Chris Windom of Canton, Ill., celebrates his third Illinois Speed Week victory at Lincoln Speedway on Saturday night, June 13. - Dennis Krieger ImageryLincoln, Ill. - There are two things that give me a hard-on; Women and non-wing sprint car racing. It doesn't necessarily have to be in that order either.
Indiana is the home of non-wing racing but for this past week, the Land of Lincoln played host to Illinois Sprint Week. It's six straight days of non-wing sprint car racing at different tracks, paying $2,000 to the winner each night. Race promoter Don Hammer is the organizer of this week and what I thought was nice is the fact that no sanctions such as USAC or Midwest Sprint Car Series are apart of it. It's all about racing and anybody who wants to compete is invited to strap in and strap on(?).
Isn't that refreshing for a change?
The talent level of drivers this past week wasn't what I would call "Indiana quality". Most of the guys competing are local "Weekend Warrior" types trying to make a couple of bucks and fill the need for speed. I don't mean this in a bad way at all. As these drivers displayed Saturday night, they have as much desire and are as hungry as the Levi Jones's, Dave Darland's and Jon Stanbrough's in the non-wing world. Walking through the pit area, they have that same determined look in their eyes as their Hoosier counterparts.
This made for some great racing.
Our afternoon started on sort of a weird note. Photographer Dennis Krieger and I arrived early and found a place to set up camp outside of the track overlooking the backstretch. Where we were parked is a narrow alley with a fence line to your right and over hanging trees to your left. A hauler coming through veered right to avoid the trees. What he didn't avoid were what we thought were power lines to the right. As soon as the first line snapped, you saw people either ducking or running for cover. Fortunately for everyone around, it wasn't a live power line, just a cable of some sort. Still, what a great way to get the ol' heart racing before the cars do.
On the way there Dennis told me, "You're gonna love this track". He had been there a few weeks earlier for the World of Outlaws Late Model show and said it was one of the best shows he had seen in a long time. One of the major reasons he felt why the show was so successful was the condition of the track.
As you know, one of my pet peeves this season has been the poor maintenance and even poorer preparation of some of the tracks that I have been to so far. Well I'm hear to tell you that Mr. Don Hammer and his staff get a grade of A+.
Lincoln Speedway has rich black dirt,which always makes for good racing if it's properly prepped. It's obvious that Hammer, an old racer himself, knows what a good race track should be like and you could tell that he takes great pride in giving his drivers a tacky, racy oval in which to compete on. Well done Mr. Hammer, if you don't mind, I'd like to send a few promoters your way and have you give them a few pointers. I think their are some drivers and fans who would appreciate it.
The first thing I noticed about Lincoln Speedway is it's located on an old county fairgrounds, Logan County Fairgrounds in fact. The 1/4-mile race track is surrounded by an old 1/2-mile horse track and the flag stand is located on the infield side of the track, which I always think looks weird but as I found out, the color of the flags and their meaning are still the same as they are on the other side.
In addition to the headliner, street stocks and UMP modifieds were also on the card. Because I'm not so familiar with the drivers in this region, I normally wouldn't of paid too much attention to them but because the track was in such great condition I was curious to see what these support classes could do.
While the street stock division didn't look like much, they put on quite the show. Much like the sprints would all night, they were running high, low and wherever they decided to stick their car. The feature turned out to be a dandy with hometown boys Terry Miller and Jeremy Billington racing side by side for most of the main event and swapping the lead several times with Miller just edging out Billington for the win as the checkers dropped.
Once again, because the track was in excellent "racing" condition, a entry-level division was able not only to give the fans a show but have them on their feet for the last few laps in anticipation of a great finish. Promoters, are you soaking this information in?
As I mentioned earlier, most of the drivers competing this week weren't exactly household names. The one name that did stand out was that of Chris Windom. For you non-wing sprint car fans, you'll recognize Windom's name showing up on results from Indiana all the time but Windom's roots are from right in this area. He still calls Canton, Ill., home and as Dennis told me, Windom grew up racing TQ (three-quarter) midgets at Pittsfield Speedway.
Windom is usually a mid-pack racer on the Indiana non-wing circuit but this was his week to shine. Before Saturday night, he had already grabbed $2,000 wins at his hometown Spoon River Speedway on Wednesday night, June 10th and followed that up with a dominating win on Friday, June 12th at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
After three heat races, it appeared to me and my media cohorts in the infield that Mr. Windom was looking head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. You could tell that his equipment was much better and he simply had a faster machine. Like I said, "It appeared that way". This is why they still run the features...
Indiana is the home of non-wing racing but for this past week, the Land of Lincoln played host to Illinois Sprint Week. It's six straight days of non-wing sprint car racing at different tracks, paying $2,000 to the winner each night. Race promoter Don Hammer is the organizer of this week and what I thought was nice is the fact that no sanctions such as USAC or Midwest Sprint Car Series are apart of it. It's all about racing and anybody who wants to compete is invited to strap in and strap on(?).
Isn't that refreshing for a change?
The talent level of drivers this past week wasn't what I would call "Indiana quality". Most of the guys competing are local "Weekend Warrior" types trying to make a couple of bucks and fill the need for speed. I don't mean this in a bad way at all. As these drivers displayed Saturday night, they have as much desire and are as hungry as the Levi Jones's, Dave Darland's and Jon Stanbrough's in the non-wing world. Walking through the pit area, they have that same determined look in their eyes as their Hoosier counterparts.
This made for some great racing.
Our afternoon started on sort of a weird note. Photographer Dennis Krieger and I arrived early and found a place to set up camp outside of the track overlooking the backstretch. Where we were parked is a narrow alley with a fence line to your right and over hanging trees to your left. A hauler coming through veered right to avoid the trees. What he didn't avoid were what we thought were power lines to the right. As soon as the first line snapped, you saw people either ducking or running for cover. Fortunately for everyone around, it wasn't a live power line, just a cable of some sort. Still, what a great way to get the ol' heart racing before the cars do.
On the way there Dennis told me, "You're gonna love this track". He had been there a few weeks earlier for the World of Outlaws Late Model show and said it was one of the best shows he had seen in a long time. One of the major reasons he felt why the show was so successful was the condition of the track.
As you know, one of my pet peeves this season has been the poor maintenance and even poorer preparation of some of the tracks that I have been to so far. Well I'm hear to tell you that Mr. Don Hammer and his staff get a grade of A+.
Lincoln Speedway has rich black dirt,which always makes for good racing if it's properly prepped. It's obvious that Hammer, an old racer himself, knows what a good race track should be like and you could tell that he takes great pride in giving his drivers a tacky, racy oval in which to compete on. Well done Mr. Hammer, if you don't mind, I'd like to send a few promoters your way and have you give them a few pointers. I think their are some drivers and fans who would appreciate it.
The first thing I noticed about Lincoln Speedway is it's located on an old county fairgrounds, Logan County Fairgrounds in fact. The 1/4-mile race track is surrounded by an old 1/2-mile horse track and the flag stand is located on the infield side of the track, which I always think looks weird but as I found out, the color of the flags and their meaning are still the same as they are on the other side.
In addition to the headliner, street stocks and UMP modifieds were also on the card. Because I'm not so familiar with the drivers in this region, I normally wouldn't of paid too much attention to them but because the track was in such great condition I was curious to see what these support classes could do.
While the street stock division didn't look like much, they put on quite the show. Much like the sprints would all night, they were running high, low and wherever they decided to stick their car. The feature turned out to be a dandy with hometown boys Terry Miller and Jeremy Billington racing side by side for most of the main event and swapping the lead several times with Miller just edging out Billington for the win as the checkers dropped.
Once again, because the track was in excellent "racing" condition, a entry-level division was able not only to give the fans a show but have them on their feet for the last few laps in anticipation of a great finish. Promoters, are you soaking this information in?
As I mentioned earlier, most of the drivers competing this week weren't exactly household names. The one name that did stand out was that of Chris Windom. For you non-wing sprint car fans, you'll recognize Windom's name showing up on results from Indiana all the time but Windom's roots are from right in this area. He still calls Canton, Ill., home and as Dennis told me, Windom grew up racing TQ (three-quarter) midgets at Pittsfield Speedway.
Windom is usually a mid-pack racer on the Indiana non-wing circuit but this was his week to shine. Before Saturday night, he had already grabbed $2,000 wins at his hometown Spoon River Speedway on Wednesday night, June 10th and followed that up with a dominating win on Friday, June 12th at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
After three heat races, it appeared to me and my media cohorts in the infield that Mr. Windom was looking head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. You could tell that his equipment was much better and he simply had a faster machine. Like I said, "It appeared that way". This is why they still run the features...
Casey Shuman of Indianapolis, Ind., slams his sprinter hard into turns 1 and 2 at Lincoln Speedway on June 13. Shuman would finish third in the feature. - Dennis Krieger ImageryWhen they rolled the field of 22 out, Windom was settled right on the pole position. We all looked at each other as if to say, "Should we pack our shit up now and beat the traffic out of the parking lot?" However, being the true race fans (and media) that we are, we stuck around to see how this was going to play out. We're glad we did...
During pre-race chatter, we all agreed that Windom would jump out to a healthy lead and then hide for 30 laps but when the green lights flashed, it was Terry Babb of Decatur, Ill., and Hud Cone of Oakland City, Ind., who both jumped a surprised Windom on the start and took off to the races.
While I've only seen him race a few times, Hud Cone has become a personal favorite of mine. First off you have the name, Hud. That's a sprint car driver's name if I ever heard one. Only if his name was Ice Cream or Sugar could it be better. Actually I think the ultimate non-wing driver's name would be Balls Mahoney.
Back to Hud...
The other reason I admire Hud is you always see his name in the box scores at the end of the night. While he may not win his share of races, you always see his name in the top-five or top 10 finishers. You can tell this guy comes to race and means business.
Back to the race...
After about five laps of juking and jiving among the top three, Cone puts a slide job on Babb for the lead. Here's why I like non-wing sprints. The slider started at the beginning of turn one, worked it's way up and around the berm and ended exiting turn two. I was standing there watching and thinking to myself, "This is not racing. It's poetry in motion, a ballet of sorts, a thing of beauty". I was soon awakened from my trance after a voice yelled out, "Kyle, you sound like a sissy choir girl thinking to yourself, get back to the racing action".
Back to the race...
After Cone got past Babb, Windom felt a urge to get past Babb as well. However, the way Widom got past Babb on the ensuing lap was, shall we say "Swan's Lake"? Windom tried to force the issue a lap later in turns one and two and in doing so, pinched (that's being nice) Babb up and into the wall, with Babb almost rolling his sprinter. Babb saved it but broke something in the front end of his car.
As I have discovered rather quickly, because of their "win at all costs, zero or hero" attitudes, non-wing sprint car drivers have rather short fuses. Babb calmly got out of his sprint car, walked to the front of it for inspection and then calmly waited for Mr. Windom to drive by. As Mr. Windom drove by Babb walked out and started to clap his hands as if to say, "Nice move asshole, thanks a lot for costing me a chance at a $2,000 payday". I felt bad for Babb because it was obvious that he had a fast car and, win or lose, would've given Cone and Windom a race for their money and collected a nice paycheck at the pit window when the evening was done.
Back to the race...
After Babb offered his own form of encouragement to Windom, the racing resumed. Again, because of how impressive Windom had looked already you assumed that Hud (that name just sings doesn't it?) Cone was a sitting duck. That wasn't the case however. For the next 20 or so laps, Windom would make move after move only to have Cone shut the door every time. Even though Windom was the hometown boy of sorts you could almost feel the crowd's alliance go to Cone as he tried to pull off the impossible.
Try as he might, you could tell that Windom was just waiting for Come to slip up and sure enough, with seven or eight laps to go, Come tagged the wall fairly hard between one and two, didn't get it straightened out quick enough to get back on the gas and Windom was right there to take advantage. From there, Chris opened up a little bit of ground and grabbed his third $2,000 payday of the week.
From the sounds of the appreciative fans afterwards, I think everyone felt that they had gotten their money's worth from the feature. I certainly was impressed.
If I had any complaints about the night. it was the slowness of the program. While the racing started as advertised (6:30), there seemed to be a lot of wasted time, specifically in between heats, where cars would come out onto the track and take several laps for what reason I'm not sure. When cars come out onto the track for a heat race, they should be lined up, take one lap and then go green. This wasn't the case in the support divisions.
Also, they chose to take a 20-minute intermission after the heats to "work" the track, which led me to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Even after heat races, the track was still in spectacular shape so why fuck with it? It was obvious why officials felt the need to "work" on it. It's called beer and burger sales. Nicely done Lincoln Speedway, you fooled everyone...
All in all, it was a great night of racing and I would highly recommend a trip to Lincoln Speedway. Don Hammer knows what's needed to make a track racy, which in turn gives all of the drivers a fair chance to be competitive and the fans their money's worth from the stands.
Thanks for reading. See you at the races...
If I had any complaints about the night. it was the slowness of the program. While the racing started as advertised (6:30), there seemed to be a lot of wasted time, specifically in between heats, where cars would come out onto the track and take several laps for what reason I'm not sure. When cars come out onto the track for a heat race, they should be lined up, take one lap and then go green. This wasn't the case in the support divisions.
Also, they chose to take a 20-minute intermission after the heats to "work" the track, which led me to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Even after heat races, the track was still in spectacular shape so why fuck with it? It was obvious why officials felt the need to "work" on it. It's called beer and burger sales. Nicely done Lincoln Speedway, you fooled everyone...
All in all, it was a great night of racing and I would highly recommend a trip to Lincoln Speedway. Don Hammer knows what's needed to make a track racy, which in turn gives all of the drivers a fair chance to be competitive and the fans their money's worth from the stands.
Thanks for reading. See you at the races...
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