OneDirt

Michael Kloos behind the wheel of the 6K would go on to win this stop on the UMP Hell Tour

Michael Kloos took the win at Belle-Claire Speedway as one of three regular drivers in the St. Louis area to finish in the top five.  Belle-Claire Speedway represents one of the shortest tracks on the Hell Tour with the track claiming that a trip around the Belle-Claire fairgrounds track taking just 1/5th of a mile.  It was a rough night on the Hell Tour regulars as Shannon Babb struggled on both qualifying laps, resulting in him starting near the back of his heat race.  Babb elected to to sit out of the B-Feature and would use a provisional to get into the show.  ”King Kong” Randy Korte also struggled, after a decent qualifying run in his heat, he was involved in a large accident at the beginning of the front stretch collecting a total of four cars.  Korte would not return to his heat and instead elected to take a provisional starting spot in the A-Feature.  ”The Hammer” Mike Hammerle put up a strong fight to Kloos in their qualifying heat, though Kloos would eventually secure the spot and Hammerle would finish second in the heat.  Also taking wins in the heat races were Ryan Unzicker, Billy Moyer Jr. and Jason Feger.

Local legend, Mike Hammerle, finished in the top five in his iconic Late Model that he has campaigned in the St. Louis area for ages.

In the feature event, of 40 laps, it was Billy Moyer Jr. on the pole position with Unzicker outside.  Moyer Jr. grabbed the early lead.  Moyer Jr. held the lead early on, until Kloos got the highside of the track working and got around Moyer on the highside. Moyer would work hard to get back around Kloos, but as the top five hit traffic, Moyer would get hung out while Ryan Unzicker would move up to the second position.  Kloos would continue to the lead the top 5 around the bottom of the track and would go on to take the win.  A notable fourth, driving a car that has definitely seen a lap or two in the St. Louis Area would be Hammerle.  Also representing the St. Louis area racers well was Mark Voigt, a racer who has seen success over the last few years in St. Louis, notably capturing the Tri-City Speedway track Championship in 2009.

Former NASCAR racer Ken Schrader took the win in his Federated Auto Parts sponsored Modified defeating many of the top local racers.

The modified racers also put on a good show with another home town racer, Ken Schrader of NASCAR fame, capturing the win.  Schrader qualified at the top of his group giving him the pole position in his heat where he dominated his heat.  In looked like Schrader may not have enough to get around Mike Harrison, who lead the race early and successfully held off Schrader until mid race.  With “Big Block” Tim Hancock and Schrader both pressing to pass Harrison, Harrison got too far to the outside and banged the outside guardrail, and when Harrison’s car came back down he had too much damage to continue.  From there, Schrader held off Hancock and they would finish one two with Harrison finishing in the 20th position.