Pushin' The Cushion - May 2016

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The battle continues as Mother Nature and I go toe to toe in my 2016 comeback tour. With two months of effective racing season in the books, I am holding a slight edge over her, but never count out Momma Weather!

The month of May started with a bang but ended with a wash out weekend for the LateModelRacing.com Pushin' The Cushion challenge. Things started off on May 4th when the MLRA late models made their first of two scheduled appearances at the Lee County Speedway. The field was swollen to 37 MLRA late models along with a solid field of 21 IMCA/Lee County Late models. Among the surprises on the night were eventual feature winner Brandon Sheppard, Earl Pearson Jr. and "local favorite" Brian Birkhofer. 

The racing was fast all night as it always is at LCS. MLRA heats were won by JC Wyman, Birkhofer, Rickey Frankel, and Dave Eckrich. The B mains were topped by more familiar faces for locals as Denny Woodworth and Ray Guss Jr. took the wins. 

When the feature rolled out, it was mixed reactions as pole-sitter Birkhofer started out up front. This night, however, belonged to Sheppard as he bolted into the lead and never looked back. While I cannot speak for the crowd as a whole, many in my part of the bleachers were just as excited about the technical glitch that sent Birkhofer pitside. Sheppard held off a late charge from Pearson en route to the win. 

The next scheduled stop for the gang was the MLRA late models at the Scotland County Speedway. However, rainout #2 of the season swept that event away, followed by the Scottie 42 falling one night later. At this point, the score was PTC - 3 Rainouts - 3.

The following weekend, we were able to pull ahead, thanks to the rescheduled Scottie 42. Twenty-six late models signed in on this night, with local Dustin Griffin setting fast time. The track was still feeling the effects of days of rain, and produced a treacherous night of racing. Despite continued efforts by the track crew, there was no stopping the rutty surface from claiming many victims, including most of the travelling Midwest Big Ten tour participants and NASCAR personality Kenny Wallace who flipped his modified violently during the feature event.

The night did produce my first (and only) repeat feature winner in Mckay Wenger. 

After careful evalutation, plans for the following weekend were updated. The crew was originally scheduled to head out to La Salle Speedway for the Lucas Oil Late Models, but a 4+ hour drive and $35/ticket for a $12,000/win show (I have three tickets to buy these days) vs. the Tri Track Challenge 2.5 hours away in West Liberty, IA made the decision a "no brainer" and we were bound for Iowa. Twenty late models signed in, which included 15 new ones for our crew, raising our running total to 110 in four nights!

Heat winners on this night were Jeremiah Hurst, Rob Moss and Nick Marolf. 

At feature time, it looked like a cake walk for Scott Fitzpatrick until lap 19 when he brought out the yellow. This turned the lead over to Tyler Bruehning with Guss Jr., and Denny Eckrich in tow. However, Justin Kay was not to be held back on this night as he blasted his way through to pick up an impressive win!

With an apparent advantage of mother nature, I chose to plan to stay close to home for the Memorial Day weekend. However, she does not give up easy when it comes to battling for racing season supremacy. Rainout #4 came on Friday night as my first regular season trip to Lee County Speedway fell victim to a washout. With the closest area track (Quincy Raceways) not scheduled to run late models on Sunday, I began a Saturday scramble. We finally settled on plans to make my first trip to the Indpenedence Motor Speedway since the late 1990s, but a final look at the radar changed my mind. The show was eventually rained out, but not until after I decided it was not worth the haul. I give Mother Nature an assist on that one! At the end of May, Mother Nature trails me by a score of 5 to 4.5!

Stay tuned next month and hope for drier weather. In the meantime, I'll catch ya on the cushion!