The last night of Illinois midget speedweek found the car counts down. POWRi midgets stood at 27, 600 micros were 22, D2 midgets had 22, UMP modifieds at 12 and Pro Late Models at 8. Michael Pickens, Tucker Klaasmeyer and Zeb Wise won heats with no less than 7 flips in the midgets during the course of the evening in a wild affair. Trey Marcham started things off with a high flip in turn one in heat one and Zach Daum had his front end clipped in turn four and rolled over but was pushed off. Robert Dalby from Anaheim, California got air time in heat two flipping in turn two and shortly thereafter Texan Noah Kelly flipped in turn one. Joe B. Miller, Eric Wright and Craig Ronk won 600 heats with Gedd Ross, Austin Archdale and Andy Malpocker winning D2 heats. Indiana's Chris Baue took several end over end flips onto the bigger outer track off of turn four. All drivers were OK after their air time.

The 30 lap midget feature started off with a bang when Devin Camfield took an end over end flip in turn one on lap one. On the restart he was followed by Wisconsin runner, Cody Weisensel clipping the top of the turn one safety fence before returning to the track. Both were OK. Michael Pickens had control of the race throughout but the racing from 4th to 10th was intense. Zeb Wise and Brad Loyet collided battling for second with Wise dropping to sixth and never in contention going forward. Logan Seavey ran a great race advancing from 12th to 2nd and it all came down to the final lap as Seavey made a monster run into turn three and attempted to throw a slide job on Pickens. Instead the move resulted in Seavey slamming into the side of Pickens' car sending him hard into the turn four wall and causing him to roll over. Pickens was able to restart after the crash but was out of contention. Seavey was able to continue and assumed the lead. On the last lap Brad Loyet broke while running third down the backstretch with Seavey winning his first ever POWRi victory over steady Shane Golobic, Zach Daum, Tyler Thomas and Tucker Klaasmeyer.

I'm sure Seavey's move was not intentional but indeed it was ill advised. Its a shame his first win has to be clouded in controversy and he could not enjoy the moment for what it was. A victory lane visit by Mr. Pickens with some stern words and finger wagging made its point and showed the displeasure of the New Zealander.

Nick Howard won a photo finish in the 600 feature winning his second straight after winning his first ever the night before. A lap car caused long time leader, Nathan Benson, to hesitate and try to run the low groove but cost him the win as Howard nipped him at the line. Gedd Ross won the D2 midget feature ending the two race winning streak of Andy Malpocker. A double flip occurred in this feature also with no injuries.

A good night of exciting racing in all divisions but way to many flips and torn up equipment.


Bruce Eckel

That was some crazy stuff last night. Hate to see so much equipment tore up.

We had a great time this past week hitting 4 of the 5 races. Now we're back home again in Indiana. Gearing up for IMW2K17!

Being a bleacher jockey I'm no authority on what is dirty driving tactics but common sense would dictate that what happened at Fairbury Thursday night in the WAR A-main and Lincoln Sunday night surely could be construed as such even by an inexperienced observer such as myself. However, it's been said if the slidee see's the slidor coming the onus is on the slidee to avoid the crash even though the slidee has done nothing wrong. Flawed logic? Maybe, but not for me to say, I reckon.

It was a very good series of events. Hopefully the momentum has reached a point to where this series of midget races will be highly anticipated for many years to come. Those of us here in hard core late model/modified country have been hoping for a series like this for a long time.

I was surprised that after Pickens led the entire event without touching another car he could be dumped and then put to the back of the field. It seems like he should have been given his position back on the restart and the car that dumped him put to the rear. This has been done in the past. Not that it should make a difference but Pickens came all the way from New Zealand to race. Just my opinion but I feel he didn't get a fair shake on this deal. Seavey readily admitted guilt yet nothing to my knowledge was done. It cost Pickens and his team a bunch of money, the trophy and almost the Illinois Speed Weeks championship.

We attended 3 of the 5 POWRi Events & 2 W.A.R. East races with Fairbury & Lincoln being new tracks for us and a trip to Knoxville to The Museum & Hall of Fame & the USAC Race on Saturday. We saw way too much shxx tore up at Lincoln. We had a Great time with Friends and the racing was good as well & Mother Nature was never an issue. 1332 miles later we're home. Congrats to Zach Daum & Michael Pickens on their accomplishments.

Sounds like my one & only POWRi event, last fall at Belle Claire, lots of action, aggressive driving, thoroughly enjoyed it
No opinion on alleged dirty driving, didn't witness
But I hope to see more POWRi one of these days!

Is there any word as to the reason the KKM cars weren't at Macon or Lincoln?

I'm for sure not speaking for KKM, but I think that was the plan all along, not due to anything that happened during the week other than a few tore up cars. I know that when I talked to Rico and Tanner Friday afternoon they indicated that they didn't have plans for the rest of the weekend. I think it had more to do with the short turnaround before this week's events in Indiana than anything. But again, just my educated guess. Glad they stayed around to join us Friday at Jacksonville.

Thanks for the clarification, KD.

Thanks also for the great week of racing. We really enjoyed it.