stacy Whitehouse
over Josh Osborne and Matt Corey. The feature ended in normal
Reed style, as last row starter Joe Reed would take the lead
from his brother David as they came off turn four, with a little
love tap, and take the checkered flag and the track championship.
There were 102 cars in the pits, and all races were complete
at 10:40 pm
Congratulations to 2008 track champions Eric Smith, Jeff Leka,
Joel Funk, Jim Quinn, and Joe Reed
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