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(9/4/00)With 82 total UMP modifieds in the pits and taking time Newport, Tn. driver Jimmy Owens showed once and for all that he is the best full time modified driver in the country.(That is my opinion). The event at Vermilion County Speedway in Danville,Il. took two days to run without the cooperation of Mother Nature on Sunday night. Owens nearly had the slowest time of all cars entered when he slid over the banking in turn 2 on his qualifing lap putting him at the tail of the 8th and final heat. Not a deterrance to him or his crew he proceeded to move to the front on lap 9 without a caution to benifit him and win the 12 lap heat putting him in the 8th starting position for the feature. Other heat winners were Dan Hamstra, Rick Hufford, Bryan Clendenen, Jeff Martin, Shane Cottle, Jammie Wilson, and Tim O'Donnell. The track was very good with racing hard and clean in all the heats and don't remember any cars getting tore up in the heat races. The heats transfered the top 2 finishers with the 16 car consi's just transfering the winner only making up the 20 car field with Matt Rhyne, Randall Sweeney, Gary Cook Jr. winning the first 3 and the last consi on the track when the second set of rain came forcing postponement until Monday at noon. The first rain, a downpour, came at 9:45 forcing a delay of nearly 3 hours. When racing resumed with a bunch of help from the racers and also fans with their private automobiles the track was somewhat greasy on the top of the turns and when a car got over or near the top the outside was like an ice skating rink making cars uncontrollable and sliding into the guard rails far from the racing surface unfortunatly with other races to be ran the next day, DuQuoin and Brownstown, the staff felt that as much should be done to complete the show if possible this evening. Also unfortunatly some cars got damaged pretty badly from the conditions most seriously I believe was John Hudsons new Dirt Works when he and Chuck Haga slid off the top of turn 3 in their consi taking the fuel cell completely out of Hudsons car. When the second rain came , mercifully it seemed at 1:30, with the last consi on the track and 4 laps completed and only 5 cars still competing the rest was delayed until noon Monday. 26 cars reported back Monday including Matt Boknecht, who was given a provisional by the promoter on Sunday as he was the 3rd CAR on the track to pack and the last CAR to leave the track and must have had 200 lbs of mud on his car and was rewarded with a starting position, three of the remaining 5 consi cars on the track and 2 other returning cars. With the benifit of a sponser, B&D Truck and Trailer Repair, all the cars at the track were allowed to start the feature event. At the start of the 50 lap grind Rick Hufford lead the pack of bandits for lap 1 going into turn 3 4th starting Jeff Martin swept around front row starters Hamstra and Hufford then proceeded to stretch to about a 1/4 lap lead. Owens slowly picked off cars one by one when on lap 15 he got by second and third running Michael Bradley and Bryan Clendenen on the low side. By this time the lead was about 1/3 a lap with Martin now in traffic but doing a masterful job of getting past. At the halfway mark Owens had cut the lead to about a straight and was clearly but slowly catching the now late model chauffer. At about lap 35 the leader had picked up a little bit of a push coming off the turns making Owens job just a little easier and the lead was down to just 3 car lengths. At lap 40 Martin caught a 4 car pack and was able to dispose of 2 fairly easily but the other 2 were running side by side allowing Owens to get right on the lead bumper. At the line on lap 42 with Owens on the bottom and Martin on the top making a Rick Hufford sandwich Owens was able to finally take the lead and stretch it out to about 3 car lengths. Looking like he was toast Martin showed his determination and closed back up to 1 length at the white flag using the far outside of the surface had the momentum coming off turn 4 where Owens slid up blocking the lane and taking the win with Martin right on the back bumper of the Lighning Chassis #20. The race went all 50 laps without a caution and the surface allowed 3 wide racing and plenty of room for passing by the leaders when needed. Clendenen held on for 3rd about 20 car lengths back and had a 10 car length lead on the battle for 4 between Bradley and Hamstra. Results follow:
Fast time: Dan Hamstra
Heat winners and consi winners above
Feature finish:
1. Jimmy Owens 2. Jeff Martin
3. Bryan Clendenen 4. Michael Bradley
5. Dan Hamstra 6. Matt Boknecht
7. Jammie Wilson 8. Todd Gilpin
9. Gary Cook Jr. 10.Tommy Burnside
11.Rick Hufford 12.Tim O'Donnell
13.Matt Rhyne 14.Bobby Bittle
15.John DeMoss 16.Arby Burton
17.**** Phelps 18.Bub Patrick
19.Kyle Logue 20.Roger Cary
21.Don Kiger 22.Rick Rife
23.Clint DeMoss 24.Shane Cottle
25.Randall Sweeney 26.Toby Massie
The promoters would like to thank Pride Enterprises for their sponsorship of the event. Also the drivers for the great driving during the heats and feature events. The first 2 consi's went very well then the rain came and made for a very tough 3rd and 4th consi events. Too bad as the track was one of the best I have seen it until the sky opened up. Some of the notables not making the main event were a who's who of modified racing. Jeff Leka, Gary Burton, Daryl Herbert, Mike Karhoff, John and Tom Seets, Mike Chasteen, Michael Steele, Wes Steidinger, LM star Kevin Weaver, and Elvin Herschberger to name a few. Also with this being the last big show for promoters Bill Marietta and Bob Marshall I personally would like to thank them for continuing the tradition at VCS with an all out effort to bring the top UMP modified drivers in the country to their track with excellent payouts that past promoter Phil Richardson started and can only hope that the next promoter feels it is feasible to continue to do so. Even though some racing fans do not believe that the modifieds put on good shows I think that the Memorial Day and Labor Day races at VCS are some of the best racing to be seen and would hope that the racers and fans that do come have enjoyed most of their experiences when they came.Hope to cya in the future at VCS..... And Jimmy and crew congratulations..... you are the best(IMO). Couple of other things, Boknecht came from 21st to 6th and Cook Jr came from 19th to 9th in the final rundown..

In other action on the final points night, A.J. Wright won the MMA feature with Terry Duncan, Dave Baldwin, Joe Reynolds, and Greg Wright finishing in the top five. Randy Shuman won the Street Stock feature over Kenny Eads, Dave Rudisell, Charlie Carroll, and Phil Johns. The Bomber feature was won by Steve Akins followed by Mike Hope, Cecil Ashby, Larry White, and Dave Mackey.