FAIRBURY, Ill. — Just when the Fairbury Speedway fans thought there wasn’t a way to top the excitement in the DIRTcar Late Model Feature they had just seen, the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modifieds found a way to do exactly that.
Mike McKinney and Allen Weisser battled side-by-side for nearly every one of the 30 feature laps Saturday night, putting on an exciting display of hard racing in the closing laps that ended with contact between the two out of turn four and McKinney in victory lane for the second time in three races.
Weisser led the opening circuits using the bottom lane of the smooth Fairbury racing surface, while McKinney rode the top side momentum to the lead on lap three. As the two dug into lapped traffic, the door opened back up for Weisser to slide by on the bottom as McKinney was pinned behind slower cars on lap 12.
The battle raged on in lapped traffic as the laps wound down to just two to-go. McKinney threw a first slider for the lead in turns one and two, Weisser countered down low to deny him but McKinney did it again in turns three and four and made it stick. He saw the white flag and charged into turn one with a full head of steam, throwing it up top once more as Weisser crept down low.
McKinney moved down to the middle groove into turn three and Weisser slid up towards him as they made contact coming out of turn four, banging wheels down the front stretch. Weisser’s momentum was slowed by the contact as McKinney bounced off the outside wall, giving him the boost he needed to cross the stripe ahead of Weisser by just .76 seconds.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps) 1. 96M-Mike McKinney [3]; 2. 25W-Allen Weisser [1]; 3. 24H-Mike Harrison [6]; 4. 45-Kyle Hammer [4]; 5. 35-David Stremme [8]; 6. 7R-Dan Rork [10]; 7. 99-Hunt Gossum [9]; 8. 8K-Levi Kissinger [14]; 9. 22C-Nick Clubb [15]; 10. 37L-Michael Ledford [7]; 11. 5-Steven Brooks [17]; 12. 21A-Nick Allen [2]; 13. 77-Ray Bollinger [12]; 14. 24-Zeke McKenzie [5]; 15. O-Travis Kohler [13]; 16. 79D-Caleb DeMoss [16]; 17. 7L-Jay Ledford [18]; 18. 36-Eric Vaughan [21]; 19. 17H-Scott Hauge [22]; 20. 9H-John DeMoss [11]; 21. 69SR-Jim Farris, [20]; 22. 80-Rich Dawson [19] Hard Charger: 8K-Levi Kissinger[+6]