Illini drivers sweep Illinois Fall Nationals    

[OCT. 2, 2006]  SPRINGFIELD -- For the first time in the 15-year history of the event, drivers from Illinois swept the UMP Late Model and UMP Modified features for the Best Western-Illinois Fall Nationals, as Milledgeville's Darren Miller captured the $12,000 first prize for the late models, and Chatham's Brian Shirley took home the $2,000 top prize in the modifieds. The features were a continuation of the program that was suspended on Sept. 17 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds due to rain.

Miller set a new track record and a world one-lap qualifying record for a UMP late model Sept. 17 with a circuit in excess of 130 mph and won his heat at an average speed of over 125 mph to capture the pole position. At the start, three-time Best Western-Illinois Fall Nationals winner Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, surged into the lead, and he and Miller began pulling away from the rest of the late-model pack. A caution on lap 10 bunched the field, but it was clear that Birkhofer and Miller were the class of the group, and they quickly began working into lapped traffic. Birkhofer began pulling away from Miller but could not keep up the torrid pace, and telltale smoke began emanating from the rear of the Daufeldt Transport machine on lap 20, giving Miller the lead as Birkhofer pulled off the racetrack. Miller survived two more caution flags, and his NAPA machine carried him to his first mile-track win. Three caution flags slowed the pace to just over 58 mph, just shy of the 30-lap track record set by Scott Bloomquist last year.

Two of the cautions involved heavy wall contact by popular local drivers. Springfield drivers Joe Ross Jr. and Justin Allgaier were running second and third on lap 25 when Allgaier went to pass Ross entering the first corner. Ross lost control and backed the Bill West-owned late model hard into the first-turn concrete. Ross was able to walk to the ambulance with assistance, complaining of pain in his right leg. Allgaier brought out the next caution two laps later when he hit the third-turn wall. Allgaier was uninjured.

Springfield's Roger Bricker managed a best-ever second-place finish at the Best Western-Illinois Fall Nationals, with Marine's Mark Voight taking third, Decatur's Terry Babb fourth and Brimfield's Tim Lance fifth, giving Illinois drivers a sweep of the top five slots.

Sangamon County kept much of the first-place money handed out at the Springfield Mile this year. Justin Allgaier scored a popular win in the ARCA Allen Crowe 100 in August, with New Berlin's Steve Sheppard Jr. winning the companion Sportsman Nationals event. This time Chatham's Brian Shirley posted his first-ever mile-track win when he led wire to wire to win the UMP Modified main event of the Best Western-Illinois Fall Nationals.

Fresh off a big win in the Knoxville Late Model Nationals race in Iowa, Shirley started outside of track record holder and fast qualifier Jeff Leka for the modified event. Leka, a two-time Fall Nationals winner in modifieds, kept the pressure on Shirley, and the two ran virtually nose to tail until the second caution of the race, on lap 11, when Petersburg's Mike Hess hit the turn two wall. Under the caution, Buffalo native Leka pulled the Kirland's Carpets/HPR Pierce race car behind the pit wall with an apparent motor problem. Shirley would be unchallenged the rest of the way, scoring a popular win with the Vern's Auto Repair machine before a partisan crowd. Missouri's Vance Wilson posted a fine second-place finish, while fellow Missouri driver John O'Neal of Kansas City had the drive of the day, starting dead last and finishing third, followed by Todd Kirkland and defending winner Curt Rhodes.

Full event results will be posted at www.trackenterprises.com at a later time.

[News release provided by Jay Hardin]

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