Farmer City Ill. (August 11, 2011): Farmer City played host to 17 cars for the DR Kildare Memorial. The VLR stable has owned this track in the past and was looking to do it again. Heat 1 started off with Shock starting the night off by going from 5th to the front in the 12 laps. Doit 5 followed him though the field and transferred as well.
In heat 2 VLR would sweep the top 2 spots with Superman holding of Wheel for the 2 transfer spots. Rain would be relegated to 3rd and the B-Main. B42 took the lead on the outside pole and would lead all 12 laps. Ice was able to get around J-Mac for 2nd and take the final transfer spot. Rain would advance though the B-Main with Bullet, King, and JSN transferring as well.
The Dr. Kildare Memorial would kick off with an all VLR front row as Superman and Shock would battle it out side by side for the first 6 laps. Lap 2 seen the first contact of the night as D5 slid up coming out of turn 2 and made contact with B42 sending him sideways. Ice would straighten him up however and Ice would advance up to 4th after the contact was made.
Wheel looked to be the car on the move as he was weaving through the field and had moved up to 3rd place. Setting his eyes on the leaders he started to reel off some very good laps on the bottom. Superman started to inch away from Shock and Wheel began to catch Shock for 2nd. On lap 23 Wheel would finally get to him and Shock appeared to let him go by and Wheel would set his eyes on the leader.
Rain would catch Ice for the 4th spot on lap 22 and make the pass on lap 27 and B42 would get right on Ice’s bumper. Meanwhile up front Wheel had closed the distance and started to put some pressure on Superman. Wheel would take the lead on lap 33 and start to pull away until lap 42 the race would see its only caution erasing Wheel’s lead. Wheel would have the front row to himself and it would be an 8 lap shootout with a lot of hungry drivers behind him.
Wheel got off to a good start and Shock tried to get around Superman on the high side. Superman would bobble sending his car up the track forcing Shock off the track and out of contention. Rain would then go into turn one and make contact with Superman and would send him spinning to the infield and out of the race. Ice would use this contact to get around Rain and move to the 2nd spot.
Wheel would motor on to lead the final 18 laps of the race and pick up the $14,000 check that goes along with the winner. Ice was able to avoid trouble and finish 2nd with Rain picking up 3rd. B42 was able to hang around for 4th and D5 rounded out the top 5. Bullet would finish 6th, last weeks DOIT winner JSN came home in 7th. King making his 1st start of the season finished 8th with Shock limping home 9th and Superman recorded a DNF for 10th.
Wheel picked up his 4th win of the series and seemed surprised by the lack of pressure for the final 8 laps following the restart. “I got a great start but I never seen anyone. I was expecting someone to be right there so I just drove as hard as I could. It sounded like they were having a demolition derby back there. Its great to win on this series and although I seem to be out of the Lucas points Im picking up a lot of points at WFO so im going to focus on this championship.”
Ice was very happy with his 2nd place finish. “I didn’t know if I would even make the A-main here and to finish 2nd is great. I was able to get through the carnage after the restart and kept hoping the Wheel would overdrive his car and hand me the win. But I knew it wasn’t going to happen and 2nd place here for me is awesome!!!”
3rd place Rain was somber after the race, “I don’t really know what happened with me and Superman. He slowed up in the corner more than I expected him to and I nailed him. I tried to slow up but couldn’t get it slowed up in time. Just wanted to say sorry to him.”
9th place Shock was visably upset after the race. “I didn’t touch anyone the whole race and even moved over for Wheel and in the end the restart got me again. Superman just shoved me off the track and I think Rain paid him back for me. I'll come back Monday with some vengeance and I'm going to go ahead and predict a win…not for me but for Wheel."
Remember Monday we will run the same track in the Gen 4 topless chassis for the JR Kilmer Memorial race. On a side note it was decided that the 2-100 lap races at WFO Raceway 2k11 at the end of the year would be shortened to 50 laps a piece and we will add Lucas Oil Speedway to the end of the schedule and run a 100 lap feature on Monday, September 3rd at 8:00 and you can run either Gen 4 chassis.