July 8, 2023 | By Jordan Delucia

Shirley Leads Caution-Free Late Model Feature Flag-To-Flag At Farmer City

(Farmer City, IL) -- Nine minutes and 52 seconds is all Brian Shirley needed to assert his dominance over the star-studded DIRTcar Summer Nationals field at Farmer City Raceway.

Shirley, the four-time Hell Tour champion from Chatham, IL, put on a clinic Friday night, leading all 40 laps of the caution-free Feature en route to his fourth victory of the summer and 42nd of his career.

A stacked field of 44 DIRTcar Late Models lined the pit area for the third race of Week 4. Shirley won his Heat Race, which set him up to redraw the pole for the Feature. He took full advantage of his starting spot at the drop of the green and immediately jumped to the early lead over Dennis Erb Jr. and Ryan Unzicker.

Unzicker, winner on Thursday night at Macon Speedway, had a fast car on the bottom around the 1/4-mile track and got by Erb Jr. for second on Lap 14. While Shirley ripped around the top side and began to sort his way through lapped traffic, Unzicker began to close the gap behind him.

Within three laps, Unzicker had completely erased Shirley’s lead and nearly pulled even with him at one point, looking for a way around to take the top spot. Shirley acknowledged that somebody was knocking on the door and quickly cracked the whip.

“That was the biggest nerve wrack of it all, to be honest,” Shirley said. “I didn’t know who was in second, I just knew, at times, second was right there.”

After a few smart moves in traffic, Shirley was able to shake Unzicker’s wrath and sped away, stretching his lead out to over a full second again as the laps continued to wind down.

“I was more worried if I picked the right lane coming up on lapped traffic,” Shirley said. “I wasn’t worried about how good my car was. I felt like my car was good enough to win the race. Luckily, when I did get by them guys, I got to get back into my rhythm and get back in the lane I was running.”

From there on out, Shirley was never challenged again. He completed all 40 circuits around and crossed under the checkered flag in an elapsed time of nine minutes and 52 seconds to claim his second career Summer Nationals Feature win at Farmer City.

UP NEXT

Week 4 of the 38th annual DIRTcar Summer Nationals continues Saturday, July 8 with a visit to Highland Speedway in Highland, IL. Get a ticket at the gate or stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

RESULTS

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 3. 96V-Tanner English[4]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 5. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[6]; 7. 33-Mike Harrison[8]; 8. 42-Mckay Wenger[9]; 9. 26H-Kyle Hammer[12]; 10. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[13]; 11. 18-Shannon Babb[20]; 12. 4G-Bob Gardner[10]; 13. 91-Rusty Schlenk[17]; 14. 22H-Dustin Hodges[11]; 15. 31AUS-Kye Blight[19]; 16. 33H-Roben Huffman[21]; 17. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 18. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[14]; 19. 1M-Mike Mataragas[16]; 20. B12-Kevin Weaver[15]; 21. 29-Spencer Diercks[18]; 22. 162-Logan Moody[5]

Last Chance Showdown (10 Laps): 1. 91-Rusty Schlenk[1]; 2. 29-Spencer Diercks[2]; 3. 6JR-Parker Martin[7]; 4. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[9]; 5. 99G-Hunt Gossum[3]; 6. 7R-Kent Robinson[6]; 7. 31AUS-Kye Blight[4]; 8. 18-Shannon Babb[14]; 9. 1-BJ Robinson[8]; 10. 44-Blaze Burwell[5]; 11. 4D-Doug Tye[11]; 12. 15-Clayton Stuckey[13]; 13. 334-Billy Hough[10]; 14. 33H-Roben Huffman[15]; 15. 9-Lyle Zanker[12]

Consolation Race (10 Laps): 1. 15-Clayton Stuckey[1]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 3. 33H-Roben Huffman[2]; 4. 38-Thomas Hunziker[4]; 5. 4-Jordan Suhre[3]; 6. 51-Dean Carpenter[12]; 7. 89-Mike Spatola[11]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[15]; 9. 11D-Brian Diveley[8]; 10. 17-Lee Williams[5]; 11. 2M-Matt Mickelson[16]; 12. 23NZ-Mick Quin[7]; 13. (DNS) 1W-Donny Walden; 14. (DNS) 11E-Brandon Eskew; 15. (DNS) 99-Jeff Larson; 16. (DNS) 5-Austin Vincent

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 2. 162-Logan Moody[1]; 3. 42-Mckay Wenger[3]; 4. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[5]; 5. 91-Rusty Schlenk[4]; 6. 44-Blaze Burwell[6]; 7. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[7]; 8. 15-Clayton Stuckey[8]; 9. 17-Lee Williams[9]; 10. (DNS) 1W-Donny Walden; 11. (DNS) 99-Jeff Larson

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[4]; 4. B12-Kevin Weaver[6]; 5. 99G-Hunt Gossum[10]; 6. 6JR-Parker Martin[7]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye[9]; 8. 33H-Roben Huffman[8]; 9. 18-Shannon Babb[2]; 10. 11E-Brandon Eskew[5]; 11. (DNS) 5-Austin Vincent

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 96V-Tanner English[1]; 2. 25-Jason Feger[2]; 3. 4G-Bob Gardner[3]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[4]; 5. 29-Spencer Diercks[8]; 6. 7R-Kent Robinson[6]; 7. 334-Billy Hough[9]; 8. 4-Jordan Suhre[7]; 9. 23NZ-Mick Quin[11]; 10. 89-Mike Spatola[5]; 11. 78S-Steve Stultz[10]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 2. 33-Mike Harrison[3]; 3. 26H-Kyle Hammer[2]; 4. 1M-Mike Mataragas[5]; 5. 31AUS-Kye Blight[4]; 6. 1-BJ Robinson[8]; 7. 9-Lyle Zanker[6]; 8. 38-Thomas Hunziker[7]; 9. 11D-Brian Diveley[9]; 10. 51-Dean Carpenter[10]; 11. 2M-Matt Mickelson[11]

Qualifying A: 1. 162-Logan Moody, 00:12.781[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:12.853[15]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:12.854[16]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:12.864[8]; 5. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:12.959[18]; 6. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:12.960[4]; 7. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:13.042[17]; 8. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:13.045[5]; 9. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:13.185[21]; 10. 11E-Brandon Eskew, 00:13.351[7]; 11. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:13.363[11]; 12. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.519[20]; 13. 51B-Brandon Carpenter, 00:13.651[10]; 14. 6JR-Parker Martin, 00:13.801[2]; 15. 15-Clayton Stuckey, 00:13.868[3]; 16. 33H-Roben Huffman, 00:13.901[13]; 17. 17-Lee Williams, 00:14.002[14]; 18. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:14.182[12]; 19. 1W-Donny Walden, 00:14.182[22]; 20. (DNS) 99G-Hunt Gossum, 00:14.182; 21. (DNS) 99-Jeff Larson, 00:14.182; 22. (DNS) 5-Austin Vincent, 00:14.182

Qualifying B: 1. 96V-Tanner English, 00:12.863[5]; 2. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:12.959[1]; 3. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.976[20]; 4. 26H-Kyle Hammer, 00:13.020[13]; 5. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:13.072[12]; 6. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:13.169[9]; 7. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:13.250[7]; 8. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:13.256[4]; 9. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:13.276[6]; 10. 1M-Mike Mataragas, 00:13.379[11]; 11. 7R-Kent Robinson, 00:13.498[3]; 12. 9-Lyle Zanker, 00:13.504[14]; 13. 4-Jordan Suhre, 00:13.591[8]; 14. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:13.640[10]; 15. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:13.640[16]; 16. 1-BJ Robinson, 00:13.647[17]; 17. 334-Billy Hough, 00:13.743[22]; 18. 11D-Brian Diveley, 00:13.797[15]; 19. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:13.870[19]; 20. 51-Dean Carpenter, 00:13.894[18]; 21. 23NZ-Mick Quin, 00:14.341[21]; 22. 2M-Matt Mickelson, 00:14.843[2]

Hot Laps: 1. 33-Mike Harrison[31]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[21]; 3. 51-Dean Carpenter[40]; 4. 11E-Brandon Eskew[7]; 5. 162-Logan Moody[1]; 6. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[10]; 7. 15-Clayton Stuckey[3]; 8. 17-Lee Williams[14]; 9. 4D-Doug Tye[12]; 10. 33H-Roben Huffman[13]; 11. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.807[42]; 12. 96V-Tanner English, 00:12.873[27]; 13. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:12.881[34]; 14. 7R-Kent Robinson, 00:12.955[25]; 15. 26H-Kyle Hammer, 00:12.962[35]; 16. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:13.069[38]; 17. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:13.071[26]; 18. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:13.125[8]; 19. 1M-Mike Mataragas, 00:13.133[33]; 20. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.170[4]; 21. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:13.172[32]; 22. 1-BJ Robinson, 00:13.216[39]; 23. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.218[20]; 24. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:13.227[16]; 25. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:13.277[23]; 26. 11D-Brian Diveley, 00:13.320[37]; 27. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:13.321[29]; 28. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:13.325[17]; 29. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:13.351[5]; 30. 4-Jordan Suhre, 00:13.370[30]; 31. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:13.609[18]; 32. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:13.639[41]; 33. 1W-Donny Walden, 00:13.653[22]; 34. 23NZ-Mick Quin, 00:13.677[43]; 35. 334-Billy Hough, 00:13.683[44]; 36. 99-Jeff Larson, 00:13.731[9]; 37. 6JR-Parker Martin, 00:13.766[2]; 38. 44-Blaze Burwell, 00:13.927[11]; 39. 9-Lyle Zanker, 00:13.960[36]; 40. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:14.026[15]; 41. 2M-Matt Mickelson, 00:14.567[24]; 42. 5-Austin Vincent, 00:15.054[19]; 43. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:15.835[28]; 44. 99G-Hunt Gossum, 00:15.835[6]

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MCKINNEY TOPS SUMMIT MODIFIED TOUR MODIFIEDS AT FARMER CITY

By Jordan Delucia (Farmer City, IL) -- Starting from the sixth position, Mike McKinney said after the race, “I didn’t think I’d be able to do it.” And then, a door opened right in front of him.

McKinney, the 30-year-old UMP Modified ace from Plainfield, IL, had worked his way to third with 10 laps remaining in Friday’s DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Feature at Farmer City Raceway. The two drivers ahead of him – race leader Blake Brown and points leader Tyler Nicely – were in an intense battle for the lead when McKinney caught them in traffic and looked to the inside to make a move for the top spot.

As Brown and Nicely both pushed up the track through Turns 1-2, McKinney used the grip on the bottom lane and slipped past both of them out of Turn 4 to take the lead.

“The bottom was just the only lane open,” McKinney said. “There was a lot of grip down there. It was a little choppy, but I was able to make it work.”

McKinney sped away in traffic, but faced one final challenge in a green-white-checkered finish after the caution was thrown as McKinney was coming for the white flag.

“I really didn’t feel nearly as good,” McKinney said. “I don’t know if I had my tire kinda seal-up there a little bit, but I was really struggling those last few laps. I just knew that if I could keep running my line and hit my marks, I felt like we’d be pretty good.”

Despite his concerns, McKinney was able to hold on for his 18th career Summit Modified victory and second of his career in Summit Modified competition at Farmer City.

UP NEXT

Week 4 of Summit Modified racing continues Saturday, July 8 with a visit to Highland Speedway in Highland, IL. Get a ticket at the gate or stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIEDS

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[6]; 2. 37L-Michael Ledford[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[18]; 4. 99B-Blake Brown[1]; 5. 66-Cole Falloway[8]; 6. 5CS-Curt Spalding[9]; 7. 89-Austin Friedman[2]; 8. 13-Charlie Mefford[5]; 9. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[11]; 10. 5-Steven Brooks[10]; 11. 50-Tyler Weiss[13]; 12. 24T-Trevor Ringle[12]; 13. 77-Ray Bollinger[7]; 14. 130-Chase Allen[24]; 15. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller[22]; 16. 10K-Kelly Kovski[19]; 17. 150-Collin Alexander[20]; 18. 25-Tyler Nicely[4]; 19. 94-Tom Pasek[14]; 20. 0-Travis Kohler[16]; 21. 54-Zachary Hawk[21]; 22. 25W-Allen Weisser[15]; 23. 14-Caden McWhorter[23]; 24. 36-Kenny Wallace[17]

Last Chance Showdown 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10K-Kelly Kovski[2]; 2. C40-Mike Chasteen Jr[3]; 3. 11-Kyle Byerline[5]; 4. 3-Mike Brooks[4]; 5. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller[9]; 6. 88S-Alan Stipp[13]; 7. 24L-Sydney Landes[12]; 8. 73-Mark Rhoades[8]; 9. 27R-Steve Rex[7]; 10. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[1]; 11. 81-Victor Strong[11]; 12. 73X-Matthew Duvall[15]; 13. 01-Don Kiger[10]; 14. 130-Chase Allen[6]; 15. (DNS) 45-Don Hammer

Last Chance Showdown 2 (8 Laps): 1. 150-Collin Alexander[1]; 2. 18S-Jarrett Stryker[3]; 3. 82-Dalton Lane[5]; 4. 07-Curtis King[6]; 5. 69L-Josh Lemke[10]; 6. I99-Mikey Kopka[8]; 7. 81P-Austin Phelps[11]; 8. 99-Wade Olmsted[4]; 9. 54-Zachary Hawk[7]; 10. 44X-Blaise Lewis[9]; 11. 26-Cameron Pierce[12]; 12. 14-Caden McWhorter[2]; 13. (DNS) 82S-Todd Sherman; 14. (DNS) 78-Scott Maasberg

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 89-Austin Friedman[1]; 2. 77-Ray Bollinger[2]; 3. 50-Tyler Weiss[6]; 4. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[4]; 5. 3-Mike Brooks[3]; 6. 27R-Steve Rex[7]; 7. 01-Don Kiger[8]; 8. 88S-Alan Stipp[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 2. 5CS-Curt Spalding[2]; 3. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 4. 10K-Kelly Kovski[4]; 5. 11-Kyle Byerline[5]; 6. 73-Mark Rhoades[6]; 7. 81-Victor Strong[7]; 8. (DNS) 45-Don Hammer

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 37L-Michael Ledford[2]; 2. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[1]; 3. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 4. C40-Mike Chasteen Jr[4]; 5. 130-Chase Allen[8]; 6. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller[5]; 7. 24L-Sydney Landes[6]; 8. 73X-Matthew Duvall[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 66-Cole Falloway[3]; 3. 94-Tom Pasek[6]; 4. 150-Collin Alexander[4]; 5. 99-Wade Olmsted[7]; 6. 54-Zachary Hawk[5]; 7. 69L-Josh Lemke[8]; 8. 82S-Todd Sherman[2]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 13-Charlie Mefford[2]; 2. 5-Steven Brooks[3]; 3. 0-Travis Kohler[4]; 4. 14-Caden McWhorter[1]; 5. 82-Dalton Lane[6]; 6. I99-Mikey Kopka[8]; 7. 81P-Austin Phelps[5]; 8. 78-Scott Maasberg[7]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 99B-Blake Brown[2]; 2. 24T-Trevor Ringle[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 4. 18S-Jarrett Stryker[5]; 5. 07-Curtis King[4]; 6. 44X-Blaise Lewis[6]; 7. 26-Cameron Pierce[7]

Qualifying A: 1. 89-Austin Friedman, 00:14.071[16]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:14.074[21]; 3. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie, 00:14.076[7]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger, 00:14.202[18]; 5. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:14.224[5]; 6. 37L-Michael Ledford, 00:14.230[4]; 7. 3-Mike Brooks, 00:14.271[15]; 8. 25W-Allen Weisser, 00:14.273[9]; 9. 36-Kenny Wallace, 00:14.275[22]; 10. 21-Lyndon Whitfill, 00:14.284[3]; 11. 10K-Kelly Kovski, 00:14.374[17]; 12. C40-Mike Chasteen Jr, 00:14.397[24]; 13. 88S-Alan Stipp, 00:14.430[13]; 14. 11-Kyle Byerline, 00:14.513[6]; 15. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller, 00:14.554[12]; 16. 50-Tyler Weiss, 00:14.617[19]; 17. 73-Mark Rhoades, 00:14.630[2]; 18. 24L-Sydney Landes, 00:14.714[8]; 19. 27R-Steve Rex, 00:14.748[10]; 20. 81-Victor Strong, 00:14.931[11]; 21. 73X-Matthew Duvall, 00:15.172[23]; 22. 01-Don Kiger, 00:15.232[1]; 23. 45-Don Hammer, 00:15.232[20]; 24. 130-Chase Allen, 00:15.232[14]

Qualifying B: 1. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:13.991[9]; 2. 14-Caden McWhorter, 00:14.063[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:14.116[6]; 4. 82S-Todd Sherman, 00:14.158[18]; 5. 13-Charlie Mefford, 00:14.218[21]; 6. 99B-Blake Brown, 00:14.242[11]; 7. 66-Cole Falloway, 00:14.261[20]; 8. 5-Steven Brooks, 00:14.343[1]; 9. 24T-Trevor Ringle, 00:14.345[17]; 10. 150-Collin Alexander, 00:14.591[15]; 11. 0-Travis Kohler, 00:14.592[13]; 12. 07-Curtis King, 00:14.689[4]; 13. 54-Zachary Hawk, 00:14.707[7]; 14. 81P-Austin Phelps, 00:14.737[23]; 15. 18S-Jarrett Stryker, 00:14.770[8]; 16. 94-Tom Pasek, 00:14.853[10]; 17. 82-Dalton Lane, 00:14.866[5]; 18. 44X-Blaise Lewis, 00:15.150[16]; 19. 99-Wade Olmsted, 00:15.346[2]; 20. 78-Scott Maasberg, 00:15.379[19]; 21. 26-Cameron Pierce, 00:17.555[12]; 22. 69L-Josh Lemke, 00:17.555[14]; 23. I99-Mikey Kopka, 00:17.555[22]

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DIRTCAR PRO LATE MODELS

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 6P-Jose Parga[4]; 2. 122-Timmy Dick[1]; 3. 61-Jammie Wilson[2]; 4. 77-Blaise Baker[9]; 5. 22-Chris Dick[5]; 6. 14-Braden Johnson[14]; 7. 78-Shawn Diggs[3]; 8. 18CC-Cameron Reynolds[13]; 9. 11-Ryan Miller[7]; 10. 12-Curtis Eller[10]; 11. 16-Chase Wilson[11]; 12. 7S-Morgan Staggs[12]; 13. 8-Tom Merlo[8]; 14. (DNF) 14X-Derek Smith[6]; 15. (DNS) 46-Eric Wilson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 78-Shawn Diggs[1]; 2. 61-Jammie Wilson[6]; 3. 6P-Jose Parga[8]; 4. 11-Ryan Miller[5]; 5. 77-Blaise Baker[7]; 6. 12-Curtis Eller[4]; 7. 16-Chase Wilson[2]; 8. 7S-Morgan Staggs[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 122-Timmy Dick[6]; 2. 22-Chris Dick[3]; 3. 14X-Derek Smith[5]; 4. 8-Tom Merlo[4]; 5. (DNF) 18CC-Cameron Reynolds[2]; 6. (DNF) 14-Braden Johnson[7]; 7. (DNS) 46-Eric Wilson

STREET STOCKS

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 9-Joe Brown[1]; 2. K67JR-Braiden Keller[2]; 3. 11-Terry Reed[6]; 4. 97-Josh Griffith[3]; 5. 14D-Dalton Mannin[10]; 6. 78B-Brad Peters[4]; 7. 5-Ryan Taylor[5]; 8. 16-Nick Macklin[13]; 9. 63T-Brandon Tracy[7]; 10. 14-Gene Reed[8]; 11. 16JR-Carson Reed[9]; 12. 32-Brice Slavens[12]; 13. 187-Korey Bailey[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Joe Brown[2]; 2. 97-Josh Griffith[4]; 3. 11-Terry Reed[3]; 4. 5-Ryan Taylor[7]; 5. 16JR-Carson Reed[6]; 6. 187-Korey Bailey[1]; 7. 32-Brice Slavens[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. K67JR-Braiden Keller[1]; 2. 78B-Brad Peters[4]; 3. 63T-Brandon Tracy[3]; 4. 14-Gene Reed[6]; 5. 14D-Dalton Mannin[5]; 6. (DNS) 16-Nick Macklin