[Task Force]

Mayhew survives yellow fever at Sycamore Speedway
By Zach Tasker
For much of the 20 lap Illini Racing Series midget feature at Sycamore Speedway on Saturday night it appeared as if it was a full moon as the race was wild and eventful. A very strong 23 car field signed in for the third IRS race of the season. Series veterans Scott Koerner and Sean Murphy would lead the field to the green in front of another packed house at the clay oval. The first of the features 5 yellow flag periods would happen on lap 1 as the field entered turn number 1 with the #54 of Freddie Teer Jr. spinning. On the ensuing restart mayhem convened as the field appeared to get stacked up coming out of turn number four. This caused defending series champion Patrick Bruns to get tapped by Kurt Mayhew and sent into a spin before digging in and rolling upside down. Bruns was uninjured but dejected after losing any chance at a 2nd career victory at Sycamore. Front row starter Sean Murphy would make an uncharacteristic error on the restart spinning by himself in turn 3. The "smurfinator" would later retire from the race with another spin ending his night per series rules.
The field was able to get in some gleen flag running after all of this. The Volkswagen powered Buzzard of Lamont Critchett seemed to have a strong shot at race victory in the mid stages of the race as he was leading just like last time out at Angell Park Speedway. However race victory would fall through the cracks for the second race in a row on a late race restart as multiple time IRS feature winner Kurt Mayhew powered by the outside and set sail. The Roselawn, Indiana native would survive a Green-White-Checkered finish ahead of a career best finish for Aaron Schuck.
The driver of the #21 Callahan Motorsports/Weiland Racing Enterprises/Coast Fabrication/Mike Wallace Racing Technologies Buzzard/Ecotec is always a threat to win whenever the IRS visits a dirt track and Saturday night proved that. "The car was really working well and we are pretty happy so far, the motor is getting better all the time and you have to hand it to those SET guys too. I heard Aaron (Shuck) ran 2nd, congratulations to him." Mayhew knew the key to race victory was getting ahead of Critchett on the late race restart and building a gap to the field "I believe he slid up a little bit and I think his motor laid down a little or something because I got a pretty good jump on him and I think he had a mechanical issue." The nights winner also was glad to be in victory lane after the close call on the early race restart "With Patrick Bruns on that restart it was a bottle neck up front and somebody brake checked us. I couldn't get off of him, I was out of the throttle and somebody behind me was pushing me and I just kept pushing him and I almost lost it myself. I felt bad about that especially when I saw the red flag came out "
"Hollywood" Aaron Schuck also had reason to celebrate as he scored a career best finish in 2nd position. The sophomore driver out of Joliet is hoping win number one comes soon "We had a good car all night after winning the heat race. We started 6th in the feature and we knew if we could just keep it on the bottom and just keep it from buzzing the tires we would have a good car all night. Its a star studded field up front and it was kind of hard to get past everybody." The driver of the #53 Tuffy Auto Service Centers/Chaoz Sports Lounge/SET Racing Engines Stealth/Ecotec knew he had to pounce on the green-white-checkered finish if he was going to have a shot at Mayhew " I saw that green-white-checkered and I was in fourth or fifth at that time and I wanted to give it all I had for a win. My car owner Matt Schuck deserves it so do all of my sponsors. We have had some tough luck and I know I was acting a little bit more aggressive, I wasn't going to race anybody dirty but you have to give it your all and leave it all on the table especially with a late race situation. I really would have loved to park it tonight, but you know its just one of those things where we didn't have enough laps and Kurt was fast. They have that Ecotec working, big round of applause to them"
Rounding out the podium with a strong run was the driver of the #9k Task Management Beast/Ecotec of Scott Koerner. Koerner stayed up front all race long and was rewarded with a solid finish "It feels good to have finished with a decent car that I can work on for our next Sycamore visit. I am not sure if I could have got to Kurt, but I may have been able to get Aaron back with a few more laps. We will work on the Task Management #9 and get it better for next time."
The nights action started with the two heat races, Aaron Schuck would win the first heat race with a SET racing 1-2 as Jeff Zelinski would finish runner up ahead of Joe Knippel. Heat race #2 saw Patrick Bruns victorious ahead of Lamont Critchett and rookie Kourtnay Borman scoring her career best heat race finish in 3rd. The race was shortened to four laps after former series champion Allen Gillis rolled his car in turn 1. Gillis was unhurt and was able to make repairs to finish 4th in the feature. The IRS has an off weekend before returning to the pavement at Grundy County Speedway on Saturday June 22.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
Feature (20 Laps): 1) #21 Kurt Mayhew 2)#53 Aaron Schuck 3)#9k Scott Koerner 4)#2o Allen Gillis 5) #52 Mike Gass 6) #77 Lamont Critchett 7)#11 Joe Knippel 8)#15 Jeff Zelinski 9)#54 Freddie Teer Jr. 10) #24 Ray Seach 11)#31 Kourtnay Borman 12)#17 Brian Dobis 13)#0 Doug Orseske 14)#7 Mike Anderson 15)#9a Bob Adams 16)#4 Eric Greenup 17)#76 Danny Drogemuller 18)#2h Andrew Hennig 19)#5s Sean Murphy 20) #83 Patrick Bruns 21)#3 Rich Drangmeister 22)#5d Al Drangmeister (DNS)

Heat race #1 (8 Laps): 1)#53 Aaron Schuck 2)#15 Jeff Zelinski 3)#11 Joe Knippel 4)#5s Sean Murphy 5) #21 Kurt Mayhew 6)#7 Mike Anderson 7)#52 Mike Gass 8)#54 Freddie Teer Jr 9)#9a Bob Adams 10)#0 Doug Orseske 11)#17 Brian Dobis

Heat race #2 (8 Laps): 1)#83 Patrick Bruns 2)#77 Lamont Critchett 3)#31 Kourtnay Borman 4)#2o Allen Gillis 5) #9k Scott Koerner 6)#24 Ray Seach 7)#5d Al Drangmeister 8)#2h Andrew Hennig 9)#9a Bob Adams 10)#76 Danny Drogemuller 11)#3 Rich Drangmeister 12)#6 Eddie Sauer (DNS)

[John P Huss]

Conrats to Kurt Mayhew!
Best Regards,
John