Bruns Tops Farmer City Opener
A familiar face, three time and defending champ Patrick Bruns, took the feature win in the Illini Racing Series opener May 1st at Farmer City. The dry slick surface saw Bruns’ MWR Ecotec take the lead early in the 25 lapper and hold off Johnny Heydenreich’s Beast-Focus. The second MWR-Ecotec of rookie Max Pozsgai figured into the feature’s big caution, driving a little too hot into turn one trying to get by Lamont Critchett’s Ellis-Honda. The resulting lap 15 spin collected the Buzzard-Ecotecs of Doug Orseske and Andrew Henning and set up a final restart that saw the Ecotecs of Chad Ziegler and Jason Allen get by a frustrated Critchett.
Earlier in the evening Critchett dueled Heydenreich for the first heat win and Pozsgai drove from his shotgun starting position to nip team leader Bruns in the second heat. Mike Anderson did a “tommy tipover” in the Spenser Jewelry #24 Ecotec but could not repeat his previous “flip in the heat/win in the feature” performance. He’ll try to do better when the series returns to Sycamore Speedway on Saturday May 9th.
Event Summary:
Illini Racing Series Race #1, Friday May 1, 2015, Farmer City Raceway
Cars present: 13 [Bob Schefler in Joe Alberts Buzzard-Focus DNS]
Heat #1
1. Lamont Critchett #27 Ellis-Honda
2. John Heydenreich #22 Beast-Focus
Heat #2
1. Max Pozsgai #10c MWR-Ecotec
2. Patrick Bruns #10b MWR-Ecotec
Feature
1. Patrick Bruns #10b MWR-Ecotec
2. John Heydenreich #22 Beast-Focus
3. Chad Ziegler #17 Spike-Ecotec
4. Jason Allen #3 Stealth-Ecotec
5. Lamont Critchett #27 Ellis-Honda
Notes: Intern James Arndt contibuted to this report after announcing his first motor race ever. Indiana's Kurt Mayhew had tow car trouble en route and did not compete. Four Indiana residents competed [Crichett, Henning, Drangmeister, and Heydenreich]