Action Packed David Richardson
Memorial Nets 9th Different Winner
by
Jeffrey A. Bayless
(5//27/02)For the ninth
year Vermillion County Speedway in Danville, IL played host to arguably the
most prestigious UMP Modified race of the year, The David Richardson
Memorial sponsored by Pride Enterprises. With 108 UMP Modifieds on
hand to take there shot at the $5000 top prize there would be plenty of
action and thrills to fill the night.
The evening began with
Elvin Herschberger claiming the top qualifying lap with a time of
15.690. Then the 108 entrees were separated into 8 heat races that
were lined up straight up from the qualifying runs. The top two
finishers from each heat transferred directly to the main event with
everyone else having to goto one of four semi's to find out there fate
for the evening. So with at least 13 cars in every heat you knew there
was going to be some hotly contested heat races to see who could claim one
of the top two spots and transfer to the 50 lap $5000 to win race. The
first heat saw Elvin Herschberger claim the win and the pole for the main
over Randal Sweeney and Tony Duncan. In the second heat local favorite
Arby Burton beat Scott Wilbur and Jeff Leka to the stripe. The third
heat was won by Brent Lounderee but the talk of the race was Tommy Burnside
who came from 14th to finish in the runner up spot ahead of Matt Boknecht.
The fourth heat saw Billy Vaughn beat Mark Moore and Everitt Brabham.
Local Late Model favorite Kevin Weaver brought his modified out for the
evening and claimed the fifth heat in front of Shane Cottle and Jerry
Hathway. With the memory of Burnside's march through the field still
fresh on the minds of many, the fans were entreated to Tony Roland one uping
the former winner. Roland started dead last in the sixth heat and came
out the victor ahead of Tim O'Donnell and Lee Hobbs. The seventh heat
was the most entertaining as five cars fought it out swapping the lead
several times but on lap 15 it was Kyle Logue followed by Bobby Bittle and
Jimmy Owens. The last heat went to Dan Hamstra as he cruised to
victory ahead of Bob Pohlman and Tommy Kroll. Pohlman, as well, came
from deep in the field to find a transfer spot starting 12th in his heat.
Next up, the 4 20 lap
semi's would determine the rest of the field for the A-Main with the top two
transferring to the show as well as determine the field for the $1000 to win
B-Main with finishing positions 3-8 making that show. Everyone else
got a chance to beat the traffic home. Semi 1 saw Jeff Leka win ahead
of Tracy Leonard and Tony Duncan. Semi 2 was won by Matt Boknecht as
he beat Lance Dehm and Matt Rhyne to the stripe. The third semi
saw Mike Marlar transfer with a victory ahead of Jason Lakey and Lee Hobbs.
Jimmy Owens, a multiple UMP National Champion, won the 4th and final semi
ahead of Michael Bradley and John DeMoss. The field for both the A and
B Main were now set.
The 25 lap B-Main was
the first race up after the intermission period was over. The action
was fast and furious at the start with Matt Rhyne taking the early lead
ahead of Tony Duncan, Lee Hobbs, John DeMoss, and Phil Johns. This
running order would not last long as Johns was in second by lap two with his
eyes on the lead with Daryl Herbert moving into third ahead of DeMoss and
Roger Cary. Johns made his moves on the third lap and was able to
overtake Rhyne and separate from the pack as DeMoss began to battle Rhyne as
well. By the 10th lap Rhyne and DeMoss had caught the leader and the
battle for the lead quickly turned into a three car battle until the caution
waved for debris on the racing surface. When the green waved
again this battle resumed with the cars of Cary and Tommy Kroll in contact
with them. When they came around to complete the lap they were running
Rhyne, Johns, DeMoss, Kroll, and Cary was the running order. Rhyne
found a groove that his car liked and began to distance himself from the
field. Meanwhile back in the pack the car of Herbert made a strong run
to the front after falling backward early in the race. It seemed as if
he came from nowhere and all of a sudden he was running a strong second and
closing on the leader. With the laps winding down Rhyne began to run
upon the backmarkers but Herbert was unable to capitalize as Johns,
DeMoss, and Cary rounded out the top five for the B. As was the custom
the officials asked Rhyne if he was willing to give back the $1000 dollar
winners purse for a shot at the $5000 winners purse in the A.
Rhyne wisely walked away with the $1000.
As the 26 cars (24
transfers and two provisionals) in the A Main rolled onto the track
fireworks were set off in the infield to set the tone for the 50 lap
shootout. The start of the race saw Elvin Herschberger, Arby Burton,
and Billy Vaughn going around the track in a side by side
contest for the lead as the rest of the field raced in packs of 3 or 4
jockeying for position. As they came to the stripe the second time Vaughn
had been able to maneuver into the top spot with Herschberger, Burton,
Tony Roland, Kyle Logue behind him. Vaughn began to pull away as 7
cars all engaged in a dual for second, fought behind him. Tracey
Leonard spun on the 6th circuit bringing out the race's first caution and
erasing Vaughn's expanding lead. When the green waved again it was
short lived as Dan Hamstra spun going into one and the caution flew again.
The next attempt went much better as Vaughn continued to dominate quickly
reestablishing his lead ahead of Burton, Roland, Tommy Burnside, and Kevin
Weaver. As Vaughn looked like he was driving a rocket ship
stretching his lead every lap the cars of Burton, Roland, Burnside, Weaver,
Randal Sweeney, Herschberger, and Shane Cottle all were nose to tail racing
around the speedway. Just when it looked as if Vaughn was going to
cruise to an easy victory with a straight away lead he found himself sitting
in turn four looking at the oncoming traffic on lap 17. This had to be
heartbreaking to Vaughn but a joyful relief to others who had to be
wondering how they were ever going to catch this guy. When the field
restarted the top 12 raced off as if they were a train on rails, stuck
together nose to tail. The main battle in this group was Burnside
trying to wrestle the second spot from Roland. Roland would have
none of it though as every time Burnside would dip down underneath,
Roland would power back by and maintain his position. At the
halfway point all of the leaders were still in contact with each other and
the best battle was Burnside giving Roland all he could handle. This
battle continued for several laps with Roland holding off the former
champion until the 30th lap when Roland's motor started going south.
As his power disappeared so did his positioning as Burnside and Weaver shot
by and started a three car breakaway as Roland's slowing car created a
bottleneck behind them. The drivers received a chance to regroup
on the 32nd lap as the caution flew. The car of Kevin Weaver was
asked to leave the track during this caution because he had a broken ball
joint on the right front of his mount. 
This
left the front of the field lined up Burton, Burnside, Kyle Logue, Roland
and Randall Sweeney. Roland's night quickly came to an end
however as his engine completely gave up on the 35th lap. From
this point the race became a follow the leader type of race with someone
occasionally stepping up and trying to gain another spot but to no avail as
the track had no grip left. But things were about to get more
interesting as with 4 laps to go Burnside got into the back of Burton coming
out of three. Burton got a bit sideways and Burnside backed out of the
throttle to keep from taking Burton completely out. However
with $5000 on the line nobody is going to stay backed off to long and Logue
and Burnside both drove in under Burton heading into three and they found
out three wide on a dry slick surface will not work. The end
result of this attempt to go three wide was chaos as all three cars went
around in front of a speeding field and car parts flew everywhere.
Burton, Burnside, and Logue all were eliminated in this accident as well as
a few other top notch cars. Defending champion Denny Schwartz got the
worse end of the deal as he ended up sitting sideways out of 4 and several
used him as a bouncing board. He was shaken up but was able to walk
away from his badly twisted race car. Now with only a handful of
cars left and the fourth place car of Sweeney suddenly finding himself
leading this very prestigious race the green waved again and Sweeney raced
home to the $5000 victory ahead of Mike Marlar, Michael Bradley, Elvin
Herschberger, and Bobby Bittle.
This
left the front of the field lined up Burton, Burnside, Kyle Logue, Roland
and Randall Sweeney. Roland's night quickly came to an end
however as his engine completely gave up on the 35th lap. From
this point the race became a follow the leader type of race with someone
occasionally stepping up and trying to gain another spot but to no avail as
the track had no grip left. But things were about to get more
interesting as with 4 laps to go Burnside got into the back of Burton coming
out of three. Burton got a bit sideways and Burnside backed out of the
throttle to keep from taking Burton completely out. However
with $5000 on the line nobody is going to stay backed off to long and Logue
and Burnside both drove in under Burton heading into three and they found
out three wide on a dry slick surface will not work. The end
result of this attempt to go three wide was chaos as all three cars went
around in front of a speeding field and car parts flew everywhere.
Burton, Burnside, and Logue all were eliminated in this accident as well as
a few other top notch cars. Defending champion Denny Schwartz got the
worse end of the deal as he ended up sitting sideways out of 4 and several
used him as a bouncing board. He was shaken up but was able to walk
away from his badly twisted race car. Now with only a handful of
cars left and the fourth place car of Sweeney suddenly finding himself
leading this very prestigious race the green waved again and Sweeney raced
home to the $5000 victory ahead of Mike Marlar, Michael Bradley, Elvin
Herschberger, and Bobby Bittle.
Once again Vermillion
County Speedway outdid themselves putting on a very fine show and I,
personally, can't wait for next year for the 10th Annual race.
RESULTS (Heats
[15 laps] Top 2 Transfer to A, Semi's [20 laps]Top 2 to A, 3-8 to B)
HEAT 1- Elvin
Herschberger, Randall Sweeney, Tony Duncan, Dusty Moore, Brady Short
HEAT 2- Arby Burton,
Scott Weber, Jeff Leka, Craig Conyer, RJ Gall
HEAT 3- Brent Londeree,
Tommy Burnside, Matt Boknecht, Phil Johns, Dave Wheatley
HEAT 4- Billy Vaughn,
Mark Moore, Everitt, Brabham, Matt Rhyne, Daryl Herbert
HEAT 5- Kevin Weaver,
Shane Cottle, Jerry Hathway, Jason Lakey, Marvin Burton
HEAT 6- Tony Roland, Tim
O'Donnell, Lee Hobbs, Mike Marlar, Dave Porth
HEAT 7- Kyle Logue,
Bobby Bittle, Jimmy Owens, Michael Bradley, John DeMoss
HEAT 8- Dan Hamstra, Bob
Pohlman, Tommy Kroll, Cory Rolfe, Doug Taylor
SEMI 1- Jeff Leka, Tracy
Leonard, Tony Duncan, Jim Leka, Dennis Hux, Kevin Davis, Bob Martintoni,
Jared Temples, Craig Coyner, Bill Gotti
SEMI 2- Matt Boknecht,
Lance Dehm, Matt Rhyne, Phil Johns, Daryl Herbert, Kelly Kouski, Darrin
Friedman, Kenny Carlson, Al Flick
SEMI 3- Mike Marlar,
Jason Lakey, Lee Hobbs, Jerry Hathway, Don Kiger, Marvin Burton, Jeremy
Hines, Dave Porth, Jack Taylor, Marc Kurth
SEMI 4- Jimmy Owens,
Michael Bradley, John DeMoss, Tommy Kroll, Roger Cary, Cory Rolfe, JD
Roberts, Gary Cook, Dave Rudisill, Rocky Griffin
B-MAIN 25 Laps $1000 to Win-
1) Matt Rhyne, 2) Darryl Herbert, 3) Phil Johns, 4) John DeMoss, 5) Roger
Cary, 6) Tommy Kroll, 7) Don Kiger, 8) Tony Duncan, 9) Lee Hobbs, 10)
Everitt Brabham, 11) Jerry Hathway, 12) Gary Cook, 13) Cory Rolfe, 14) JD
Roberts, 15) Kevin Davis, 16) Dave Porth, 17) Dennis Hux, 18) Jared Temples,
19) Bob Martintoni, 20) Kelly Kouski, 21) Jim Leka, 22) Darrin Friedman, 23)
Jeremy Hines, 24) Marvin Burton
A-MAIN 50 Laps $5000 to Win-
1) Randall Sweeney, 2) Mike Marlar, 3) Michael Bradley, 4) Elvin
Herschberger, 5) Bobby Bittle, 6) Jason Lakey, 7) Tracy Leonard, 8) Lance
Dehm, 9) Billy Vaughn, 10) Jeff Leka, 11) Dan Hamstra, 12) Kyle Logue, 13)
Denny Schwartz, 14) Arby Burton, 15) Tommy Burnside, 16) Tim O'Donnell, 17)
Bob Pohlman, 18) Josh Fergeson, 19) Shane Cottle, 20) Tony Roland, 21) Brent
Londeree, 22) Mark Moore, 23) Kevin Weaver, 24) Jimmy Owens, 25) Matt
Boknecht, 26) Scott Weber